After securing an opening weekend victory at home, Atlanta’s first road trip of the 2025 season is the shortest road trip of the year when the 5-Stripes travel up I-85 to take on Charlotte FC. Bank of America Stadium will be rocking as the match is open to full capacity. Of course, Atlanta set the tone for attendance last weekend, when 65,520 supporters packed into Mercedes-Benz Stadium to watch a thrilling 3-2 win over CF Montréal. It marked the third-highest attendance on that day in the world.
The southern rivalry has lived up to the hype so far with the teams evenly matched through the first six meetings between the sides (3-3-0 record). Saturday afternoon promises to be another tightly contested matchup in the series.
Let’s take a look at the Tools to the Match presented by Home Depot against Charlotte FC.
Continue to build offensive chemistry
Scoring three goals in the season opener is something that most teams should be proud of. In fact, it was only the second time in nine season openers that ATL UTD reached the three-goal mark (2022). New league-record signing Latte Lath made his presence felt immediately, scoring a brace in the opener and showcasing his speed, power and skill throughout the 90 minutes. Saba Lobjanidze led the team in chances created with four, while Miguel Almirón and Alexey Miranchuk were floating and finding connections in the middle of the pitch. For it being the first game that this new-look front four played together, three goals, eight shots on target and 2.20 xG was an incredible tally.
Now they need to kick on from that performance and continue to build that offensive chemistry. Anyone who watched the match last weekend could see that there will still be times when the final pass, the final movement was a little off. That will only come with playing more games together. Hopefully this attack can take another step forward this Saturday in Charlotte. If they do, Atlanta will be in good shape to steal three points from the Queen City.
Neutralize Charlotte’s new-look attack
Charlotte FC is coming off its longest road trip of the season as they traveled to Seattle and picked up an impressive 2-2 draw. They did it without the team’s newest crown jewel, winger Wilfried Zaha, who was unable to play in the opener. The Ivory Coast international has had a decorated career in the top leagues in Europe and Charlotte hopes that he’s the missing piece to unlock this attack. Charlotte FC has never scored more than 45 goals in the three years the club has been in existence.
With Zaha joining, the team finally features multiple game-changers in attack that can punish defenses. Patrick Agyemang enjoyed a breakout season last year with 10 goals and 5 assists. He brings speed, size and skill to the table and recently played for the U.S. men's national team. Liel Abada and Pep Biel are two midfielders that can create chances as well. Atlanta’s defense will have to communicate and stay connected as a unit for the full 90 minutes in order to slow down this attack.
Show consistency for the full 90 minutes
Last week’s win against CF Montréal was a tale of two halves really. In the first half, Atlanta dominated. It created quality scoring chances, didn’t allow Montréal a lot of time and space to build up from the back and looked to be in full control going into the break. In the second half, Montréal scored early and turned the tide a bit. Atlanta was still able to create scoring opportunities, but the team looked more vulnerable defensively. One of the key messages from head coach Ronny Deila was to be more compact and not as open.
“In the second half, I was not as happy with it because we lost momentum in the match, lost too many balls, were not able to collect passes and we were very, very open when attacking. When you get too open, anything can happen. So, we have to take the first half performance and do that for longer period to be considered a really good team.”
If the 5-Stripes can play like they did in the first half and take advantage of scoring opportunities when they present themselves, they will have a good chance to come home with three points on the road this Saturday.
