Atlanta United’s Home Opener, MLS Matchday 3, and the NWSL’s Business Boom | Morning Espresso, 3.6

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The game never stops and neither do we.

This is Morning Espresso from the SDH Network.

We're always around the corner from everywhere.

Morning Espresso.

It's always brought to you by Oglethorpe University at Lanna's

premier undergraduate learning experience and soccer powerhouse.

I'm Jason Longshore.

Let's get you caught up on the soccer world heading into a very busy weekend

at every single possible level.

We will be talking about it calling it covering it on the SDH Network.

Let's start here in Atlanta at Lanna United.

Finally returns home on Saturday for game three of the 2026 MLS regular season.

Two losses on the road to start the year.

The five stripes will host Real Salt Lake at the bends on Saturday night.

Kick off set for 740, our pregame coverage on star 94 this time around.

We'll start at 630, Kevin Avery from the star 94 morning show.

We'll join Abe Gordon and Madison Cruz to get you ready for everything.

Mike Conti and I will take over for kickoff full time report to follow as usual.

It's been frustrating so far.

Two games, no goals, four goals conceded.

Listening to Tata Martino and an AMI high yesterday at the training ground.

The focus inside the locker room isn't panic.

It's been fundamentals and it's been I think reinforcing the way that this team plays.

Martino has been pretty blunt after the game in San Jose and yesterday.

He's not talking about finishing chances.

He's talking about how the team builds their game.

He's talking about the earlier phases of possession.

When Atlanta's build up is slow or predictable opponents get organized.

They make it difficult to progress.

Then Atlanta has to start sending long balls.

Then they get stretched out between their lines and opponents take advantage of that.

I talked about the San Jose game from the defensive side.

He said that it wasn't about how the team defended per se.

It's about how the team lost the ball and then had to defend and weren't maybe in the best positions to defend because of that.

Because you get into better defensive positions by having possession and staying organized by using the ball.

When the possession breaks down quickly and you have turnovers,

then defenders are in these transition situations.

And you're not controlling the game.

The other thing Tata said yesterday that was extremely clear and I hope no one missed it.

He's not changing who he is.

He's done this for a long time.

He's won in a lot of places.

He's won here.

He's not going to play a different style of soccer than he believes in.

Why would he?

That's not going to happen.

You hired him to be himself.

That's what he's going to be.

So this team has to continue to get comfortable to understand it, to trust it and to execute it.

That's the key.

They have to execute better.

Mihai talked about how the team has to take responsibility.

The players have to take responsibility for the performances.

It is on them.

Tata is giving them the guide.

They know what the guide is.

The guide's not going to change.

The players have to perform.

Atlanta's committed to it.

We're going to find out how it comes into this stress test against Real Salt Lake.

A team that's very good in transition moments.

A team that has won one and lost one so far.

They won it home over Seattle.

They lost on the road at Vancouver in the season opening weekend.

This is a young team that is very comfortable without the ball and very comfortable getting

out.

And as Pablo Master and he said, letting their jets run wild up top.

They've got speed.

Atlanta's going to have to be careful with the ball and be smart with the ball and

use it to control the match.

This is the first of four straight at the bins playing on grass for the first time at the

bins.

This is a huge opportunity for Atlanta United to turn things around and we'll all find

out together how they take that opportunity tomorrow night.

Let's go to London Tottenham Hotspur.

Oh man, their season took another turn yesterday.

Three one lost at home to Crystal Palace.

They are closer now to the Premier League relegation zone.

They entered the match sitting 16th.

They're only one point above the bottom three.

And they even took the lead in this one.

Dominic Solanki scored in the first half, but then everything came unraveled.

Mickey Vandenven with a very bad decision pulling back is Milasar inside the penalty

area.

Doug Soe and he didn't try to play the ball.

So it is a red and a penalty.

Soar converts the penalty after Vandenven is set off.

Palace into control.

Jorgan Strand Larson scored soon after.

Soar added a second one before half time.

Three one down at the break with 10 supporters leaving the stadium in London.

I mean, this has been really bad for Spurs.

They haven't won a league match since December.

They've only taken four points from 11 games in 2026.

They only have 12 points over their last 20 Premier League matches.

You go out and you bring in Igor Tudor to be the relegation resistor and they have

lost all three games since he took over.

They have no confidence.

It looks like there you have talent.

The players look like they don't believe it.

They look like they don't believe in themselves.

There's nine games left.

The schedule is very difficult.

They have time, but not that much and the schedule is going to test them.

It's a real possibility now that Spurs fall into this.

It's crazy.

You would have, even with last season, last season felt like a blip.

