Atlanta United suffered what many considered to be a troubling offseason. After building one of the best teams in Major League Soccer history, the Five Stripes saw several of their assets stripped as they struggled to maintain their roster under the stringent league salary cap.
Julian Gressel, the club’s leading assister, Darlington Nagbe, the crucial central midfielder that is the cornerstone of the team, and also Leandro Gonzalez Pirez, who, bar Miles Robinson’s emergence as an elite MLS centre-back, was the prime organiser of the defence.
Their wide-ranging losses, and the quality of the players that departed in the process, saw many observers question whether they would be able to replicate their recent success.