Atlanta United striker Emmanuel Latte Lath has received his visa and may play in Saturday’s preseason-ending friendly against Dallas at the team’s training ground.
“I hope he can be a part of the game on Saturday,” manager Ronny Deila said. “And if that goes good, then we have another week of training, so then he will be available for the game against Montreal (the season opener Feb. 22).”
Latte Lath hasn’t trained with the team. It returned Wednesday from camp in Bradenton, Florida, and a few players could be seen jogging around one of the training pitches. Latte Lath and Pedro Amador were working out with one of the team’s trainers in a corner of another field.
Deila said that Latte Lath works hard, is quick, and attacks space very well. He scored 11 goals during Middlesbrough’s ongoing Championship season in England before he was purchased by Atlanta United for $22 million.
“It’s a reason he has scored so many goals in the Championship in England,” Deila said. “We haven’t, unfortunately, seen him too much in training because of visa process and traveling here. … So hopefully now we will get consistency from today and moving forward.”
Neither Amador nor Brooks Lennon will be available for Saturday’s match, which will feature three periods of play instead of two, Deila said. Both could return to training Monday. Lennon hasn’t trained with the team because he underwent shoulder surgery during the offseason. Amador suffered a hamstring strain earlier in the preseason.
In addition to getting Latte Lath, Deila said he was pleased with the team’s training in Bradenton.
Among the areas of focus were the implementation and refinement of tactics and learning more about how to have conversations among the coaches and with the players.
“I think we accomplished a lot of the things that we wanted,” he said. “We showed that we don’t only have 11, we have 22, 23 players that can play and perform. So it’s a big competition in the team, and also on the pitch, I think we had a lot of improvement in many ways.”
Centerback Stian Gregersen described the time as a more European-style preseason because of the intensity and length of the sessions.
“I’m very positive for the season, and now we have the final rehearsal on Saturday, so I’m looking forward to that,” he said. “I have a really good feeling.”
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