Atlanta United vs Columbus Crew: What you need to know

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Saturday, Atlanta United finally returns to Bobby Dodd for a match against Columbus Crew SC. It’s the second match of a 21-day span where the Five Stripes have one game every three days. Needless to say, that’s a full plate of soccer matches. The cluster of games will give the fans and especially Tata Martino an idea of how deep the team is in every position, so expect to see some lineups that are much different than those that we’ve seen so far. But for now, let’s just focus on the task at hand which is destroying the Columbus Crew tomorrow.

The basics: 

  • When: Saturday, June 17th – 7:00 pm (barring a rain delay)
  • Where: Bobby Dodd Stadium – Atlanta, Georgia
  • Watch: Fox Sports Southeast & MLS Live

Atlanta United (5-6-3)

Atlanta is playing their second match in four days after a 3-2 win over the Charleston Battery. The game plan Tata had in mind for the match against the Battery was to start key players such as Martinez, Almiron and Larentowicz for the first half, but after the Five Stripes found themselves down after the first 45, Martino was forced to leave Josef, Miggy and Jeff in for the entire game. That being said, expect to see a possible squad rotation tomorrow.

That being said, Josef Martinez is an absolute mad man. In his first full match back, he showed absolutely no signs of fatigue throughout the duration of the match. Even through cramps towards the end, Josef was obviously giving 100% – so whether he starts or subs in on Saturday, you know you’ll always get a max effort from Josef.

Atlanta is finally returning to Bobby Dodd, where they left on a two-game win streak. There is no doubt that a sold out BDS gives the team a home field advantage like no other, so it’ll be nice to have that going for us again.

Columbus Crew (7-8-1)

Like Atlanta, Columbus just finished a midweek US Open Cup match where they lost to FC Cincinnati. The Crew started eight of their regular starters, including Higuian and Meram, so Atlanta isn’t the only team who might have to change up their lineup.

The road hasn’t been very nice to Columbus this season. The Black and Gold have been on the road eight times this season and have only been able to win twice. Atlanta averages a little over 2.5 goals per home game, and in their past four road matches, Columbus has only been able to score just two goals. That being said, if things continue to trend the way they are trending, Atlanta will be able to take all three points.

Columbus sit three places higher than Atlanta on the table with 22 points and a 7-8-1 record. Given Atlanta’s good run of form at home and Columbus’ road struggles, this should be a great opportunity for the Five Stripes to begin their surge back to the good side of the red line.

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