Dean Smith warned Charlotte FC he will not accept them being outworked by an opponent for a second week running when they face Atlanta United in MLS on Saturday.

Smith's second season in charge began with a point as Charlotte drew 2-2 with the Seattle Sounders last week, with a late own goal from Yeimar Gomez Andrade drawing them level.

But Smith was not happy with many aspects of his team's performance, and as they prepare to welcome rivals Atlanta to the Bank of America Stadium, he has called for more effort.

"We've done a review on the game, the opposition ran 5,000 kilometres more than us. That's a stat that I said to the team is damning on us," Smith said of the Seattle draw.

"We have to be better, but they know that and they can fix it because it was one of our strengths last season."

Smith was frustrated to see Charlotte only claim a point having led 1-0, and his focus is on ensuring they get their performance levels right this week.

"I'm not even thinking about or concentrating on the result because that can happen, it's the performance. The performance levels have to be right," he added.

"Even though we didn't play well, we could have won the game. I'll focus on what I can fix."

Atlanta, meanwhile, beat CF Montreal 3-2 in their first league game under new head coach Ronny Deila, and centre-back Stian Gregersen has been impressed by the energy brought by the former Celtic boss.

"Obviously it's early in the season, but just the energy so far... The feeling is that guys are starting to get more used to playing alongside each other," he said.

"The biggest difference from last year is we have a more competitive team now, in our whole squad."

PLAYERS TO WATCH 

Charlotte FC – Adilson Malanda

As he did against New York City FC in 2024, Malanda scored Charlotte's first goal of the season last Saturday in Seattle. 

Malanda is one of two players in MLS, along with the Chicago Fire's Brian Gutierrez, to score his team's first goal of both the 2024 and 2025 seasons.

Atlanta United – Miguel Almiron

Almiron provided the assist on the winning goal for Atlanta last Saturday, playing his first match for the club since 2018. 

The Paraguayan, who recently returned from Newcastle United, has averaged 0.48 assists per 90 minutes in 69 MLS games (including playoffs), ranking fifth among players that have played 5,000 or more minutes since the start of the 2010 season.

MATCH PREDICTION – CHARLOTTE FC WIN

Atlanta defeated Montreal in their season opener last weekend, the fourth time they have won their curtain-raising match in the last six seasons (D1 L1). 

The Five Stripes have only managed to open a season with two straight wins once, however, doing so in 2020 with victories over Nashville SC and FC Cincinnati.

They may be hard pushed to do so here. Charlotte have won three of their six all-time meetings with Atlanta, only posting more regular-season wins against Chicago (five) and NYCFC (four).

The Crown have only lost three of their last 29 matches at Bank of America Stadium, dating back to the beginning of June 2023 (W13 D13).

That is the fewest home losses by any MLS team across all competitions in that time, though one of those defeats was against Atlanta (0-1 on August 31, 2024).

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Charlotte FC – 47.6% 

Atlanta United – 26.2%

Draw – 26.1%