In the game of the weekend, Atlanta United went north to Providence Park, battled hard against an excellent, surging Portland Timbers, and returned to the comforts of Georgia with three points in their back pockets, moving top of the Eastern Conference in the process.
Leandro Gonzalez Pirez opened the scoring from a corner early on, before Josef Martinez — more on him later — curled a stunner into the top corner early in the second half to put the game beyond the Timbers.
Here are three things we learned from Atlanta United’s 2-0 win over the Portland Timbers.