Atlanta United tests Latte Lath on the right in a friendly with Sporting KC

Atlanta United hosted Sporting Kansas City for a mid-summer friendly this week, using the closed-door session to regain match fitness ahead of MLS’s return.

The group that returned to the field was not quite the same one that entered the World Cup break. Atlanta has since moved on from Luis Berrocal, Franco Galarza, and Saba Lobjanidze, leaving Tata Martino with a roster that is still being reshaped as league play resumes.

The score was secondary. Fitness mattered more, and so did the shape of the group. Atlanta needed match sharpness, but it also needed answers.

The centerback situation remains fluid, with reports circulating around possible additions. Atlanta has cover in midfield. At least for a while. The need is more immediate on the wings.

Saba’s departure leaves Atlanta thinner out wide. That makes Tata Martino’s next move more interesting.

That is where Latte Lath enters the picture. He has a role on this team, but it may not be as a striker.

In Atlanta’s first-team friendly session against Sporting KC, Latte Lath played both halves on the right wing. He was not used as the center forward. Alexey Miranchuk worked through the middle, while Latte Lath stayed wide and Cooper Sanchez often pushed forward to combine on that side.

Latte Lath played as a true winger. His positioning was clean. He gave Atlanta a wide possession outlet, found pockets to receive on the right side, and covered the defensive work the role requires. It looked less like an emergency experiment and more like a real option.

After the friendly, Martino said the role had already been part of his conversations with Latte Lath. Latte Lath told him he had played there before and was comfortable in the position.

Latte Lath has not been in form as Atlanta’s striker. Martino’s answer suggested he and Latte Lath have already been talking through ways to get him going again, including the possibility of using him outside the center-forward role.

The right-wing look served both purposes. It gave Atlanta another answer in a thinner wide group, and it gave Latte Lath a different way into the game.

One friendly does not mean Latte Lath is no longer a striker. It does suggest Atlanta may be reconsidering whether his best role is through the middle.

The friendly gave Martino a chance to look at a different attacking shape: Miranchuk through the middle, Latte Lath wide right, and midfield runners arriving into the spaces created by that width. Atlanta’s attack was not built only around service into a No. 9. The wide players stretched Sporting Kansas City, and the central players had room to arrive. This resulted in goals.

Both first-team goals came from midfielders. One came from a right-sided action, with a cutback played back across the six-yard box and Cooper driving a hard finish opposite the goalkeeper’s direction. Atlanta was looking to create more space for attach.

This friendly had an edge to it. The match grew chippier as it went on, with multiple confrontations and Cooper eventually getting a lecture from the referee.

Martino was present throughout, though Jorge Theiler was the more active voice early in the first-team game. Theiler directed the group while Martino watched, then Martino became more visible later, especially around the second-team session.

That second group had its own useful moments, including a goal from Dunbar after another right-sided cutback and pass across the six. Martino later said the second group played well.

Still, the most meaningful takeaway came from the first group.

Atlanta entered the break needing improvement. It came out of it needing solutions. Saba is gone. The transfer window is active. The center-back picture is still unresolved. MLS play returns next week.

In that context, Latte Lath on the right wing was not a footnote.

It was the clearest sign yet that Atlanta is willing to rethink where one of its biggest attacking pieces fits best.