The Pitch: Homegrown Duo Bursting onto the Scene for Atlanta

Atlanta United have consistently developed young domestic and international talents into MLS starters, and 21-year-old George Campbell and 17-year-old Caleb Wiley are the two newest young budding stars to step on the pitch for the Five Stripes.

Campbell has been a mainstay in the Atlanta’s backline, playing in 19 of their 22 games so far this season while helping lead the club to four clean sheets. He has racked up the third-most minutes played (1,475 minutes) of any Atlanta player to date this season, after totaling just 629 minutes last season. The Five Stripes have a proven formula for developing national-team-caliber defenders, as demonstrated by Miles Robinson’s rise, and this season marks Campbell’s first step to potentially reaching similar heights.

Wiley is breaking out as an all-action left-sided player, adding to his defensive tool belt while playing as a left-sided defender for most of this season. The teenage sensation is also one of four teenagers to play over 900 minutes in MLS this season and one of only three teenage field players to do so as well. Wiley is also following in the footsteps of an Atlanta success story after former Homegrown and U.S. Men’s National Team defender George Bello paved a similar path from Atlanta’s academy and onto the first team.

Atlanta will take the field again on Saturday when they host a hungry Seattle Sounders FC side led by 2022 MLS All-Star and USMNT forward Jordan Morris (3 p.m. ET, ABC / ESPN Deportes).

2022 Leagues Cup Showcase Kicks off with Doubleheader at
SoFi Stadium

This Wednesday, the Los Angeles Football Club, LA Galaxy, Chivas of Guadalajara, and Club America will compete in the first-ever soccer event at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles to kick off the 2022 Leagues Cup Showcase. The marquee doubleheader serves as a preview to the highly-anticipated Leagues Cup – the annual, month-long official tournament between MLS and LIGA MX – that will take center stage in the summer of 2023.

The LA Galaxy and Chivas will meet for the first time in 15 years and just the fourth time overall. It will be the first time Galaxy star Javier “Chicharito” Hernández faces his first professional team. Chicharito scored 26 league goals for Chivas before moving on to Manchester United as a 21-year-old in 2010. Chivas won the most recent meeting, 2-1, at LA Memorial Coliseum during SuperLiga 2007.

The match between LAFC and Club América will be only their second…