Just remind yourself where the map ends

70,000 people is a lot of people

I don’t think Atlanta United is going to win the series. Yeah, yeah, FEA and all that. I get it. I’m part of the A. That’s just who I am as a person and I 🎵suck🎵. I just don’t think this current group is going to be able to keep up with the most plot-armor-heavy team in existence for two more games while missing multiple starters on the back line. Soccer is and always will be a sport that cares nothing for your hopes and dreams.

Soccer does find opportunities to make you forget that though. Tomorrow is one of those opportunities.

Normally, I’d caution against leaning into something like “caring” but it might be worth a shot in this case. There will be points tomorrow where it’s going to feel like everything has been fixed. Like this club hasn’t been doing whatever it’s been doing since 2019.

It will be a little pinker than you remember, but that’s ok. There will be 70,000 back in Mercedes-Benz Stadium for a soccer game involving Atlanta United and everyone there will be invested in an outcome with actual stakes. It doesn’t matter how it came about, it just matters that it exists at all.

Regardless of how it turns out—Again, Brooks Lennon is definitely out and Stian Gregersen is maybe out, things are not looking great—this is water in the desert. All anyone wants is for this to be the norm again. And that starts everyone on the field actually giving a damn.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve actually seen that. I don’t know how we got from “Team does mild cardio session in loss to CF Montréal” to “Team gives last-gasp effort to the death in third road game in six days,” but we did. That’s foundation building. Now, the team actually gets to come home and see what their reward is for giving folks a reason to pay attention again. It’s a stadium full of people who are desperate for success. Win or lose, the hope is that the formula sticks with the members of the team who are here next season. Effort = Opportunity.

Obviously, they’ll need a little more than effort to get back to where everyone expects Atlanta United to be next season. It’s just a part of the equation that feels like it’s been missing for too long.

So, yeah, they might pull off something special tomorrow. (Did we mention that Sergio Busquets might be out?) A miracle series win probably isn’t in the cards, but tomorrow might be special. That matters. And maybe we all come away from it thinking that this team isn’t that far away from getting back on the right path. We can at least pretend for a day, right?

Anyway…

Actual preview things

Who: Atlanta United vs. Inter Miami

Where: Atlanta, Ga.

When: 7:00 p.m. ET

Watch: Apple TV (MLS Season Pass) or just go to the stadium

What: Atlanta’s gotta win

So…those injuries, huh

It’s not great. Brooks Lennon is out for the rest of the year after undergoing surgery on Thursday. Stian Gregersen reportedly trained away from the team yesterday and may not be available.

Even if they had been available, you wouldn’t feel great about Atlanta United matching up defensively with Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez. Now, they’ll have to turn to backups.

That could go a couple of ways. The most straightforward way is to plug in Ronald Hernandez at fullback and Luis Abram at center back and call it a day. That…doesn’t seem ideal.

I’m wondering if you could take a page out of New York’s book from their upset win over Columbus earlier this week. The Red Bulls came out in a back five, stayed as compact as possible in their own third, then found No. 10 Emil Forsberg as an outlet when transition moments arose so he could try and play in behind to his speedy forwards keeping narrow positioning up top. It worked as effectively as you could have possibly hoped for against an elite Crew side. For Atlanta, that would look something like this…

That…also doesn’t seem ideal, but, in theory, it would help bolster the back line and let you attack at speed. That’s typically been the best way to exploit Inter Miami’s weaknesses defensively this season.

That being said, Atlanta has almost never looked comfortable defending in a back five this season. It invites a measure of uncertainty when it comes to the choices they need to make defensively. With a hesitant Abram and 19-year-old Noah Cobb in the mix, it’s possible those issues could become exploited quickly.

Then again, it feels like the directive here is a simple one. Stay deep and stay compact. Atlanta’s biggest issues in a back five this year have come when they’ve had to make decisions in space. Theoretically, there wouldn’t be a whole lot of space to defend with this setup.

Boom. I solved it. I’ve figured out how to stop Messi and Suárez. Nothing could possibly go wrong here.

Is there anything else to even add?

Sure doesn’t seem like it. Either Atlanta will catch a few breaks or their season will be over. There is a major talent gap here that only gets closed with energy and luck. The good news is, the energy should be there. They’ve had a week to recover from their 1899 Sewanee Tigers football gauntlet and they’ll be in front of the best Atlanta crowd since the 2019 Eastern Conference Final.

The luck is up to a much, much higher power.*

(*Tim Cook)

So, not feeling great huh?

Nah. But at least this is fun.