LISTEN: Atlanta United's Dax McCarty is done when his team's season is over. But Atlanta's unlikely postseason run has shocked Major League Soccer. GPB's Orlando Montoya reports.
Major League Soccer legend Dax McCarty is trying to retire after 19 seasons playing for six MLS teams.
The problem?
His current team, Atlanta United, keeps winning unexpectedly.
Atlanta upset the MLS playoffs two weeks ago when it beat the league’s top-ranked team, Inter Miami, and its international superstar, Lionel Messi, on Miami’s home turf.
McCarty, a 37-year-old midfielder, said he didn’t expect to be at the team’s practice grounds on Wednesday. But here he was.
“I’m savoring every last session, every last minute I get to come in here,” he said. “The chances of us being here were very slim.”
McCarty had announced he would retire at the end of the season — and Atlanta United was having a really bad one.
Two of the team’s biggest stars, midfielder Thiago Almada and forward Giorgos Giakoumakis, were transferred mid-season. The team fired its head coach, Gonzalo Pineda, in June after a disappointing string of five consecutive home losses. And fans like Tyler Pilgrim got used to seeing inconsistent play.
“They would have good games and then they would turn around and lose games that they probably should have won,” Pilgrim said. “It’s been very up and down.”
Pilgrim, who co-hosts Scarves and Spikes, a podcast that follows the team, said he watched the team get lucky on the last day of the regular season.
That’s when an unexpected win by Atlanta United against Orlando City — and two other teams losing elsewhere — made the math work out to place them in an MLS playoff wild card spot against CF Montreal.
Atlanta won that spot in a nail-biting penalty kick shootout.
Then came that three-game series against top-ranked Miami, which virtually no one gave them a chance at winning.
But they did just that.
Stunning goalkeeping from the team captain, Brad Guzan, and three goals obviously helped Atlanta United stop Messi’s Miami.
Less obvious is what Atlanta United interim head coach Rob Valentino, after the Miami match, characterized as attitude.
“If you told me we’d have three goals on the road, I would’ve said you’re lying,” Valentino said. “But you know, they’ve got some internal belief right now.”
McCarty was playing in the midfield during that match, helping his team win and watching his retirement get delayed.
“So it’s a little bit like a new lease on life,” he said on Wednesday. “Especially for a guy like me, who’s calling it at the end of the season.”
McCarty has played for FC Dallas, New York Red Bulls, DC United, Chicago Fire FC and Nashville SC, appearing in more than 480 matches — the third-most in MLS history.
He also earned 13 caps with the U.S. men’s national team.
Felipe Cardenas, senior writer for The Athletic, said McCarty will be remembered as one of the league’s top players.
“He was always dependable,” Cardenas said. “Every team he played on, he was a very important part of their tactical setup.”
Atlanta United now will face higher-ranked Orlando City in the MLS Eastern Conference semifinal in Orlando on Sunday.
How long McCarty wears the Atlanta United jersey now depends on the rest of an unpredictable race for the MLS Cup that almost no one saw coming.
