Atlanta part ways with Bocanegra
Atlanta United have parted ways with vice president and technical director Carlos Bocanegra effective immediately. President and CEO Garth Lagerwey will assume Bocanegra’s duties on an interim basis for the remainder of the 2024 season. The search for the club’s next technical director is underway.
Miami Freedom Park to open in 2026
Inter Miami have released new renderings of Miami Freedom Park and plan to play home matches at the 25,000-seat soccer-specific stadium beginning in 2026. Since entering MLS in 2020, Inter Miami have played games at Chase Stadium in nearby Fort Lauderdale, Florida. But in two seasons, they're coming to Miami proper.
Atlanta United 1.0 featured massive crowds, a dynamic attack and the most impressive three-season run for an expansion team in MLS history. Don’t forget, even in an odd 2019 season, they brute-forced their way to the Eastern Conference Final and were a saved penalty plus two long-distance Toronto FC goals away from hosting MLS Cup presented by Audi for the second straight year.
It got bleak after that. The offseason heading into 2020 saw them lose Darlington Nagbe, Julian Gressel, Tito Villalba and Michael Parkhurst. Then, in the first game of the season, Josef Martínez tore his ACL. To recap, in the span of a few months, they lost: The best midfielder in MLS history, an elite wingback who’s stayed elite, one of the single most productive wingers in MLS history based on per-90 stats, an all-time great center back, and a striker coming off maybe the best three-year run in league history.
Parkhurst (retirement) and Josef (injury) were out of the club’s control. There were definitely ways Nagbe, Gressel and Villalba could have hung around, though. It didn’t help that none of the signings brought in to replace them were even close to their level. Since 2019, it’s been a steady stream of middling signings, worse results, frustrating injury luck and waning enthusiasm for the league’s biggest ticket seller.
That’s the very short version of how we got to yesterday. Carlos Bocanegra is officially out as Atlanta United’s vice president and technical director, three short months after they parted ways with head coach Gonzalo Pineda. The start-up years were special. Bocanegra deserves ample credit for that. Everything after has been a remarkable showcase of working against your own inertia. There are only so many times you can ask “Are Atlanta United back?” before realizing they indeed are not back.
Now, all the pressure is officially on club president and CEO Garth Lagerwey to deliver. There’s no permanent manager in place to scapegoat, and there’s no technical director to tweet about. It’s all on Lagerwey to sort this out. But there’s reason to believe you wouldn’t want anyone else doing the heavy lifting here. Lagerwey’s track record at Real Salt Lake and Seattle Sounders FC should speak for itself at this point. Now, he’ll get a chance to reshape the club as a whole in his image.
That will likely start with the club’s newest chief soccer officer. Atlanta don’t have a ton of time to waste there. Even if Lagerwey is technically taking over the position for the time being, he still has other responsibilities to deal with. Hiring a trusted CSO to help plan for the biggest offseason in the club’s history should be a priority. Given the small pool of candidates with a deep understanding of MLS roster mechanisms, Lagerwey’s experience working with and against those candidates, and Atlanta’s deep pockets, it sure seems like this will be the easiest step in a multi-step offseason.
They need a new CSO and a new permanent manager and two new Designated Players and will likely need two new U22s and will need to continue to do cosmetic surgery on the deeper parts of the roster that haven’t lived up to expectations so far. That’s a ton of work. But Atlanta United haven’t had this much flexibility since 2016, before they even entered MLS. The worst contracts of the 2.0 era have almost entirely disappeared. And what’s in place isn’t quite as bad as the standings have made things seem. The underlying numbers have remained solid – Atlanta have stayed unlucky – and several players should thrive with a little more cohesion and confidence.
Yesterday marked the official end of a wholly disappointing 2.0 era for Atlanta United. Now, they need to prove they’re not just too big to fail, but too competent to hit rock bottom. Lagerwey’s track record and the blankest canvas an eight-year-old team could have point to Atlanta United 3.0 being far more successful than their predecessor.
That’s all theoretical, though. There’s serious work to do. Let’s see if Atlanta United deliver.
Sporting KC transfer Pierre to Genk: Sporting Kansas City have transferred homegrown defender Kayden Pierre to Belgian top-flight side KRC Genk. Pierre reportedly departs for over $1 million. Sporting KC maintain a sell-on fee in the 21-year-old right back.
- Christian Benteke has become a leader at D.C. United.
- The Whitecaps see Stuart Armstrong as their "missing piece."
- A summer of change has created "astronomical" potential for Atlanta United.
- Oliver Larraz is climbing the Colorado Rapids' ranks.
- DeJuan Jones provided the Energy Moment of the Matchday presented by Celsius for Matchday 30.
- Power Rankings.
Good luck out there. See scoring opportunities everywhere.
