Atlanta United understands urgency of season’s remaining matches

At least nine matches remain in Atlanta United’s season, but captain Brad Guzan said the team understands there’s an urgency in picking up as many points as possible, starting Saturday in Carson, California, against the L.A. Galaxy.

“I’ve always said once in the playoffs, it’s a whole new little season,” he said.

Atlanta United is in the ninth and final playoff spot in the East. Its position is tenuous. The Five Stripes are six points behind seventh-place Orlando and no more than three points ahead of five teams that also want to make the playoffs. Each week, the standings are going to look like a fevered line graph as teams move up and down the table.

Atlanta United wants its arrow on that graph to keep going up. To that end, interim manager Rob Valentino said it spent its post-Leagues Cup training sessions focusing on how it can can improve. The two weeks were the first significant time the team has had to work on concepts since Valentino was promoted following the firing of Gonzalo Pineda in early June. Guzan said it almost felt like another preseason, but the time was used smartly for this season’s reset.

“We did a lot of different things to really try to accomplish a lot out there in the eight sessions, try to maximize that time,” Valentino said. “I’m sure on the outside, everyone’s like, ‘they haven’t played in so long and all that,’ but for us, it went by like that, which is great because that means we were working, we were enjoying ourselves in the moment, and now we’re ready to get back to compete.”

In addition to the challenges of flying across the country and playing at 10:30 p.m. EDT, the Galaxy will be a tough test. L.A. leads the West, has scored the second-most goals (50) in MLS, has lost just once at home and added three-times Bundesliga Player of the Year Marco Reus in the transfer window to go with Riqui Puig, Gabriel Pec and Joseph Paintsil. Reus was cleared to play by the league Thursday.

“They are a good opponent,” Valentino said. “They’ve got good players. They’ve signed another another player that will be another challenge, but they’re good on the ball. We know that for sure. So it’s about limiting in the space in which they can operate. We’ve talked about how we can be very, very solid defensively, and make progression of that as a team.”

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Atlanta United’s 2024 schedule

Feb. 24 Columbus 1, Atlanta United 0

March 9 Atlanta United 4, New England 1

March 17 Atlanta United 2, Orlando 0

March 23 Toronto 2, Atlanta United 0

March 31 Atlanta United 3, Chicago 0

April 6 Atlanta United 1, NYCFC 1

April 14 Atlanta United 2, Philadelphia 2

April 20 Cincinnati 2, Atlanta United 1

April 27 Atlanta United 1, Chicago 1

May 4 Minnesota 2, Atlanta United 1

May 7 Atlanta United 3, Charlotte Independence 0 in U.S. Open Cup