Atlanta United FC is a professional soccer team in the United States. FC stands for football club. Soccer is called football in much of the world. Atlanta United FC competes in the Eastern Conference of Major League Soccer, the top soccer league in the United States and Canada. The team, also called the Five Stripes for its striped logo and jerseys, plays its home games at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.
Atlanta was awarded an MLS expansion team in 2014, and the team was named Atlanta United FC in 2015. The team played its first MLS season in 2017. The team’s inaugural roster included veteran defender Greg Garza from the United States, forward Kenwyne Jones from Trinidad and Tobago, midfielder Chris McCann from Ireland, and forward Hector Villalba from Argentina. For a discussion of soccer positions and formations, see Soccer (Players and officials). The Five Stripes defeated the Portland Timbers in the 2018 MLS Cup final to win the team’s first championship. Atlanta won the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, an annual tournament open to amateur and professional soccer clubs, in 2019.
