The cities of Atlanta and Charlotte are separated by less than 250 miles. It’s a straight shot down Interstate 85. The buildup to this newfound Southern derby saw both the social media teams of Atlanta United and Charlotte FC taking jabs at each other.
Bragging rights were at stake, but Atlanta United held firm that they were the true kings of the South. Golden paper crowns were handed out as fans entered Atlanta United’s state-of-the-art Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday afternoon. The home supporters wore them proudly, but after Charlotte’s 3-2 win, which was Atlanta’s fifth consecutive loss at home, a procession of men, women and children exited the stadium feeling more like court jesters than Southern royalty.
The next day, head coach Gonzalo Pineda was relieved of his duties. Another loss at home had sunk Atlanta United toward a new low.
Once a fortress for the club and an intimidating ground for visiting MLS teams, Atlanta United’s home stadium has lost its luster as Atlanta United has become a middle-of-the road team. Six years after winning an MLS Cup and revolutionizing the league, Atlanta United is now accustomed to hitting rock bottom. Once the shining example of MLS’ aggressive expansion model, the club has become synonymous with underachieving.
To fire the coach who is responsible for the team’s performances on match day was an obvious move by Atlanta United president and CEO Garth Lagerwey. On Monday, Lagerwey spoke about the opportunity that interim manager Rob Valentino will have moving forward.
“If you believe we have a good team,” Lagerwey told reporters, “then with a new voice or the new start, that team should start accruing points at a higher level. And again, if it doesn’t, then we need to spend more time really evaluating what are the root causes of that.”
Valentino will be given every chance to succeed. Depending on the results through the end of the season, Valentino could be a name that’s added to the list of possible successors to Pineda. However, it would be an unnecessary gamble for Lagerwey. He has bided his time in reorganizing Atlanta United’s sporting department. It’s unlikely that Lagerwey will bank the future of the club, and his legacy as the organization’s chief soccer decision maker, on another unproven head coach.
“From day one here, I was evaluating what was real and what was fantasy,” Lagerwey said on Monday. “And you know, we haven’t made the progress so far that I’d hoped. I think that is a reality.”
Lagerwey has allowed things to play out in Atlanta. That pragmatic approach to organizational change management has come to define him as an MLS executive. It means that there is very little chance that Lagerwey will commit the same mistakes that were made by his predecessor Darren Eales, and the club’s current sporting director, Carlos Bocanegra.
Eales and Bocanegra can be credited with engineering one of the most successful launches in MLS expansion history. They also hired and fired two head coaches (Frank de Boer and Gabriel Heinze) in a span of two years and millions of dollars spent on player signings have failed to deliver any success since 2018. Eales and Bocanegra, in spite of their efforts to steward the club, have contributed to Atlanta United’s precipitous drop from the elite levels of MLS.
Lagerwey, though, placed the responsibility of the current state of the club on himself.
“I think whenever you change coaches, it is on some level an organizational failure,” Lagerwey said. “My responsibility as president/CEO is to support any head coach and to try to give him the tools, the resources he needs to succeed. Ultimately, the responsibility for a change like this falls on me.”
In other words, it’s time for Lagerwey to fix Atlanta United. The club’s problems have persisted for several years now. Lagerwey was hired in late 2022 and was tasked with stabilizing an organization that was teetering. Atlanta United’s immediate success out of the gate in 2017 and 2018 was followed by successive years of massive disappointments.
Lagerwey at his first Atlanta United press conference in 2022. (Photo courtesy of Atlanta United)
“There was definitely a start-up mentality here,” Lagerwey told The Athletic in March of last year. “There was literally a start-up boom and a start-up bust. What we’re trying to do right now is just level things out and say, ‘How do we operate this company now in a sustainable manner going forward so that we stay out of those cycles?’ The way you do that is to corporatize.”
Unlike many corporate takeovers, Lagerwey did not clean house as his first order of business when he arrived in Atlanta. And perhaps that’s because long-term stability is the ultimate goal for Lagerwey as Atlanta United’s CEO. But the writing is on the wall for those within Atlanta United’s corridors who have allowed the club to linger in a state of mediocrity.
Last summer, Lagerwey’s data-driven process for player recruitment resulted in new signings that addressed some of Atlanta United’s most problematic parts of the field. Namely, effective wing play, midfield solidity and a stingier backline.
Still, Atlanta United is in 13th place in the Eastern Conference, having claimed 16 points from the same number of games. If Pineda was the problem, the logical outcome moving forward would be a noticeable improvement from match to match. But professional sports aren’t an exact science. Lagerwey referred to this season as “probably the most frustrating chapter of my career.”
“We are all on notice in the second half of the season,” said Lagerwey. “Let’s be honest. We changed a number of the players over the last two transfer windows. Now we’ve changed the coach. It’s incumbent upon us now to go on the field and prove (our ambition), go out there and win games, dig in and be gritty and and fight and scratch and claw and be committed to the club. That’s what it’s going to take to turn this season around again.”
If the problems extend beyond the touchline and who is giving the players instruction, then Lagerwey will have a more complicated situation to rectify. Firing Pineda indirectly puts Bocanegra in a spotlight that he’d rather avoid.
The former U.S. men’s national team captain had a prominent role, along with Eales, in hiring Pineda. Bocanegra is also the chief soccer officer who is most responsible for talent identification. It’s his roster that has underperformed. Lagerwey felt that making a change at the top of the sporting department “didn’t make sense” with a summer transfer window looming.
But if Valentino can’t light a fire under this team, then it’s evident that the current roster is not as talented as initially thought. Additionally, the players must be held accountable for the current state of the team. A frustrated Lagerwey on Monday pointed to the team’s lack of resilience. He also called Atlanta United “a paradise” created by owner Arthur Blank.
“It’s one thing to be grateful for it, and it’s another to earn it,” said Lagerwey.
The disparity has gradually widened between Atlanta United’s product on the field and the club’s premium facilities and multi-billion dollar valuation. The swagger and brash attitude that defined the club’s personality during its height in 2018 has been replaced with a tendency to buckle under the slightest pressure. Atlanta’s thick skin and championship mentality seem like a distant memory.
Pineda was unable to restore the image that Atlanta had created after launching. His squads were often riddled with injuries, but on the whole, Pineda couldn’t elevate a group of players who have been given everything they could ask for in order to succeed.
“We’re trying to avoid starting all over, and that’s why we’ve made the change that we’ve made now, and hopefully it’s enough to right the ship and get us going the right direction,” Lagerwey said. “Because again, we believe that the guys in that locker room are capable of better results.”
Atlanta United has been reset and rebooted several times since 2019. During that period, the club has not advanced past the first round of the playoffs. Players have come and gone. Different coaches have implemented their philosophies, taking their ideas with them through the club’s back door. Rightfully, Lagerwey reiterated to reporters that the entire sporting department, including the performance and medical staff, are under evaluation.
There will be several stakeholders involved in hiring the next head coach. It was understood, though, that Bocanegra, who is under contract through 2025, will not play as prominent a role in the selection of Atlanta United’s next manager.
“I’m going to lead (the coaching search) personally,” Lagerwey said. “I will be doing the research and (the coaching committee) will ultimately make a recommendation to Arthur Blank, and we’ll see what direction he wants to go. We’re going to take our time. We’re going to be very thorough in our evaluation of the next coach.”
In the interim, Atlanta United, and those inside the building, must accept their reality as an ambitious institution that has mismanaged its potential.
(Top photo: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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