Training Ground Notebook: "Why would I go looking outside for what I already have at home?"
- Jason Longshore
- 8 minutes ago
- 7 min read
Tata Martino on a needed win in Toronto, an academy midfield averaging 20 years old, and what Tristan Muyumba is building at the six.
The mood at Atlanta United's training ground on Monday was different, and Tata Martino did not pretend otherwise.
"It's a big difference," he said. "We had been searching for this result for various games, and we were finally able to get it."
Then he paused on it for a moment longer, because for Martino, the Toronto result meant more than three points. It meant the club had not slid past a dangerous threshold. He had watched Atlanta go close against New England, hold the lead, and let it slip. Another match nearly in hand, not taken. There is a point in a run like that where close stops feeling promising and starts feeling like a pattern.
"When you lose matches where the opponent is better than you, that's one thing," he said. "But when you start losing the matches that you almost had, you're very close to the bottom. Getting out of Toronto, on the road, against a team that had gone a long time without losing, that was very important. The mood changes."
He was careful to put a ceiling on it. "It's not going to change our lives automatically," he said. "But it has a lot to do with continuing to believe in what we're doing."
Three wins, three ways
One of the more interesting threads from Martino's press availability was his read on what Atlanta's three wins this season have in common, and what they say about where this group is going.
The Philadelphia game was about attacking space and punishing a high defensive line. Chattanooga was an exercise in doing the professional thing against a lesser opponent on the road. Toronto was a grinding, even match settled in the big moments. Three different games. Three different answers. Martino's point was that the common thread ran underneath all of them.
"In all three matches, from my point of view, we found ways to be better than the opponent," he said. "And we have a proposed way of playing, but we don't resist having answers for any situation that comes up in a match."
He illustrated that with a breakdown of the Toronto match. A Cayman Togashi run in the first half was called back offside, but it was connected to something Atlanta had specifically prepared. "We talked about it in the tactical meeting before the game," Martino said. "We wanted to see runs in behind their back four. Cayman did a good job finding the space, even if he was ruled offside." The long ball from Stian Gregersen to spring that run was also deliberate, not a departure from the team's style. "It's not that we want to change the style and just play a lot of long balls," Martino said. "We want to maintain the style, but playing into space is another option. It's good when a team has different options."
The opener came from Alexey Miranchuk's free kick, and Tristan Muyumba had a front-row seat for the buildup to it. He and Juan Berrocal were both hovering over the ball, each making their case. "We work a lot after training on set pieces and free kicks," Muyumba said. "Sometimes we try to be a little competitive with each other about it." Miranchuk was not in the mood for a debate.
"He was like, it's mine," Muyumba said. "So I said okay. And when he stepped up (and scored), he says, 'I told you.' I was like, yeah, you told me."
The second goal was the one Martino described with some satisfaction. Roughly 20 passes, central midfielders involved, the right back involved, the wide players involved, a midfielder arriving into the box with numbers around him.
"That one has more to do with our team's shape," he said. "But that doesn't mean we're going to give up the chance to play into space when we have it."
He also pointed to a stretch after Toronto scored their goal as something worth noting. Atlanta kept the ball in Toronto's half, controlled the tempo, and took the wind out of the home crowd. That, too, was deliberate. There were also moments, he acknowledged, where Atlanta lost that control more than he wanted. The progress is real. So are the rough edges.
The midfield at 20 years old
Martino spent a meaningful stretch of his availability talking about the midfield, and the numbers he cited are important to keep in mind.
Atlanta is regularly starting two of its three central midfielders that developed in the academy. Jay Fortune and Cooper Sanchez both started in Toronto and have regularly been in the rotation, and Martino's view is that what they are doing is uncommon anywhere in the league, not just here.
"There are not many teams in this league that play with two of their three midfielders from the academy, averaging 20 years old," he said. "I'm not talking about just any young players in the eleven. I'm talking specifically about the midfield positions, where you're playing with three players and two of them are from the academy and average 20 years old. That's not common."
