Jennifer Buchanan-USA TODAY Sports
Whenever the Seattle Sounders and Atlanta United meet, it’s a chance for arguably the two biggest clubs in MLS to measure up one another. Right now, the Sounders are on the ascent while Atlanta is trying to recover from a disastrous 2020 in which they fired their coach after just five games and finished outside the playoffs for the first time in their history
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Atlanta United is off to a somewhat promising, if still uneven, start. They’re 2-1-2 and in the thick of the playoff race, coming off an emotional win last week in which they found the game winner in the dying moments to send a crowd of 40,000 into delirium. That may be covering for what has otherwise been an inauspicious start to the Gabriel Heinze era, in which they’ve dominated possession but struggled to score.