Atlanta sink Shield-holding Philadelphia for first points of 2026
On 28 May 2025, Atlanta United thrilled their home fans with a stoppage-time winner against Orlando City. Jamal Thiaré’s match-winner pulled the club within five points of the playoff places after 16 games, and the team hoped to harness the momentum for a rosier second half of the season.
“In the second half, we were so dominant that they couldn’t cope with it,” head coach Ronny Deila told the media that day, no doubt still enraptured by adrenaline. “Being average is boring, so I want to see more personality, more togetherness, more energy, take our fantastic fans with us.”
Atlanta certainly wasn’t average from that point forward, although not quite according to Deila’s plan. The Five Stripes failed to win another match at Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the rest of the season, sinking to second-bottom in the year-end standings. Deila was sent packing after just one season, and Atlanta began a 290-day stretch of futility on home turf.
That streak was finally snapped on Saturday, giving Atlanta their first points of the second Tata Martino era. Emmanuel Latte Lath opened the scoring with his first league goal since 19 July 2025, while Tomás Jacob and Aleksei Miranchuk got the other two in a 3-1 win over the visiting Philadelphia Union.
The Union had plenty of chances to slow Atlanta’s roll, none better than a 42nd penalty kick with the score still 1-0. But Milan Iloski’s spot kick clanged off the post, and Philadelphia never recovered.
“There’s a lot of, I don’t want to say anxiety, but there’s a lot of that floating around, especially when things don’t go your way,” Union coach Bradley Carnell said afterwards. “It feels like every bounce is going to the opponent. How do you work that back in your favor? It’s by doing the basics really well, and we’re letting ourselves down with the basics right now.”
The loss leaves Philadelphia with some ignominious history: the first defending Supporters’ Shield winner to lose their first four games of the following season. While their 2025 win saw the lowest points total (66) of any Shield winner in a 34-game season since 2016 (FC Dallas, 60), this isn’t a simple case of regression or a post-trophy hangover. Few teams have been so eager to turn over so much of the lineup every offseason, part of the selling club ethos the Union have adhered to since appointing Ernst Tanner as sporting director in August 2018.
While Tanner remains away from the team due to the ongoing investigation that opened after the Guardian’s reporting on his alleged misconduct, last winter was much of the same. Kai Wagner, the league’s best left-back and a mainstay of Philadelphia’s lineup for over half a decade, was sold to Birmingham City for just over $2m. Tai Baribo, last year’s leading goalscorer, was sold to DC United for a guaranteed $4m. Their replacements (left-back Philippe Ndinga and striker Ezekiel Alladoh) arrived for similar fees, but both are just 20 years old and neither had previously played in MLS or a league of a similar quality.
For so long, the Union have gotten by with savvy recruitment and staunch commitment to developing players. And yet, Carnell doesn’t seem willing to play their latest rising star, Cavan Sullivan, for more than a handful of sparse minutes in league action. The 16-year-old has already agreed to join Manchester City when he turns 18, and is arguably the nation’s most promising prospect. On Saturday, he was an unused substitute despite offering the dynamism and on-ball creativity a struggling team like Philadelphia so desperately need.
Philadelphia are balancing multiple competitions: they are one of eight MLS sides that advanced to the Concacaf Champions Cup round of 16. Of their MLS peers in the bracket, all seven have at least one league win while six have earned at least four points from as many matches. While Carnell doesn’t want to call it anxiety, the Union have every reason to be sweating.
It ain’t over ‘til it’s over
Saturday’s games rewarded viewers who stuck around until the whistle blew. Three matches were decided by second-half stoppage time matchwinners, while another two sawequalizers after the 90th minute. Here they are, ranked in increasing order of impressing this writer.
5) Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting made certain that Red Bull New York left Toronto with a point, finishing a ’ corner kick in the 97th-minute. It was a dramatic conclusion to Michael Bradley’s return to BMO Field, the site of so many of his heroics across 10 seasons with Toronto FC. The 1-1 draw was probably just deserts for a very good performance from New York, but a cruel end to a fine shift from Toronto goalkeeper Luka Gavran.
4) DC United earned a latepenalty kick after a four-minute VAR check penalized Chicago Fire defender Jonathan Dean for handball. Despite the lengthy buildup, Baribo made no mistake, striking the ball to Chris Brady’s right to cap a 2-1 comeback victory in added time. No doubt, Philadelphia could have used their ex-striker’s penalty prowess earlier in Atlanta …
3) While FC Dallas’s squad still feels incomplete as the club reportedly chases a new playmaker, they’ll be tough to beat as long as Petar Musa leads the line. The Croatia international completed his hat-trick in the fifth minute of stoppage time, rewarding an ambitious upfield dribbling sequence by Bernard Kamungo to claim a point against a strong San Diego FC.
