DC United vs. Atlanta United: Preview, time, and how to watch
DC United hope to stay in the win column tonight as they take on Atlanta United at Audi Field. The Black-and-Red were able to get a 2-1 victory in their last outing on Wednesday night, defeating the Columbus Crew for their first win since July 25th.
Battles between Atlanta United have been just that: fierce, tough competitions that lately have ended in stalemate. The previous four matches between these two teams have ended in draws, including a scoreless draw back in March. DC United’s last win over Atlanta was a 3-2 win on the road back in May 2024, and they hope to bring that energy before the home fans.
Atlanta comes in with a bit of confidence despite losing two of their last three matches and sitting in 14th in the Eastern Conference table. They’re currently led by Alexey Miranchuk, with 5 goals and 7 assists on the season. Miguel Almirón (4 goals, 6 assists) and Tristan Muyumba (4 goals) have also helped the Five Stripes during the season. But, Atlanta’s confidence is boosted by last week’s acquisition of Switzerland forward Breel Embolo at the transfer deadline. The striker debuted last weekend and scored in his first match against Inter Miami.
“I don’t like to make better than he is, but Embolo is the best forward player in our Swiss national team,” head coach René Weiler said of the Swiss star. “He scored his first goal in the first game he played. So we have to be aware about his quality and physicality. He knows how to score goals. He proved it. But I prefer to speak about our team. So when we play how we play [against Columbus], then we will stop him and Atlanta as well. That is one of our targets for Saturday.”
Swiss defender Silvan Hefti also recognized the challenge ahead of the team with Embolo on the field. “Yeah, I think Atlanta is a good team, especially Embolo,” Hefti said. Obviously. I know him from Switzerland. He’s a very good player, a big transfer for Atlanta. So it’s not going to be easy, but we will prepare very well and be ready for Atlanta.”
DC United looks at this match as extremely important given that they sit in 11th place in the Eastern Conference standings with 28 points from 23 matches. However, they have a chance to rise to as high as 7th in the standings if they can get 3 points and see some other results go their way. But to do that, they need to continue to produce goals and hope that production can be consistently there. DC United will have to make do without João Peglow, who will sit out tonight on suspension due to yellow card accumulation. But, they want to get the win to give themselves an opportunity to move up in the standings above the playoff line.
DC United vs. Atlanta United
Location: Audi Field
Kickoff time: 7:30pm ET
Available streaming: Apple TV
Lineup:
Johnson; Hefti, Bartlett, Rowles, Kurokawa; Nono, Servania, Dozzell, Ordaz; Baribo, Louis
Subs:
Bono, Markovic, Nealis, Kijima, Hopkins, Stroud, Peltola
Not a single forward in the bench
Hopkins could be called up as second striker, but his finishing technique is his least polished trait
Servania back makes me want to drink something strong while staring existentially into thrashingly violent sea waves
Looked at Atlanta United’s lineup
I do admire Weiler’s “greater than the sum of the parts” mentality (not sure why Servania is one of them and Peltola isn’t, but that’s my well known frustration).
But Embolo, Miranchuk, and Almiron are friggin parts. We don’t have a single attacking player with commensurate pedigree
Gotta hope we can deal with them and that the rest underperforms structurally
Good counter from dc, but Ordaz puts it wide
Louis goes down in the box but it’s not called. Atlanta attack after that goes just barely over
Yellow to Atlanta for a tackle from behind on Louis
0-0 at the half. Not a lot to write home about for either team this half
Atlanta has had more chances than we have.
Me no liki Stroud for Ordaz. I do like Peltola for Servania. I didn’t catch who Hopkins comes on for.
Triple Sub! Hopkins, Stroud, Peltola on, Ordaz, Hefti, Servania off
Yellow to Atlanta for a tackle on Peltola
Baribo heads it just over the bar off a pass from Nono
Rowles picks up a yellow now
Nono picks up a yellow for arguing with the ref
And now Stroud too
I was very impressed with it. Does Nono speak more English than we know, or did he manage to get a yellow for remonstrating in Japanese? Honestly, it was a ridiculous display by Nono. All he had to do was take a step back to be behind the mark for defenders on corner kicks. Instead, he was arguing fiercely, and very much deserved the card.
Stroud picks up a yellow now.
