The New York Red Bulls (1-1-3, 6 pts.) finish their two-match road trip with a matchup against Atlanta United FC (3-1-1, 10 pts.) on Saturday, April 1 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV and New York Red Bulls Radio in English via TuneIn, the New York Red Bulls app, and NewYorkRedBulls.com.
Get to know the matchup in Keys to the Game, presented by Honda:
All About Almada
Atlanta midfielder Thiago Almada, who spent the offseason winning the World Cup with Argentina, has been lighting the league on fire offensively so far in 2023.
Almada has four goals and a league-leading four assists so far in only four appearances. He was the catalyst in Atlanta’s first win of the season, scoring two late goals in a 2-1 win over San Jose in the season opener.
In his latest appearance, he tallied two goals and two assists in a 5-1 thrashing of Portland.
Taking three points from Mercedes-Benz Stadium will most likely require shutting down Almada.
International Intrigue
Both Atlanta and New York will have key players returning from international team duty.
Atlanta suffered a 6-1 loss at Columbus last Saturday with multiple important pieces missing from the starting lineup, including Thiago Almada, Miles Robinson and Giorgos Giakoumakis. New York settled for a 1-1 draw at Charlotte without the likes of Cristian Cásseres Jr. and Cory Burke.
Who will play (and for how long) will be a key question heading into Saturday night’s match.
Full 90
After settling for a draw after a second-half equalizer at Charlotte on matchday five, head coach Gerhard Struber had an honest assessment of the performance.
"This is not the behavior I normally see from my boys in the second half," Struber said. "It was not what I expected. It was not what my team expected. We cannot be happy to fly home with one point from Charlotte."
Keeping the momentum going for a full 90 will go a long way towards securing New York’s first win on the road this season.
