It wasn’t Atlanta United’s final preseason tuneup of 2023 (that comes next weekend behind closed doors in St. Louis), but Wednesday night in Mercedes-Benz Stadium was a small taste of what the matchday experience will be like for this edition of Gonzalo Pineda’s squad. Let’s dig into what we saw.
- The stars — in particular Luiz Araujo and Thiago Almada — looked as good as you’d hope for at this stage and hopefully primed to get off the ground running when the season opens here at the Benz on February 25. Luiz’s goal, Atlanta’s second of the game, was a trademark slalom run capped off by a cheeky near-post finish — almost as if to toy with Toluca’s goalkeeper.