By Robyn Saghini // @robynsaghini
We’re back for more!
Atlanta United made history a few times last year and as the 2018 preseason starts, it looks like they’re on track to do it all over again.
Preseason in full swing #UniteAndConquer pic.twitter.com/8KKRAs8Jjd
— Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) January 30, 2018
It has been a busy offseason for the Atlanta front office:
- A USL affiliate, ATLUTD 2 was announced and will start playing in March
- The front office took home a bunch of MLS Year-End awards earlier this month, including MLS Executive of the year (Darren Eales) and awards for their ticketing, administrative, and marketing teams – all well-deserved, IMHO
- League newcomers LAFC bet ATLUTD on the Rams vs Falcons game and *very publicly* lost
- The players sang a Christmas carol
- It was announced last week that Tito Villalba just received his US green card, so he no longer takes up an international slot
In December, a potential record amount of allocation money was traded to the Portland Timbers for midfielder Darlington Nagbe and defender Gbenga Arokyo. They also picked up the now infamous FC Cincinnati goalie Mitch Hildebrandt, (another) Argentinian defender Franco Escobar and Venezuelan defender Jose Hernandez.
In January, after what seemed like never-ending negotiations, Atlanta United also signed promising young Argentine midfielder Ezequiel Barco. Rumors about Barco’s imminent signing started back in November (possibly earlier – it all started to run together after a while) and the BarcoWatch hashtag really started to fire up around mid-December. Check out Doug Roberson’s timeline on the deal for the full timeline.
HE HAS 🅰️RRIVED #UniteAndConquer pic.twitter.com/RTEKrseKcI
— Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) January 30, 2018
ATLUTD also acquired three young new players in the MLS SuperDraft earlier this month. All of whom are internationals and most likely to be loaned out to the USL team for the majority of the season in order to keep the international spots open for the first team.
Sadly, there were a few players that did not get re-signed to ATLUTD’s roster this year. Harrison Heath and Tyrone Mears went to MNUFC. It was just announced this week that Jacob Peterson has been waived and Carlos Carmona was sold to Chilean team, Colo Colo.
A few options were not exercised on other contacts, but the news that makes me saddest is that Yamil Asad is almost definitely (I’m still holding out a tiny bit of hope) not coming back to Atlanta this year. His loan from Velez Sarsfield was only for 2017 and according to Sam Stejskal, negotiations to get Asad here full time fell through. #sadz
ATLUTD is playing their first preseason game in Nashville on February 10. I am unfortunately going to miss watching that one in person, but the following weekend is the beginning of the Carolina Challenge Cup in Charleston, SC and I will be there for all of the games this year! Vamos, ATL!
Featured image courtesy: atlutd.com
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