Next up for Atlanta United is Miami — and the Five Stripes are excited

Atlanta United wants all of that pink and black, Lionel Messi, Gerardo Martino, Julian Gressel, Inter Miami smoke.

The Five Stripes advanced to the next round of the MLS playoffs by defeating Montreal 5-4 in penalty kicks after finishing regulation 2-2 in the wild-card round Tuesday at Stade Saputo in Montreal.

Next up is only the best team in MLS history, which just set the league record for points in a season and which features the greatest player in the sport’s history, the manager who led Atlanta United to the MLS Cup, and one of the key players on that team. Oh, and Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets, only three of the finer players at their positions of their generation.

The best-of-three series will open Friday in Fort Lauderdale. Game 2 will be Nov. 2 in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Game 3, if necessary, will be Nov. 9 in Fort Lauderdale.

“I’m always looking forward to playing in big games, and I’m looking forward so much to playing in Mercedes-Benz with the stadium packed,” centerback Stian Gregersen said Tuesday. “So to play in front of our fans, I’m looking forward very much to playing in this game.”

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It may seem too much that Atlanta United is looking forward to facing Messi, a World Cup champion and scorer of more than 500 goals. It had lost twice this season to Montreal, and that didn’t matter in the playoffs.

It’s important to remember that it is unbeaten against Inter Miami in its past three meetings. Messi played in two of those, a 3-1 Miami loss in Fort Lauderdale earlier this season, and a 2-2 draw in September.

In those matches, particularly the win in Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta United played very aggressively. It created 26 chances, from which it took 22 shots, six on goal, and generated 3.40 expected goals.

Interim manager Rob Valentino said the past has no bearing on the next two or three matches.

“Playoffs are different,” he said. “If you look at the other way, we hadn’t beat Montreal. I’ve been saying all year, but I just try to take every game as it is. What happened in the past in the regular season doesn’t matter anymore, and now we have to move to a whole different format. It’s a whole different beast in the playoffs.”

Friday’s will be Atlanta United’s third match in seven days. It’s not ideal when taking on the top team in MLS. Valentino said he’d play Wednesday, if he could. He said it will be important for the players to sleep and recover.

“We can’t control what when the game is,” he said. “We’ll just show up when, when the game is there, and we’ll go to winning.”

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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