Atlanta United Overview
Atlanta United Football Club is a professional American soccer club based in Atlanta, Georgia, that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. Founded on April 16, 2014, the club began MLS play in 2017 as the league’s twenty-second franchise and the first top-division professional soccer team based in Atlanta. Atlanta United is owned by Arthur Blank, co-founder of the Home Depot and principal owner of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, with Garth Lagerwey serving as club president and chief executive officer. The team plays its home matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where it has regularly set league attendance records and built one of the most passionate fanbases in North American soccer, known by the unofficial nickname “The Five Stripes.”
The club’s identity is defined by the colors black, red, and gold, by an attacking style developed under its first head coach, Gerardo “Tata” Martino, and by a supporters culture that treats the franchise as a year-round civic institution. Atlanta United captured the MLS Cup in 2018, added the U.S. Open Cup and Campeones Cup in 2019, and continues to operate a reserve team, Atlanta United 2, which moved from the USL Championship into MLS Next Pro in 2023.
Founding and Organizational Origins
Atlanta was the largest metropolitan area in the United States without an MLS franchise when the league began serious discussions about expansion there in the early 2010s. Arthur Blank and his AMB Sports and Entertainment Group originally submitted an MLS expansion bid in 2008, but withdrew it in early 2009 because of state and local government budget shortfalls and an inability to secure partners for a new stadium. Talks resumed after the Atlanta Thrashers of the National Hockey League relocated to Winnipeg in 2011, and MLS Commissioner Don Garber repeatedly named Atlanta among the league’s most intriguing future markets between 2012 and 2014.
The breakthrough came through stadium financing. In March 2013, the City of Atlanta and the Atlanta Falcons finalized financing terms for a new retractable-roof venue, and the Georgia Department of Economic Development approved thirty million dollars in bonds for the land purchase. With that infrastructure secured, negotiations accelerated, and on April 16, 2014, Blank announced that MLS had awarded an expansion franchise to his group, with play set to begin in 2017. The team was officially named Atlanta United Football Club on July 7, 2015, after supporters were surveyed for preferred terminology.
Growth Into MLS Competition
Atlanta United spent its first two seasons building the operational backbone of an MLS club, including a youth academy that began play in the 2016–2017 U.S. Soccer Development Academy season and a thirty-three-acre training complex in Marietta. The Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Training Ground, a sixty-million-dollar facility with six outdoor fields and a thirty-thousand-square-foot headquarters, opened on April 11, 2017, and remains the club’s daily home.
The club also invested heavily in its supporter base before its first match, with the Terminus Legion supporters group tracing its origins to 2011 and Footie Mob established in 2014. By December 2015, the franchise had already collected more than twenty-nine thousand paid season-ticket pledges. On the technical side, Gerardo Martino was hired as the club’s first head coach, and club executives paired the Argentine manager with a young roster that included striker Josef Martínez and attacking midfielder Miguel Almirón, both of whom would become foundational players in the team’s first era.
Atlanta United Competitive Journey
Atlanta United’s competitive arc has unfolded in three distinct phases: an explosive inaugural era under Martino that produced the 2018 MLS Cup, a turbulent stretch from 2019 through 2025 marked by coaching turnover and roster churn, and the beginning of a second Martino era in 2026. Throughout, the club has remained one of MLS’s most visible brands and a consistent benchmark for league-wide attendance.
Early Seasons and Development (2017–2018)
Atlanta United opened its MLS account on March 5, 2017, with a 2–1 home loss to the New York Red Bulls at Bobby Dodd Stadium in front of 55,297 fans, a match in which Yamil Asad scored the first goal in club history. The team earned its first victory one week later, beating fellow expansion side Minnesota United 6–1 on the road, and its first home win on March 18, 2017, a 4–0 result against the Chicago Fire. After moving into Mercedes-Benz Stadium in September 2017, Atlanta set league records for single-match and average attendance, finished tied for third in the Eastern Conference, and became only the third MLS expansion team to reach the playoffs in its debut season.
In the 2018 season, Atlanta finished second in the Eastern Conference and second in the Supporters’ Shield standings, then advanced through the playoffs with wins over New York City FC and the New York Red Bulls to reach MLS Cup 2018. On December 8, 2018, the club defeated the Portland Timbers 2–0 in front of 73,019 spectators, the largest non-doubleheader crowd in league history, delivering Atlanta its first major professional sports championship since the Atlanta Braves’ 1995 World Series title. Josef Martínez was named MLS Most Valuable Player, Martino earned Coach of the Year honors, and the victory qualified Atlanta for the 2019 CONCACAF Champions League.