Even with that, I don't think anybody went into the season realistically thinking that

Spurs were going to be where they are right now.

How do they get out of it?

It's going to come down to belief.

I don't know if they have much of that right now.

In WSL, the valuations continuing to surge, the business side of the women's game is continuing

to accelerate.

New valuation report from Sportico yesterday, combined value of NWSL clubs that are on

the field right now, $2.6 billion, average team worth roughly $184 million.

That number has tripled since 2023.

Angel City lead the league with a valuation of $335 million.

If the City current follow at $315 million and in an interesting comparison, Kansas City

current have, according to reports out there, the largest revenue year to year of any professional

women's team in the United States, including the WNBA teams, they, because they own their

own facility, they have really started to take some huge strides in terms of where they

are as a business.

BASC San Diego Wave, they have passed the $200 million mark in terms of valuations.

The growth, I mean, this is crazy.

Just a couple of years ago, teams paid $2 million to enter the league.

Atlanta paid a whole lot more than that, three figures ahead of the million.

It's grown really, really fast.

And a lot of it, like I said about Kansas City, has come from that infrastructure investment,

our player spending, the CP KC Stadium privately financed their training facility in Kansas

City, one of the best business models in women sports.

The high impact player rule has allowed teams to spend more, including Trinity Rodman

staying in the league with Washington.

Expansion is interest also growing.

We know Atlanta's coming Columbus could be the team that comes in with them in 2028.

They are launching a bid to play in Columbus alongside the crew, would be very big.

And the league could even get to 32 teams down the road.

Business is booming in the NWSL, we'll continue to talk about it as their season and get started

next weekend.

Let's go to MLS, match day three, plenty of storylines.

You got DC United hosting Miami, but not in DC.

They're playing at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, should be a huge crowd.

Messi had an amazing second half last week against Orlando.

Miami was at the White House yesterday, and the less said about that, the better.

But we'll see how Miami handles everything in Baltimore, we'll see how DC handles everything

in Baltimore.

It's kind of a weird setup all the way around.

Another intriguing matchup comes in Columbus, the crew host Chicago to high-powered attacks.

Columbus under Henrik Rydstrom, they're still looking for their first win of the season.

Chicago arriving with momentum, they had a 3-0 win over Montreal.

I think Chicago is much further along, obviously, with Greg Burr-Holter, and what they want

to be.

And this is a really good Chicago fire team in 2026.

I think Columbus has a lot of potential, but with a new manager, even though he does

bit the profile that Wilfred Nazi left, it might take a minute.

It might take a little bit of patience in Columbus.

One day night, it's Cincinnati and Toronto, Toronto could debut, Josh Sargent, as big

money moved from North City, Chicago, or Cincinnati, sorry, hoping that Evander returns from injury

that he suffered in a week one against Atlanta.

Elsewhere around the league, New York City, they are unbeaten heading into their hosting

match with Orlando City, who have to be reeling a little bit after blowing a two-go lead

at half time against Miami.

Austin traveling to Charlotte, a matchup we've rarely seen.

Nashville hosting Minnesota to unbeaten teams, both with a win and a draw.

And the New York Red Bulls, the only two-win team in the Eastern Conference, they host Montreal,

who has not scored the season and has conceded eight.

Domestic focus, the U.S. women's national team, she believes Cup wraps up on Saturday.

Good feature over at usoccer.com about to sell Thompson.

She's emerged as a regular option for Emma Hayes during this tournament, starting both

of the opening matches, playing the full 90 in each.

The U.S. can win the, she believes Cup title with a win or a draw over Columbia in New

Jersey on Saturday afternoon.

Canada and Argentina will play the other match of the double-hutter.

Meanwhile, the 2026 Leagues Cup schedule has been announced.

It'll run from August 4th to September 6th.

Atlanta will not be in it this time around.

They are in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup instead.

It'll be 18 MLS teams and 18 Liga MX teams.

And the top three Liga MX teams will host games in Mexico for the first time in the

tournament's history.

There's also some movement, MLS ownership, former LASC star Carlos Vela has purchased

a minority ownership stake in the club following his retirement, part of a consortium getting

involved in that.

Since in Addie, they have added some goalkeeper depth Fabian Murosik is on loan from Liverpool.

Little surprising, because I don't know how much he's actually going to play, we'll

have to wait and see how that looks for FCC.

On the corner on the SDH network, John Nelson hosting SDH AM this morning starting at 905.

It's on YouTube.

It's on Twitch.

You can always catch it on demand as a podcast later in the day.

Miguel Gallardo from Apple TV's MLS broadcast team.

He joins the show at 10 o'clock, talking about what's going on all around the league.

