Ronny Deila smiled broadly when answering if winning Atlanta United’s first road match this season Saturday at Charlotte would be a confidence booster.
“That’d be fantastic,” he said.
Atlanta United and road matches, until the last-third of the past season, haven’t gone together like chicken and waffles in recent seasons.
The team has failed to win more than four road matches in any of the past four seasons. It has 13 road wins in those four years. It won 20 road matches from 2017-19, using some of those valuable points to finish second in the East in ‘18 and ‘19.
The team did find a winning, counterattacking formula near the end of last season, one that it carried into the playoffs with wins at Montreal and a decisive Game 3 playoff win at Inter Miami. That run started with a win at Charlotte on Aug. 31.
If that form can continue into this season, it will go a long way toward helping Atlanta United achieve its goal of finishing as one of the top four teams in the East. Last season, each of those teams won at least eight road matches.
“Be a massive boost, as we’ve seen last year,” centerback Derrick Williams said. “Still early days, we gave a few too many chances against Montreal, but we’re looking to go there and keep a clean sheet and definitely get the three points, especially with our attacking players so dangerous, as you’ve seen. But we just need to iron out some small things, small details, and I think once we can do that, we’ll look a lot better.”
Having Williams back should help a defense that was pulled apart in the second half by Montreal in the season-opening 3-2 win.
Williams was the leader of the backline last season, constantly telling teammates where to be. He said midfielders Bartosz Slisz and Mateusz Klich already are tired of hearing his voice.
That duo’s work will be important against Charlotte, but they will be one half the “sandwich,” as centerback Stian Gregersen described Tuesday, that will be needed to try to deny service to Charlotte striker Patrick Agyemang.
Klich’s and Slisz’s efforts in the first match were appreciated by their manager Deila, who said they totaled more than 25,000 meters (15.5 miles) running. But he wants to see them staying more in the middle of the pitch, where Agyemang will be, rather than out wide, where the fullbacks and wingers will be defending.
And then it will be incumbent on the wingers and fullback to block or affect crosses so that Charlotte can’t keep feeding Agyemang from wide spaces.
“If you have 25 crosses every half, then you will get in trouble,” Deila said. “It’s about them running after us instead of you running after them. It’s about being clear that we need to be very aggressive on the side so we stop crosses, and then inside the box, we need to be organized and aggressive.”
Charlotte will play with a different style than Montreal, Deila said. Whereas Montreal wanted the ball, Charlotte will want to counterattack. Atlanta United handled Montreal well in the first half, but Deila said he was disappointed with the second half, when Atlanta United surrendered two goals and was lucky not to give up more in the final 45 minutes.
If Atlanta United has more of the ball, a key to getting three points will be counter-pressing when it loses the ball. It can’t get too stretched. It can’t allow Charlotte to come up the middle of the field.
“You need to defend, you need to suffer together,” Deila said. “We will always get our chances because we have quality up front. So we know we will do that, but we cannot concede so many chances.”
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Atlanta United’s 2025 schedule
Feb. 22 Atlanta United 3, Montreal 2
March 1 at Charlotte, 2 p.m., Apple, Fox
March 8 vs. New York Red Bulls, 7:30 p.m., Apple
March 16 vs. Miami, 7 p.m., Apple
March 22 at Cincinnati, 2:30 p.m., Apple
March 29 vs. NYCFC, 7:30 p.m., Apple
April 5 vs. Dallas, 7:30 p.m., Apple
April 12 vs. New England, 2:30 p.m., Apple, Fox
April 19 at Philadelphia, 7:30 p.m., Apple
April 26 at Orlando, 7 p.m., Apple, Fox
May 3 vs. Nashville, 2:30 p.m., Apple, Fox
May 10 at Chicago, 2:30 p.m., Apple
May 14 at Austin, 8:30 p.m., Apple
May 17 vs. Philadelphia, 7:30 p.m., Apple
May 25 vs. Cincinnati, 7 p.m., Apple
May 28 vs. Orlando, 7:30 p.m., Apple
May 31 at Red Bulls, 7:30 p.m., Apple
June 12 at NYCFC, 7:30 p.m., Apple
June 25 at Columbus, 7:30 p.m., Apple
June 28 at Miami, 7:30 p.m., Apple
July 5 at D.C. United, 7:30 p.m., Apple
July 12 at Toronto, 7:30 p.m., Apple
July 16 vs. Chicago, 7:30 p.m., Apple, FS1
July 19 vs. Charlotte, 7:30 p.m., Apple
July 26 vs. Seattle, 7:30 p.m., Apple
July 30 vs. Necaxa, Leagues Cup
Aug. 2. vs. Pumas in Orlando, Leagues Cup
Aug. 6 vs. Atlas, Leagues Cup
Aug. 9 at Montreal, 7:30 p.m., Apple
Aug. 16 at Colorado, 9:30 p.m., Apple
Aug. 24 vs. Toronto, 5 p.m., Apple
Aug. 30 at Nashville, 8:30 p.m. Apple
Sept. 13 vs. Columbus, 7:30 p.m., Apple
Sept. 20 vs. San Diego, 4:30 p.m., Apple
Sept. 27 at New England, 7:30 p.m., Apple
Oct. 5 at LAFC, 10:30 p.m., Apple
Oct. 18 vs. D.C. United, 6 p.m., Apple
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