Rebuilds in MLS often deliver immediate success after spending heavily and acquiring high-profile players. The present initiative by Atlanta United is not like that. It has been dirty, long-suffering and sometimes downright painful to behold. The Five Stripes’ decision after a 2025 season that left observers doubting all that they believed they knew about their club was more of an acknowledgement rather than a strategy, and the club had to start all over again.
The Bottom Rock That Made a Difference
The 2025 campaign cannot be characterized as a bad season. There was no one who did not know that it was the worst in the history of the club. Five wins. A defence which could not be ahead of. A group that seemed to be unfocused on the field each week. Ronny Deila was sacked, yet an issue was involved that went beyond any one coach. The club had spent a lot of money, got names and nothing to show for it as it was left there almost at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
Deciding to reintroduce Tata Martino was not that easy. This was the man who constructed Atlanta as a new city in 2017, who made an expansion club MLS Cup champions in 2018, and who had since then made Inter Miami the Messi era. and to recall him was a word–not out of nostalgia, but out of purpose. The club had to get somebody who had done this previously, this city, this fanbase.
Creating Something Which Could Stand a Chance
This was not to be a glamour window. Atlanta was not willing to pursue a marquee signing to cover the cracks. They instead went to work on the aspect of the team that had disgraced them the most, the defence. Lucas Hoyos, an Argentine goalkeeper, was brought in to calm and provide leadership in the posts. With the realization that they would take time to get to know each other, young centre-backs Tomas Jacob, Enea Mihaj, and Juan Berrocal were introduced. These were not names of the names of back pages. They comprised components of a building.
Most importantly, the club retained what they were good at in the first place. The player doing the attack back home, where he was making his first mark in the club, is Miguel Almiron, who plays with the same vigour that the Mercedes-Benz stadium was made to rejoice. Alexey Miranchuk and Saba Lobjanidze bring about innovation and surprise in their surroundings. The juxtaposition between the rebuild – protect our side, count on the enemy being entrenched already – is reasonable in a sense where some of the old Atlanta windows had not been replaced.
The Slack, Faithful Indications of Improvement
In 2026, there have been mixed results. Atlanta continues to languish at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, and no one is fooling anybody. However, it is one thing to have a bad team, and another to have a team under construction and at present, that is what the Five Stripes are experiencing. It is no longer a frantic, chaotic and defensive situation as it was in 2025. The buildup play possesses form. The pressing is no idle thing.
Players have come out publicly to express that they have clarity of their roles for the first time. That may not be much, that would be an entire season of dressing room blahming, as it were.
What Still Needs to Happen
The way of the world is not as straight. Consistency – turning good performances into wins – is hard to come by. The new defensive associations are yet to establish the type of instinctual trust that can only be established with time and experience. And this summer, Mercedes-Benz Stadium is a World Cup host, which means that Atlanta will have a season of away games, at a time when the rebuild is most in need of momentum. Maintaining a squad over that period of time without dropping the thread will be the challenge that Martino will have to face as much as anything.
The reconstruction is not completed. It may not even be halfway finished. However, unlike in recent years, Atlanta United have a sense of direction as a club, as opposed to a club that zigzags through disappointments. Unless the front office becomes impatient and decides to part ways with Martino, the groundwork that is currently getting done may be vital.
The Five Stripes are yet to be back to 2018. But to those who remained until the end and went through all that 2025 had to offer, the fact that the direction has finally become right is nothing. It could simply be all.
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