FC Dallas walked out of Mercedes Benz Stadium with three points in the pocket, five yellow cards, a bloody nose and a boost in confidence. Despite Atlanta playing like a hot mess right now, they are still the defending champions and unbeaten at home in 10 months. So getting a road victory in any shape or form is nothing to sneeze at.
It wasn’t pretty, but you don’t get any bonus points for glamour. Dallas abandoned their possession based style of play for this encounter and Luchi Gonzalez did the cruelest thing: make Atlanta fans watch as a rookie head coach outsmart theirs in their own building.