The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta United heads to Florida for 3 friendlies
These will be final tuneups before regular season opens Feb. 24.
Atlanta United’s preseason hits another gear in the next 10 days as the team heads to the Tampa area, then to Miami to fine-tune tactics and learn more about each other.
The Five Stripes were scheduled to fly to Florida on Tuesday afternoon. They play Montreal in a friendly today, with four 30-minute periods. Atlanta United plays Tampa Bay on Saturday. Both matches are scheduled to be played at Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg.
After the match against Tampa Bay, the team heads south to play Sporting KC in Miami on Feb. 17. The team then flies back to Atlanta to begin preparing for its season-opening match at the Columbus Crew on Feb. 24.
“I think the goal has to be to win every single game,” centerback Noah Cobb said. “There’s a saying, ‘Winning is a habit.’ I think there’s times during the season where you’re not necessarily playing your best. But if you can still scrape together those results, then that’s what can really push you into that top four (in the standings). But I think also just making sure we’re really coming together as a group and the locker room’s really, really solid.”
Atlanta United is 1-0-1 in its preseason friendlies. It defeated Birmingham 2-1 two weeks ago, then tied Memphis 1-1 last week in Athens.
With the exception of Thiago Almada, who is playing for Argentina’s Under-23 national team in Olympic qualifying in Venezuela, the entire team should be in Florida. Several players, including Stian Gregersen and Dax McCarty, were held out of the friendly in Athens. Caleb Wiley, who sustained a shoulder injury while with the U.S. men’s national team, returned to training Tuesday. Edwin Mosquera, who sustained a groin injury while with Colombia’s U-23 national team, was seen jogging and doing other exercises.
Gregersen and McCarty are two of the five players who weren’t on the first team or with Atlanta United 2 last season.
“That’s a huge positive part of the preseason, the new faces coming in the locker room, and we try to make them very welcome from the first day and to make (it) easier and then get to know each other even more because we all know that it’s going to help on the pitch, right?” fullback Ronald Hernandez said.