The promising signs were there through the first 180 minutes of Atlanta United’s season, but the Five Stripes put it all together with an exclamation point against Charlotte. Gonzalo Pineda’s side stormed to a 3-0 lead by halftime and cruised to the three points that took it top of the Eastern Conference. The next test up for the Eastern leaders is a visit from the Portland Timbers, who have apparently decided to get a season’s worth of injuries out of the way in the first three weeks of the campaign.
Portland began its season with a 1-0 win over Sporting KC but has since fallen to LAFC (understandable) and Saint Louis City SC (more understandable than we’d have thought a month ago).