• Matchday 6: New York City FC vs Atlanta United FC
• Date and Time: Saturday, March 29, 7:40 pm ET
• Venue: Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, GA
• Forecast: The Benz has a roof, no weather in there, forecast calls for "air conditioning."
• Watch: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV
• Apple Broadcast Team: Tyler Terens and Kyndra de St Aubin (English), Jorge Perez-Navarro and Marcelo Balboa (Spanish)
• New York City FC Radio: Glenn Crooks and Matty Lawrence (English), Roberto Abramowitz and Ariel Judas (Spanish)
• Officiating Crew: Filip “However” Dujic (referee), Andrew Bigelow and Rhett Hammil (assistant referees), Alexis Da Silva (fourth official), Daniel Radford (VAR), Kyle Atkins (assistant VAR)
• Kits: New York City will be in the light blue Excelsior Kit, still their only kit worn in 2025; Atlanta will be in the black-and-red striped Connector Kit
New York City FC goes down to Georgia and for the first time faces off against the man who led the club to the MLS Cup win in 2021, Ronny Deila, and his big-spending Atlanta United FC.
It's been a scuffle for Atlanta United since winning their very first match under Deila, with the team winless in four (0 W-2 D-2 L) and stuck down in 12th place in the Eastern Conference. New York City is unbeaten in three and off to the third-best start in club history but has beaten Atlanta on the turf at Mercedes-Benz Stadium only once in eight previous trips.
New York City gets a boost with the end of the FIFA international window, as striker Alonso Martínez returns from Costa Rica duty (where he scored a banger, by the way) and should be ready to lead the line once again for Pascal Jansen's side. It's been two straight games without New York City conceding a goal to an opponent, and Matt Freese would be basking in back-to-back clean sheets if not for that Thiago Martins own goal vs. New England.
Keeping that goal-free streak alive away vs. Atlanta won't be easy, since Deila's team recently added $22 million striker Emmanuel Latte Lath and re-added 2018 MLS Cup winner Miguel Almirón for $10 million.
New York City vs Atlanta H2H
| GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 27 | 21 | 6 |
These two teams love a draw, evenly matched when meeting over the last few seasons. The last four meetings between New York City and Atlanta ended tied, with the historic head-to-head nearly level though slightly leaning in New York City's favor with one more win and six more goals scored.
The two draws in 2024 struck a perfect "draw that feels like..." balance for New York City FC. The 1-1 at Citi Field on April 6 felt more like a loss, a game NYCFC should have won (via Santi Rodríguez PK) and led until the 65th minute, but one that also saw Atlanta have numerous good chances, while only converting one.
Back in Atlanta at the Benz on July 17, an injury-depleted NYCFC earned a "three-point draw," clawing a point back despite falling behind 1-0 after 21 seconds and facing a 2-0 deficit until the 65th minute. In that 65th minute, Mounsef Bakrar scored a rare goal, one minute after Talles Magno made an even rarer appearance off the bench as a sub. In his last goal for NYCFC before the move to Corinthians, Talles converted a penalty in the 82nd minute to bring things level and secure that point.
That's two of the eight draws these teams have played to since Atlanta's debut in 2017, tied for the second-most draws NYCFC has against any opponent. They've tied each of Chicago Fire FC and New England Revolution eight times, while their 10 draws with Orlando City SC lead the pack – though all three of those teams have faced NYCFC many more times head-to-head than Atlanta.
Hudson River Blue Staff
New York City Scouting Report
• Player Availability: Andrés Perea (hip), Malachi Jones (leg), Jacob Arroyave (knee), and Tayvon Gray (leg) are officially out.
• Keaton Parks left the Columbus match injured after 35 minutes, though Pascal Jansen did say Parks returned to training on Thursday. It might be a stretch to expect the vital 27-year-old midfielder to be involved on the artificial turf at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, but his injury doesn't seem like a long-term one.
• Who starts on the wings? Julián Fernández and Hannes Wolf each had back-to-back matches with goal involvements in the two recent home wins at Yankee Stadium, but they both did little to threaten the Crew last weekend. Might Agustín Ojeda earn another chance in the Starting XI to finally exorcise his "lost his starter's spot" demon from showing up late to the Orlando City game?
• Early going, but New York City's defense has started strong while conceding just four goals through five games. That puts them inside the Top 10 for goals against league-wide, and this despite frequent shuffling of personnel due to injuries and suspensions – will Pascal Jansen keep his back line unchanged from the first 2025 clean sheet earned in Columbus?
• This clash with Ronny Deila will be the seventh time New York City has faced one of the club's former Head Coaches head-to-head in MLS play, though those past match-ups had much more interpersonal drama given they all pitted ex-coach Jason Kreis against his NYCFC replacement Patrick Vieira. NYCFC and Vieira went 3 W-0 D-3 L in those six matches against Kreis's Orlando City from 2016 to 2018.
• For more specifics on what Ronny's been up to with his new Atlanta team, read the latest Oppo Research in which our Matthew Mangam talks to Rob Usry of Five Stripe Final.
Matthew Mangam
