ATLANTA – Atlanta United defeated Chattanooga FC, 4-0, Saturday afternoon in front of 12,484 fans at Finley Stadium. Tito Villalba scored the club’s first-ever goal in the ninth minute, while Yamil Asad stunningly curled one into the upper corner in the 36th minute to give Atlanta a comfortable two-goal lead. Josef Martinez and Andrew Carleton added second half goals for the 4-0 win.
“I think we controlled the ball pretty well, that’s the idea we have,” Atlanta United head coach Tata Martino said. “When we can go vertical, we’d like to do it, when we have to hold the ball more, then we do that. The intention I think was pretty clear.”
Atlanta subbed out two players during the first half – Miguel Almiron and Jeff Larentowicz – and made additional wholesale changes in the second half. In all, 25 players saw the field for Atlanta United.
“At the moment I’m calm, and the feeling I have is that we have a group of players that entered in the second half that are going to make it pretty tough on the guys who played in the first half,” Martino said.
Atlanta United will return home to train at Flowery Branch this week. The next preseason match will be against Columbus Crew SC on Saturday, Feb. 18 – Atlanta’s first match in the Carolina Challenge Cup, held in Charleston, S.C. Atlanta will also play Seattle Sounders FC (Feb. 22) and Charleston Battery (Feb. 25). The club will open the regular season against New York Red Bulls on Sunday, March 5, at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2017/2/501188/atlanta-united-opens-preseason-with-impressive-4-0-win