That Almiron flub saved us, but the breakdown was us committing numbers forward on a promising, and someone’s tried to include Stroud as a physical entity. He managed to dance around any type of relation to the ball, and we got caught out.
Stroud and Servania make me concerned that weird personnel relational breakdowns are why Weiler is a successful manager whose tenure expires quickly everywhere he’s been.
Cuz there’s no soccer reason Peltola and Kijima aren’t preferable
The front line of Atlanta is “supported” by some of the most ineffectual facilitators I’ve seen in this era of MLS
I’ve liked the collective effort from our actual backline, but our goal has also lived a charmed life thus far
To the eye they’ve looked a little more lively in second half. Statistically a bit of a nightmare though, especially due to ATLs missed opportunities. I’d like more than one off-target shot this half, especially at home against one of the worst teams in the league.
Markovic on for Dozzell, as Weiler continues his vendetta of not allowing him backline experience
Markovic in for Dozzell
Kijima for Louis
Btw, to those who say Peglow doesn’t provide enough, note the effect of his absence. We missed his build up and forward impetus tonight. When you’re playing a 4-4-2, you need that
Ordaz was an interesting experiment at LM, but clearly a dead end if not played centrally- he’s fine, but there’s nothing he did there that Hopkins or Kijima wouldn’t, and he’s simply way better at central facilitation.
I like having Peglow here. I think you could argue he might be better as a super sub if we could get someone better, but he does well
I actually think it’s flipped
You want punch off the bench, volatility
He’s steady eddy, and is a more worthy starter for the system than a super sub
I think Ordaz is ine on the LW. On the right side, not so much. but he does well on hte left. Most of the good play came through him.
I said he’s fine there, but that Kijima or Hopkins would have at least matched his play there. That’s misuse when they’re both fit, given our dearth of central forward options.
If you think that Ordaz gave us equivalent to Peglow last night, I thank you for your time, cuz that argument is not gonna get any of mine.
There’s no way Gill kept it from crossing the endline there, what horseshit
I agree with the commentators that DCU is lucky to be coming out with a point out of this match. We really needed to win this one for a playoff push.
The pieces we have that work are evident and worth building upon, but we’re rail thin elsewhere.
But I’m more concerned by the clear aversion to Kijima and Markovic getting more involved, and I’m really concerned with his Peltola hang up.
Game ends 0-0. Glad we don’t have to watch that game anymore
Another point, but at the end of the season, these are the exact kind of performances that will sink this club and cause them to miss the playoffs in a league that basically gives away playoff spots.
After over fifteen years straight of watching this tired franchise, they are still as brutal a club to support as ever. A real rough watch. At least they are trending in the right direction this year.
At least it isn’t like the Lerner kids with the Nats who let Taboni and Butera blow up the team on the MLB trade deadline without really doing much of anything to immediately fix the bullpen. The bullpen that has now set the record for most blown saves in a season…
I was at the Nats game before the DCU match — another game blown by the bullpen, but that has zero to do with the trades they made, other than one of the relievers they picked up failed to shut the door in the 9th inning. The bullpen sucked before the trades. Alas, it hasn’t gotten better.
Whatever is going on with Peltola’s begrudging inclusion and obvious marginalization, it fills me with dread.
Would not be surprised at all if this is one of those “competent manager sours, and what’s behind that closet door is gonna curdle your spinal fluid” revelations once Renee exits.
Speaking fully as a fan and commenter at heart.
Well…at least this wasn’t as brutal as getting up to watch the USA Men’s Eagles XVs get absolutely demolished by Japan this morning 63-14….10 years ago that was an even match up…
I guess respect for being a loyal DC United supporter, but how could a rugby fan pass on the huge match-upin Baltimore, the biggest rugby encounter ever in the US ?
I have a 4 year old and 2 year old and my wife had to work.
Broadly agreeing with perspectives given above, and I would add: the hideous tracking errors Nono made tonight cannot just be chalked up to recent arrival/language challenges. The lack of awareness shown in minute 62/63 is not tolerable in a fullback. All the more frustrating given his energy and skill level.
(Hefti may have been even worse in general… I wasn’t focused on him, but my peripheral sense is that Weiler pulled the correct guy off the right side when Hopkins came in.)