He put it in context of his first time in Atlanta, when the club's youth system was in its earliest stages. The options simply weren't there. "We had Carleton, Goslin, maybe one or two others," he said. "Today, Atlanta is a club that has done a lot of work in the youth system, very good work. So you arrive and you find players like Will, like Jay, like Cooper in the midfield."
"Why would I go looking outside for what I already have at home?"
His comparison of Tristan Muyumba and Will Reilly at the six position was pointed. "They're different," he said. "Tristan has better technique, and Will is more aggressive. There are matches where we need better buildup, and matches where we need more aggressiveness." He was generous about Muyumba's career and experience, while making clear that Reilly still has significant runway.
"Will has a lot more room to keep growing and keep learning," he said. "If he can start getting into position to face forward more quickly, so that his passes are always going forward, he has a lot of potential in that position."
Then he added the thing that is hardest to develop: "He has a quality that isn't easy to find. He's very intelligent."
Muyumba, the six, and a baby on the way
Tristan Muyumba's goal on Saturday was the kind of run Martino has been asking his midfielders to make. He watched Cooper Sanchez drive forward, followed the play, found the space in behind, and Fafà Picault picked him out with a ball that made the finish look easier than it was. One touch. Back of the net.
"I saw the space in front of me," Muyumba said. "Cooper drove the ball forward, he passed to Fafà , and Fafà sent me a beautiful pass. I just took my opportunity, and fortunately it went in."
The celebration that followed saw Muyumba grab the ball and stick it under his shirt, and on Monday he confirmed what it meant. His wife is pregnant. They are expecting their first child.
"She's pregnant, so we're waiting for a baby," he said. "We were happy to share that with the team and with everyone now."
Beyond the goal and the announcement, the more substantive conversation around Muyumba was about the role itself. He has played the six position several times now and has been candid throughout that playing as a lone pivot is not where he has spent most of his career. He's figuring it out in real time, in real matches.
His most useful answer came when someone asked what the most important lesson has been.
"It's about being proactive," he said. "When your team is attacking, sometimes you feel like you're not involved in the play. But you have to stay involved, because if we lose the ball, the players on the other side are going to be switching toward you. So it's about staying positionally aware and also helping protect what's behind you."
He added, carefully: "I'm not going to say I'm still learning, because I've played this position before. But I'm creating more habits now. We've played a couple of games in a row in this position, which I enjoy."
Martino, for his part, said he values what Muyumba is offering beyond the obvious.
"He contributes a lot of quality," he said. "He's a player who understands the demands of each moment in the game very well. He's not used to playing as a lone six, and that's why we appreciate the effort he's putting in, because it goes beyond just having the ball and playing, which he does very well. It also involves the balls he wins, the friction he creates, always within his limits. And he's shown that when he can get forward, he can get to goal."
The midfield as a collective
One of the threads Muyumba returned to more than once was the interchangeable nature of the midfield group. Fortune can play six or eight. Cooper Sanchez can play six or eight. Muyumba can play six or eight. That flexibility is not accidental, and Muyumba sees it as a genuine asset.
"We can interchange through the game," he said. "It depends on the situation, on the action. We all have the ability to play as a six or as an eight, and it can be a strength in how we move through a match. When I pushed forward to get to the box, Jay was there to cover the six position. That's something we'll build on."
His relationship with the younger players in the group is something he talked about with obvious warmth.
"Those guys are my boys," he said. "Jay is on my left, Will is on my right, and now Cooper is next to Will. We have a really good relationship. We talk a lot on the field, outside the field. Even when it's not about football, sometimes we talk about life."
He was also honest about what he sees in them. "They want to learn. They don't want to be passive and just let the season happen. They want to play, they want to compete, and they're ready to compete at this level. Which is good for the team."
And then, on the news of the baby coming: "They're going to be uncles."
Atlanta United is on the road tomorrow night facing Charlotte FC in the US Open Cup Round of 16. Coverage begins on Star 94 and the Audacy app at 7pm with Mike Conti and me on the call.