After finding out late Friday night that Lionel Messi had chose to stay home and eat “pizza” instead of traveling to Atlanta for a marquee matchup in one of the crown jewel venues of MLS, roughly 70,000 fans nonetheless flooded Mercedes-Benz Stadium Saturday evening. Almost all of these people had paid good money — in some cases VERY good money — to see an elite soccer product. Turns out they got it, thanks to the display put on by the home side in a 5-2 win for Atlanta United over Inter Miami.
It was as important of a performance as we’ve seen from the Five Stripes in years.