The New Atlanta Team
Victoria Shanahan
Victoria Shanahan
Atlanta created a new sports team last year called Atlanta United. They are a soccer team that plays in the MLS (Major League Soccer) and so far, this year, are placed second in the eastern conference.
When the team plays locally at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, an average of about 68,000 people show up. According to a freshman at Hillgrove High School, Erica Carleton, “All the games are so much fun, I have season tickets and go to almost every game. Everyone is always on their feet yelling chants, celebrating, and they even give you a yellow piece of paper to put up when the ref makes a bad call.” At all the games the chants are very easy to catch on to and when Atlanta scores smoke goes off in the air and the stadium goes wild. One tradition that Atlanta United has created is before every home game, there is the ‘Golden Spike’ tradition. It is when a person comes down to a giant metal spike statue, takes a hammer and hits the spike making the audience go crazy.
Atlanta United has some very young and talented players such as Josef Martinez, Atlanta’s starting center forward. Alex Brahm, a sophomore at Hillgrove High School, agrees by saying, “Martinez is their best player because he scores like half of their goals.” Martinez is the top goal scorer for Atlanta United and has also played for Venezuelan, Switzerland, and Italian teams. He is the only player to win MLS player of the month and MLS player of the week twice. Another one of their top players is Miguel Almiron and he plays midfield. Martinez and Almiron are one of the best duos to play together and have great chemistry on the field. When one of them assists the other’s goal, they make a heart using one of each of their arms which shows how close they have become as teammates.
Moving further into the season the team continues to get stronger, hoping to place first in the Eastern Conference and beat one of the best teams in their bracket, Toronto FC. Both Alex and Erica agreed that the weakest part of the field is the defense. Atlanta United has an attacking mindset in games but sometimes that can hurt them by giving away an easy goal by not getting back on defense quick enough. With all the training, maybe this year they will place first in their bracket and make all their fans proud.
When the team plays locally at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, an average of about 68,000 people show up. According to a freshman at Hillgrove High School, Erica Carleton, “All the games are so much fun, I have season tickets and go to almost every game. Everyone is always on their feet yelling chants, celebrating, and they even give you a yellow piece of paper to put up when the ref makes a bad call.” At all the games the chants are very easy to catch on to and when Atlanta scores smoke goes off in the air and the stadium goes wild. One tradition that Atlanta United has created is before every home game, there is the ‘Golden Spike’ tradition. It is when a person comes down to a giant metal spike statue, takes a hammer and hits the spike making the audience go crazy.
Atlanta United has some very young and talented players such as Josef Martinez, Atlanta’s starting center forward. Alex Brahm, a sophomore at Hillgrove High School, agrees by saying, “Martinez is their best player because he scores like half of their goals.” Martinez is the top goal scorer for Atlanta United and has also played for Venezuelan, Switzerland, and Italian teams. He is the only player to win MLS player of the month and MLS player of the week twice. Another one of their top players is Miguel Almiron and he plays midfield. Martinez and Almiron are one of the best duos to play together and have great chemistry on the field. When one of them assists the other’s goal, they make a heart using one of each of their arms which shows how close they have become as teammates.
Moving further into the season the team continues to get stronger, hoping to place first in the Eastern Conference and beat one of the best teams in their bracket, Toronto FC. Both Alex and Erica agreed that the weakest part of the field is the defense. Atlanta United has an attacking mindset in games but sometimes that can hurt them by giving away an easy goal by not getting back on defense quick enough. With all the training, maybe this year they will place first in their bracket and make all their fans proud.