John will also keep you up to date on the latest on the U.S.L. collective bargaining negotiations.

John beginning this weekend, New Deal not finalized as of recording time right now.

Stuff from around the world, Morocco continuing to baffle all of us.

Waleed Regraggie has officially stepped down.

It is all official now after this is dragged on for a month.

He said the national team needed a new lease on life and a fresh perspective.

Crazy timing and crazy that it took so long after the AFKON tournament.

Mohamed Awabi will take over the U20 World Cup winning coach.

He takes over the senior team ahead of the World Cup.

It's also announced yesterday after we talked about it on the espresso that the women's

African Cup of Nations has been postponed.

It was supposed to start on March 17th.

Now it's been postponed to July 25th due to, quote, unforeseen circumstances.

That's a lie.

These are these circumstances have been seen.

Just talk about it being maybe stress on the schedules for the stadiums and yada yada yada.

This tournament has been booked for a while.

It is absolutely ridiculous that this is happening less than two weeks.

This would not have happened with the men's AFKON.

This would not have happened with a men's tournament in any confederation.

It is a huge issue that this is happening less than two weeks before the tournament that

it's being pushed back to the summer.

I don't know if it's actually going to happen in the summer.

Usually, African Cup of Nations tournaments don't get played in the summer because of the

heat.

We will see.

I'm not believing it until it actually happens and I'm really frustrated with this because

the women's game has grown so much in Africa and there's so much more room to grow, but

it can't grow with things like this happening.

This is embarrassing for the African Confederation and it's got to change.

Also, let's stay in Morocco.

There's still news about Morocco to talk about.

Andres Niesta has been linked with a sporting director role with the national team.

There was even a press release drafted in under embargo ready to go out, but according

to reports, now the talks have reached.

After getting to an advanced stage, they have failed to complete it.

They've broken down after they failed to agree on salary terms.

Javi is also linked to the Morocco job after the World Cup now.

There was talk about it maybe taking it before.

So who knows what happens with all this, but after the World Cup, you could see two of

the greatest Spanish midfielders of all time in Andres Niesta and Shavi going to Morocco

to lead them into the World Cup in 2030.

In Italy this weekend, Internazinale will play Milan at the San Ciro crucial Darby.

One needs a win to keep their title hopes alive.

Inter ten points clear at the top of the table.

A win would probably all but seal it for them.

They've only dropped two points in their last 15 matches.

And on the Portugal and Saudi pro league and Atlanta international friendly side of things.

Cristiano Ronaldo, he is expected to miss several weeks after Al Nasser manager Jorge

Sous revealed that his muscle injury is more serious than initially believed.

He is going to Madrid undergo treatment with his personal physiotherapist as he begins

recovery could be out for up to a month.

Portugal's coming to this hemisphere to play Mexico and the US in less than a month.

Do the math.

It's not looking good.

All right.

Final whistle.

Atlanta United heading home, looking for answers, looking for momentum.

And Saturday's home opener at Mercedes Ben Stadium after a difficult start on the road.

Pregame coverage 630 on star 94 kickoff at 740 full time report to follow before and

after the whistle on the soccer down here.

Social media channels all the things on Saturday night.

All the things around MLS all weekend long plenty of very interesting games to watch on

Apple TV.

She believes Cup US women's national team trying to win that again on Saturday afternoon.

You got games and storylines all over the world, but locally it is a packed weekend for

us on the SDH network tonight.

High school soccer coming live from Covington, Georgia east side hosting Walnut Grove.

You'll be able to listen to that with me and John Nelson on the SDH network.

Soccer down here dot net slash listen Saturday morning.

It starts with a five stripes Academy double header.

I'll be on the call alongside Madison Cruz for the U 16s and the U 18s as they host

Austin at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. over at ATL U T D dot com slash live and on the Atlanta United

YouTube, then we head to Mercedes Ben Stadium Madison hosts the five stripes count down.

I get ready for kickoff at 740 Atlanta and RSL then because we're not done yet.

Then Sunday we go to Athens Atlanta United to hosting Carolina core in the MLS next pro

home opener at the Turner soccer complex free to attend.

If you're in the area, bring the kids come out.

Enjoy the two.

They played really well on the road in New England last weekend looking forward to

this one.

Our pregame coverage on the SDH network will start at 630 ahead of the 7 p.m.

kickoff.

Yeah, we're going to need a couple of extra cups of espresso on Monday to catch you up

on all of it.

Thank you for listening the morning espresso all week.

Thank you for being a part of the SDH network.

Enjoy the home openers for Atlanta United this weekend and we'll be back on Monday to

talk about every single bit of it.

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