The story heading into Saturday was the news that Atlanta United will be without their three most experienced fullbacks for the afternoon kickoff against Charlotte FC.
Ronald Hernández, Pedro Amador, and Brooks Lennon are all out for Saturday's contest, and to compensate Ronny Deila is having to get a little creative in his first away match as Atlanta United head coach.
Luis Abram appears in the starting XI for his second straight match of the season. He joins the main center back pairing from last year -- Stian Gregersen and Derrick Williams. Those two start their first match together in 2025.
The situation puts Atlanta United thin at defenders going up against a new-look Charlotte attack. The 5-Stripes will face Patrick Agyemang, the forward who is tall at 6-foot-4 but also very mobile and can run the channels, and winger Wilfried Zaha, the designated player and English Premier League standout poised to make his club debut.
On the other side, Atlanta United will look to continue the dynamic attack we witnessed in the exhilarating home opener. The trio of Latte Lath, Saba Lobjanidze and Miguel Almirón appear together in the starting XI. Combined, those three players tallied four goal contributions in Atlanta's 3-2 win over CF Montréal.
The key for Deila's squad on the road is defending well and maintaining possession. If those energetic Atlanta United attackers can hold onto the ball a little more than 48 percent, Atlanta's total possession against Montréal last week, then they'll create more chances, which will, in turn, take some pressure off the defense in a rivalry environment at Bank of America Stadium.
“You need to defend and you need to suffer together and do that well, then we will always get our chances because we have quality up front," Deila said on Thursday. "We know that we will do that, but we cannot concede so many chances that we did on Saturday [against CF Montréal].”
Here's the full starting XI for Atlanta United at Charlotte FC:
Brad Guzan (C), Matt Edwards, Stian Gregersen, Derrick Williams, Luis Abram, Bartosz Slisz, Jay Fortune, Miguel Almirón, Saba Lobjanidze, Alexey Miranchuk, Emmanuel Latte Lath
Reserves: Josh Cohen, Dominik Chong Qui, Noah Cobb, Efraín Morales, Edwin Mosquera, Tristan Muyumba, Xande Silva, Jamal Thiaré
Match Notes:
-- Jay Fortune gets his first start of the season and near his hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina. Last time Atlanta visited Charlotte, the Homegrown scored his first career MLS goal.
-- Mateusz Klich was a late scratch from the matchday roster due to flu-like symptoms.
-- Edwin Mosquera earned the league's first AT&T Goal of the Matchday of the season for his game-winning golazo last weekend.
-- Miguel Almirón recorded an assist on Mosquera's goal. It was the 50th goal contribution in his MLS regular season career.
-- Miggy is also just two goals shy of moving up to second all-time in scoring for the club. Saturday would be a great time to do it against the club that sold his discovery rights to Atlanta United, making way for the midfielder's heartwarming return to Atlanta.
-- This marks the first away match for Ronny Deila as head coach of Atlanta United.