Breakthrough in MLS (2018)
Atlanta’s first major turning point arrived in just its second MLS season, when the club lifted the MLS Cup trophy on December 8, 2018. The championship run combined a high-tempo, vertical attacking style with the league’s most prolific scorer in Josef Martínez, who broke the MLS single-season goals record that year with 31 goals. Martino’s 4-2-3-1 formation, anchored by midfield creators Miguel Almirón and Darlington Nagbe, gave Atlanta a clear tactical identity and set a standard that the club has measured itself against ever since.
The breakthrough extended beyond the field. Atlanta broke MLS single-match attendance records three separate times during the 2018 regular season, became the first MLS team to average more than 50,000 fans per game with a 53,002 average, and signed a new primary kit sponsorship deal with Adidas in February 2019 that introduced the popular “Star and Stripes” design. The Cup run also marked the first time an Atlanta-based professional sports franchise won a major North American league championship in more than two decades.
Modern Program and Current Direction (2019–Present)
The post-championship era has been defined by frequent coaching change and aggressive roster turnover. Martino departed to manage the Mexico national team, and Frank de Boer took over, winning the U.S. Open Cup and Campeones Cup in 2019 before being dismissed in 2020 amid a winless run at the MLS is Back Tournament. Gabriel Heinze was appointed after the 2020 season and fired in July 2021 after a club-record eight-game winless streak. Gonzalo Pineda then led the club from August 2021 until June 2024, when he was dismissed following a five-match home losing streak.
On November 6, 2025, Atlanta United announced that Gerardo Martino had returned as head coach on a two-year contract through 2027, marking the start of a second Martino era. In the same offseason, long-time goalkeeper Brad Guzan retired as the club’s all-time appearances leader, and Emmanuel Latte Lath arrived from Middlesbrough for a reported twenty-two million dollars, the largest incoming transfer in MLS history at the time. Following a fourteenth-place Eastern Conference finish in 2025, the franchise also parted ways with head coach Ronny Deila and reshaped the roster around new signings such as Tomás Jacob and Lucas Hoyos.
Philosophy and Competitive Strengths
Atlanta United has consistently favored a front-foot, attack-minded identity built around quick vertical transitions, dominant wing play, and a strong central striker. Under Martino’s original system the team pressed aggressively and created chances through Almirón’s dribbling and Martínez’s finishing, and that stylistic DNA continues to shape recruitment decisions. The franchise’s deep investment in its academy and reserve team is also designed to ensure that homegrown talent remains central to the team’s long-term identity.
Key Milestones and Major Moments
Major milestones include the club’s first MLS match on March 5, 2017, the first Mercedes-Benz Stadium match on September 10, 2017, the 2018 MLS Cup victory, and the 2019 U.S. Open Cup and Campeones Cup wins. Atlanta has repeatedly broken MLS single-match and average attendance records, including a 73,019 crowd at MLS Cup 2018, and set a then-league transfer record by selling Thiago Almada for a reported twenty-two million dollars plus add-ons in 2024.
Atlanta United Achievements and Results
Atlanta United is a one-time MLS Cup champion, one-time U.S. Open Cup champion, and one-time Campeones Cup champion, accomplishments that the club accumulated within its first three seasons of existence. The franchise has also recorded a single Eastern Conference championship, qualified for multiple MLS Cup Playoffs, and represented the league in the CONCACAF Champions League.
MLS Achievements
Atlanta United’s most significant MLS honor is the 2018 MLS Cup, won with a 2–0 victory over the Portland Timbers at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The club has reached the MLS Cup Playoffs in multiple seasons, including a 2017 berth as an expansion team, a 2018 championship run, a 2021 appearance that ended in the first round against New York City FC, and a 2024 run that included an upset of Supporters’ Shield winner Inter Miami before a loss to Orlando City. Josef Martínez’s 31-goal 2018 campaign set a single-season scoring record that still defines the franchise’s offensive standard.
Conference Achievements
Atlanta United captured the Eastern Conference championship in 2018 as part of its MLS Cup-winning season and has regularly finished among the conference’s top sides. The club posted a second-place Eastern Conference finish in 2018 and has recorded top-half finishes in several subsequent seasons, including a sixth-place result that carried it into the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs. Conference play has also produced some of the franchise’s most intense rivalries, particularly with fellow Eastern Conference member Orlando City SC.
Divisional Achievements
Within the Eastern Conference, Atlanta United has produced several standout divisional campaigns, including the 2018 Supporters’ Shield runner-up season in which the club finished second overall in MLS. The team has also reached the U.S. Open Cup Round of 32 as defending champion in 2022 and qualified for the Leagues Cup group stage that same year, marking its first appearance in that competition.
Series Achievements
Atlanta United’s deepest in-league series memory is the 2018 MLS Cup run, which featured postseason wins over New York City FC and the New York Red Bulls before the championship match against Portland. The club’s 2024 playoff series against Inter Miami, in which Atlanta erased a first-match loss to take the best-of-three series, ranks among the franchise’s most significant league achievements of the post-MLS Cup era.
