Atlanta United: The 5 best candidates for an actual rival

5. LAFC

Yes, Atlanta destroyed LAFC in the only meeting between these teams by a score of 5-0. However, that score doesn’t properly represent the quality of these teams and the feisty play that occurred in the match. It was only the fourth game of LAFC’s existence and they were coming off a crushing home derby loss to LA Galaxy thanks to a pair of Zlatan Ibrahimovic goals. Atlanta took advantage of that lack of confidence and young team still searching for its identity.

The game was extremely eventful right from kickoff. Less than sixty seconds into the game, Atlanta’s Chris McCann received a red card, only for VAR to overturn it. It only took Atlanta 17 minutes to find the game’s first goal, but LAFC held them to that goal through the first half. While the floodgates opened in the second half and Atlanta found another four goals, LA held their own for most of the match.

This game really stood out to me while I was watching it. After the opening minute red card, LA seemed to really bring a physicality that Atlanta hadn’t experienced yet. Both teams seemed agitated at how the game began and were looking to take out their frustrations on each other. I recall thinking about how physical these teams played each other and how it already felt like a rivalry.

Add in the fact that both of these teams were expansion darlings in their inaugural seasons (sorry Minnesota) and you get a recipe for a hard-fought intense match. Plus, there were LA coach Bob Bradley’s comments last year about how his 1998 Chicago Fire expansion team is the best all time. Those comments came after some people decided to claim Atlanta United as the best MLS expansion team of all time.