Why is Atlanta United winning? Ted Lasso has something to do with it

During Rob Valentino’s first stint as Atlanta United’s interim manager, he brought up the inevitable comparisons to Ted Lasso, the character of the popular Apple series. Valentino and Lasso, the character played by actor Jason Sudeikis, are relentlessly, some might say unbearably, optimistic. They are humble.

Valentino hasn’t brought up the comparison during his second stint as interim manager. However, Dax McCarty did after Valentino led Atlanta United to the biggest upset in MLS history when it defeated Inter Miami 3-2 on Saturday to knock it out of the playoffs.

Atlanta United, a franchise that fired its manager and technical director during the season, that seemed more like a collection of players than a team, found something intangible after Valentino was promoted for the second time. It needed 16 matches to coalesce, a time that almost proved too late for Atlanta United to make the playoffs.

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McCarty said they found those two qualities that Valentino and Lasso share. They found them just in time to win the final two matches of the regular season, then to eliminate Montreal in the wild card match, and then to shock Miami, a team with the largest payroll this season and most points won in league history.

“I think they’re channeling a little bit of Ted Lasso and just making us believe, because when you have a season like we had it’s really easy to lose faith, it’s really easy to get negative, and it’s really easy to feel sorry for yourself,” McCarty said. “And I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t happening at certain points in the season, but they were steadfast in every single thing and every single message that they said, which was, ‘you are a good team. We see a good team. We believe in you, and now you need to believe in yourself.’”

No one can point to exactly when the belief started to form. It’s easy to point to the 2-1 victory against Red Bulls at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It was a win that Atlanta United had to have to keep alive its slim hopes for the playoffs.

Atlanta United followed by winning its next match at Orlando on Decision Day. That victory, coupled with two more results in other games, secured a playoff berth.

Another win. More belief.

Atlanta United followed that by defeating Montreal in penalty kicks in the wild card round. Another win. Even more belief.

Atlanta United lost its next match at Inter Miami in the first game of the best-of-three series. Atlanta United was exhausted because it was playing its third road match in seven days.

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Atlanta United won the next game, 2-1 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, to force the decisive Game 3. Another win.

In Game 3, Atlanta United gave up the first goal. In past matches this season it would have likely folded. It happened so many times. This time, Jamal Thiare tied the match at 1-1 two minutes later, and then scored again two minutes after that to give Atlanta United a 2-1 lead and stun Miami and its supporters.

“The last couple of weeks, there’s something special,” captain Brad Guzan said. “What that thing is, is belief, is confidence, his desire to help the group.”

Miami tied the match on a header by Lionel Messi. Atlanta United responded with a goal by Bartosz Slisz to win 3-2 and advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals for the first time since 2019.

It was Atlanta United’s fifth win in its past six matches. The team had one two-match winning streak all season before it found belief.

“Everyone held each other accountable,” Thiare said. “We didn’t want to finish the season like this. So it was in training. It was through effort. But there was really something that the group discovered along the lines of the last few games, and something great is igniting from all of this.”

Like the chicken or the egg, does belief come from winning or winning from belief?

Winning is difficult. Atlanta United obviously wasn’t doing enough of that or Valentino would not be leading the team. Before he was promoted, Atlanta United was 4-8-4, 1-3-3 on the road. Guzan, speaking a few weeks ago, hinted that Valentino and his staff were taking a more practical approach to some things such as playing on the road. It has since gone 5-5-3 away from Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Every match Atlanta United plays for however long the season lasts will be on the road.

That changed approach may have been a dose of humility, according to McCarty. The players realized that perhaps they weren’t good enough yet to play with an arrogant style and tactics of dominating the ball.

They needed to do more “dirty running,” as Guzan once described it. They needed to suffer, McCarty said.

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“When you play for Atlanta United, and the outside perception is that this is a massive club. … You have the expectation when you come here, that you’re going to dominate every game, and you’re going to win a lot more games than you’re going to lose, and I think that we were a little bit too arrogant with that type of attitude,” McCarty said. “And I’ve said it before, a little bit of humility goes a long way. Maybe we aren’t as good as we think we are, and we have to prove that we can get through tough moments, and we weren’t able to do that all year, until a flip was switched in the last couple games of the season, where we just played like we had nothing to lose. And that feels great.”

Valentino, like Lasso, didn’t want to take credit for Atlanta United’s stunning elimination of Miami. He said he’s not a tactical genius. He credited the players’ belief in themselves. Even early in his second stint, when the team was throttled 5-2 at Real Salt Lake, or listless in a 1-0 loss at Montreal, the players came to the training ground and put in the work.

“Whatever it might be like, they really bought in,” he said.

Valentino also credited the staff, which was cobbled together midseason and has helped engineer this turnaround. That group includes Carl Robinson, who joined after Valentino was promoted, Liam Curran, a holdover, and Matt Lawrey, who was formerly Atlanta United’s Academy director.

“They’re, they’re the driving force of the team, like they’re, they are bigger than myself,” he said. “They’re so good at their jobs. And I just don’t want this to end. So I hope we can kind of keep kicking on here.”

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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