For the first time since May 31, Atlanta United 2 is finally back at home in Kennesaw to face off against Columbus Crew 2.
In the last meeting between these two sides, Columbus came out on top with a 3-2 victory over the 2's last September. Atlanta has a 0-2-1 record against Columbus in MLS Next Pro.
Atlanta United 2 is looking to break their five game winless streak after coming off of a 6-2 loss against New York Red Bulls II last weekend. Meanwhile, Columbus is heading into the match after a 2-2 draw at home against Toronto FC II, and they earned the extra point in penalty kicks where they won 7-6.
Even though the 2's haven’t had the best stretch of games, the team is excited for all of the new talent that is emerging from the Academy. Dominik Chong Qui scored his first professional goal with the Five Stripes in the loss last weekend. In 2024, five Academy players have made their professional debuts with Atlanta United 2. Head Coach Steve Cooke touched on how important it is to have a place like the 2's help a young player grow.
“You're bitterly disappointed when you concede goals in the way we did and you lose a game. Certainly as somebody who's very competitive, like we all are in this profession, you're devastated, and if you're not careful, the emotion can get too high. This team is set up to give young players that opportunity, and we made some pretty basic errors,” said Cooke. “The reality is that we're in a place where we are now playing a lot of young players who’ve got a great future ahead of them. It not only gives them that opportunity to progress, but it also gives us the opportunity to evaluate them not only from an ability standpoint, but also from what they need to be good at for the level higher.”
Karim Tmimi, who currently leads Atlanta United 2 in goals this season, said that this upcoming match will be a really good challenge for the 2s especially after a long break and a long stretch where the team was away on the road.
“It’s not really an excuse, but before we played those three games away, we had a break of almost a month and a half of not playing and it was really tough. I think we did pretty good in Orlando, but we felt it a little bit that we were not playing for a few weeks, compared to all the teams that were still playing and have the fitness level, but now we go,” said Tmimi. “We don’t have any excuses. We've been playing for almost 2-3 weeks and now we're home. Unfortunately it's going to be between the final of Euro and Copa, but we'll make our game more interesting and that's part of it. If one day one of those players wants to be there, then we have to do what we need to do here first.”
You can watch the match on MLSNEXTPro.com or you can listen on https://soccerdownhere.mixlr.com/ with pregame coverage starting at 7:00 p.m.
✍️: Madison Crews
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