Atlanta United opened a new “Hype Depot” location this past Saturday night in SoCal, defeating the LA Galaxy. Here are the player grades.
The venue used to be called the Home Depot Center in Carson, California but it was re-named the “Hype Depot-SoCal” on Saturday night as Atlanta United ran out as 2-0 winners over the LA Galaxy.
The stars of Hollywood brought out the best in Atlanta United and the big-name players like Martinez, Almiron, Parkhurst, Barco, and Guzan put on a stellar performance in claiming all three points over Zlatan and the Galaxy. There was clearly an extra spring in the step of all the players and the stars of Atlanta aligned to create numerous opportunities in front of the LA goal.
Barco made his first start for Atlanta pairing with Martinez up top and it was this two-headed viper supplied with the venom of Almiron-Gressel-Garza passes that constantly struck out at the Galaxy in the first 30 minutes. Martinez missed an early PK chance in the 20th minute but was there to put back a Gressel rebound that sent Atlanta to the locker room up 1-0.
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Numerous other chances just would not fall during the match for Atlanta but Almiron iced the game in second-half stoppage time with a 94th minute PK to end the night. The possession and movement on and off the ball kept the Galaxy chasing the ball all night long as Atlanta exploited every pocket of space they could find in the stretched LA midfield.
Atlanta with the win now sits just a point out of first place in the Eastern Conference and will host the visiting Montreal Impact on Saturday, April 28 at 1 p.m. inside the “Hype Depot-Mega Center” downtown in the ATL.
Rating the players for Atlanta United (formation 3-5-2):