2) Mateusz Bogusz was the Houston Dynamo’s star signing this winter, and his first goal for the club came at a crucial time. Despite being down a man, the Dynamo found an awfully late winner when Bogusz blew through the Portland Timbers defense more than 15 minutes into stoppage time. More on the Portland side of this 3-2 thriller in the next section, but Bogusz and fellow new winger Guilherme have given the Dynamo a jolt early this year.
1) Hany Mukhtar made history in the fourth minute of stoppage time, giving Nashville a 1-0 win on the road. The strike was the 25,000th goal in MLS, another bit of league history made by the 2022 MVP. The real magic came from Cristian Espinoza, whose cutbacks in the box left Crew defender Rudy Camacho on his haunches. Espinoza continues to relish life on a top team, and Mukhtar repaid the Argentinian for his service with a pantomimed cleaning of his magic left boot.
Columbus are one of three teams without a win through four games, something that puts them in miserable company with Philadelphia and St Louis City SC.
Timberrrrrrrr
While Dynamo fans sang the name of Bogusz, the Timbers faithful were left to rue another bogus showing by their defense.
“I think the frustration is that, for all the good play, is that our structure, I thought, was fantastic,” Phil Neville said afterwards. “It was a couple of mistakes that really cost us. We’re going through a tough moment, and the dressing room is hurting. I take full responsibility for that. Them players are giving absolutely everything.”
Neville also called it a good moment for “a young team;” although none of his starters were under 22 and seven were 25 or older, including 39-year-old club legend Diego Chará. In truth, the structure seemed to be largely to blame despite some fine individual performances. While the Timbers narrowly won the possession balance with a 51.3% share, Houston were far more incisive with a 57.7% field tilt.
Throughout the game, Portland saw considerable space both vertically between the lines and horizontally across them. That made it more difficult to meaningfully build a head of steam on the ball, and created wide open spaces for the Dynamo to exploit when they regained possession. Bogusz’s winner doesn’t happen without those considerable gaps, though Brandon Bye’s dive at the lightest contact from the Polish winger did no favors.
It’s the third consecutive defeat for the Timbers. Now in his third season, Neville’s win rate of 35.3% through 85 games is even worse than his record at Miami, where he was dismissed just before Lionel Messi’s arrival (38.9%, 90 games). It’s an especially difficult moment for Portland considering both of their regional rivals are among the league’s best teams this season after each made cup finals in 2025.
Neville’s side will be sternly tested from now into early May with their next six games coming against teams expected to contend in the Western Conference.
Gil’s long-awaited running mate?
Since arriving in at New England Revolution in 2019, Carles Gil has been among the most dependable playmakers in MLS with 49 goals and 76 assists in 16,830 minutes. While he’s earned two Best XI nods, three All-Star appearances and was named MVP in 2021, much of his tenure has seen him left without a worthy creative complement to unpick opponents in the final third.
Perhaps Luca Langoni will finally be that running mate. The Argentinian was largely rotational under Caleb Porter after joining in 2024, but has started two of three games under new boss Marko Mitrović. Langoni rewarded his manager’s faith on Sunday, assisting on all three of the Revs’ first-half goals to open a 6-1 rout of visiting FC Cincinnati.
Langoni curled all three balls into the box with his right foot: first from a free kick, then a run-of-play cross, and finally a corner kick.
Already down 4-1, Gerardo Valenzuela – who opened all scoring for Cincinnati’s lone goal of the blowout – was sent off in the 69th minute for a stomp on an opponent’s ankle. The Revs made Cincinnati pay, capping their home opener with six goals – their most in a single game since September 2004.
Perhaps the only good news from Cincinnati’s perspective was that Evander went the distance in his first start after exiting the season opener with a tight hamstring. The Brazilian assisted on Valenzuela’s goal, building off of a pair of late-game substitute appearances in the previous week against Toronto and Tigres.
James debuts in a British Columbian bloodbath
The Vancouver Whitecaps rebounded from a midweek shock against Seattle in Concacaf Champions League play with a six-pack, bagging half a dozen goals to humble Minnesota United. Sebastian Berhalter was again at the heart of things, opening the scoring from the penalty spot and getting an assist before exiting around the hour mark. Fellow US international Brian White bagged a brace, pulling him level with Petar Musa (and one goal beyond João Klauss) in the golden boot race.
As Berhalter headed toward the sideline, his exit was overshadowed by the long-awaited debut of James Rodríguez. Minnesota’s new No 10 began forging relationships with his teammates while they were admittedly rattled, and checked in to considerable applause from many fans in Colombia jerseys as well as jeers from Vancouver’s supporters. While it was a result to forget, Rodríguez swapped shirts afterwards with current Vancouver Whitecap, and former Bayern teammate, Thomas Müller.
The win left Vancouver atop the Supporters’ Shield standings, ahead of LAFC on goal difference, while Minnesota dropped to 13th in the West.
