Last Saturday, the Benz was honestly pretty chill.
I had expected one of the wilder atmospheres in recent memory, perhaps with fans antagonizing Gabriel Heinze or delivering a really powerful match-long protest on behalf of Josef Martinez, or just more broadly booing throughout, especially if the result started to turn poor, which it did. While I’d never encourage it, I expected to see shit thrown on the field.
Instead, while it ended with boo birds, the whole place just seemed fairly muted, lightly attended, and sleepy. Atlanta United did what they usually do — what bad teams do — and created no goals and less than a goal worth of chances, something we’ve come to expect ever since the 2020 season kicked off before the pandemic.