Atlanta United took to its home away from home and handed the Blue Cyclones a 3-0 loss to advance to the next round of the Concacaf Champions League on Tuesday. It was a fun and good win for Atlanta and showed glimpses of what the team is capable of even if it’s clear a few beats were still off. Still, it was a great match for Atlanta and a dominant win. If you don’t have it already, you’re going to need a surgical mask if you don’t want to catch it - time for #CCLFever!!!

Before all that there was one thing:

FEAR

Weird, that’s three centerbacks and two wing backs and two central midfielders and three forwards OH HELL IT’S THE 3-4-3 WE’RE DOOMED.

Atlanta wasn’t doomed though, it was awesome. This is obviously a really good sign for the start of the year. The 3-4-3 never really worked in 2019 and the result was a team with an inconsistent identity. This time worked, and did it ever...

Atlanta was never even really bothered by anything Motagua did when they had possession. The away team was too in awe of Pity Martinez getting really good looks on goal but then hitting his shots... well, a lot of places that weren’t the goal. Until he did hit one that went in. The rest was Atlanta dominating, getting a second goal as Motagua chased the game and a third to put everything to rest.

The team had it’s best match in FdB’s system, in fact the team is now drawing comparisons to Bayern Munich from Fox Sports graphics producers.

For the most part, the story of the night was PB&J with Peanut stealing the show. Pity finally is showing what fans thought he’d be in 2019 - something he acknowledged after the game:

Give us all of the trophies now please, book the trip to Magic City, schedule the parade, and build the statue.

Retweet of the night by me:

Prekrap

Did you thiNk it was going away? It is - but here’s what AtlaNta UNited has to look forward to agaiNst Nashville SC... Yep, it’s MLS castoffs, guys who are past their prime, weren’t that good to begin with and Lovitzes. They do have Walker Zimmerman, a player so good he’s with his third team in three years, and... a guy who played in the Danish league occupying their only DP spot. Aside from that... they have a Godoy? It might not be easy for Atlanta still, the team will be on short rest, it will be cold, and Nashville will be giving the Five Stripes their best shot. But Accam’s Razor tells us that Atlanta is better and should win this one... except that the team is completely cursed for season openers. We do have evidence of the fact that magic is on Atlanta’s side this year since the team is playing so well that Josef has been offside a total of 0 times in two games, so maybe this will be the year Atlanta wins on opening day and can finally achieve its destiny of a perfect MLS season.