Written by Newspaper Staff Reporter Derek Oliveros
The MLS season is now under way, with the first games taking place this weekend. Georgia’s own Atlanta United FC played their first game of the season at home against Sporting Kansas City on Sunday, February 27th to a crowd of over 67,000. With many regular starters being out of the lineup, many new faces saw the starting lineup for the first time, Tyler Wolff and Andrew Gutman being two of them. Atlanta started off strong with Luis Araújo scoring the first goal of the season from a nice assist from Josef Martinez. Araújo unfortunately suffered from what appears to be a hamstring injury, so he was subbed off early for Dom Dwyer. The substitution ended up working in Atlanta’s favor as Dwyer was able to put in a goal as time expired in the first half, giving Atlanta a two-to-nothing lead heading into halftime. Atlanta continued to control the game for the second half but let in a goal late in the game. Atlanta was able to bounce back as Caleb Wiley showed off his athleticism to score his first goal of his MLS career to seal the Atlanta United victory. Wiley is one of Atlanta’s homegrown players, meaning he rose through the ranks of the Atlanta United Academy and earned himself a first-team roster spot. After a strong defensive performance, fullback Andrew Gutman was awarded with the first man of the match for Atlanta this season. Atlanta finished their home opener with a three-to-one victory against Sporting Kansas City to start the season off strong, and they look to continue their good form on March 5th against the Colorado Rapids.
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