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It is a gloomy morning in Atlanta, but for Brad Guzan, it feels like a warm, sunny day. The veteran Atlanta United goalkeeper could have been planning his offseason, gone fishin' for a few weeks while he waited for news of what the team will look like in 2025. Instead, he's in his normal routine. He's working. He's preparing for a match. And he's happy. "It feels that much better when you're training with a real purpose, hopefully for MLS Cup," Guzan said to ESPN. His stops on Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and the rest of Inter Miami's superstar squad earned him the right to keep working. Atlanta won the second two matches of a three-game series in Round One of the MLS Cup playoffs. Even in the first game, the 40-year-old Guzan looked like a goalkeeper in top form. He made eight saves in the defeat, then one in the home victory and nine in the critical clincher, a 3-2 win at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale that vanquished one of the best MLS teams of all time and sent Atlanta into the next round. Guzan and Atlanta United now are preparing for the Eastern Conference semifinal against Orlando City, three steps away from lifting MLS Cup. "We're probably not as shocked as people on the outside that we're in this position," Guzan said. Not as shocked, but maybe still a bit surprised. After all, Inter Miami didn't just have a lot of stars. The team put together the best-ever MLS regular season, earning 74 points to set a record for most points in a campaign. And Atlanta United didn't just have a rocky season. They fired manager Gonzalo Pineda after winning just four of their first 16 matches. They fired technical director Carlos Bocanegra after the summer transfer window. Even before Bocanegra's departure, the team had started to strip the roster for parts, preparing for a winter overhaul with a new general manager and a new coach giving their input about the right players to bring to the club. Standout attacking midfielder Thiago Almada left for Botafogo for what the club said was a league-record fee. Consistent forward Giorgos Giakoumakis joined Liga MX side Cruz Azul. Atlanta also let go of homegrown product Caleb Wiley, who moved to Chelsea. The Five Stripes received $42 million in combined transfer fees for the trio. The soccer-valuation site Transfermarkt assesses what's left of Atlanta United's squad at little more than $36 million. The team wasn't left entirely to fend for itself. Russian forward Aleksei Miranchuk arrived from Serie A and was an important part of Atlanta's three playoff wins so far. They also added left back Pedro Amador, who has impressed and registered four assists in the playoffs. Incoming players must beat out the existing players, though, something Guzan knows well. After an inconsistent 2023, the team signed Josh Cohen, a goalkeeper with UEFA Champions League experience after several seasons starting at Maccabi Haifa. Yet, Guzan kept the No. 1 job despite competition from the younger player. "I've always said I don't need an external motivator for me to go into work and train and ultimately go into games," Guzan said. "I'm my biggest critic. I fully expect a club of Atlanta United's level to bring in players to challenge at all positions -- not just goalkeeper -- and I'm not naive to think I'm going to play forever. But I do think I'm able to offer something to the group that is beneficial. "Obviously, last year wasn't ideal from an individual standpoint, so it was a moment I wanted to try and rectify." Guzan should be able to consider it forgiven by Atlanta's passionate fan base, one that has come to expect success since the team won MLS Cup in 2018, its second season in existence. Since then, expectant fans have largely been disappointed. Atlanta returned to the Eastern Conference final in 2019 but hadn't won a playoff series until their upset of Miami this month. This year didn't look like it would be the year that changed that, but the team started gathering momentum late in the year under interim manager Rob Valentino. They lost just once in their last six and secured victories over the New York Red Bulls and Orlando City in the last two weeks of the season to reach the postseason. Once there, they fought CF Montreal to a 2-2 draw with Guzan making a save in the penalty shootout to set up the first-round showdown with Inter Miami. A May win in Fort Lauderdale, plus a September draw with the Herons in Atlanta helped boost belief that the Five Stripes could hang with the top seed. "They had a great season, they set the point record and obviously have big-name players, but we went into it with confidence," Guzan said. Some of that confidence came from Guzan. A goalkeeper who has been in big moments for the U.S. national team and with Aston Villa in the Premier League, it was evident early on in the series that Guzan wasn't going to go quietly in the series. From the saves he made to the viral moment in which he ended up stuck in the net after a shove while Miami tried to chase the match, Guzan set the tone for the rest of the Atlanta team. "I think he has an intense focus, almost a look in his eyes that 'this is go time,'" Valentino told ESPN. "When the team can see something like that, I think it's infectious. "He makes a save, and he's got some aura about him almost. It bleeds through the team. His voice alone is something the team feeds off of, and he's been huge in this run of games." As the lowest seed left in the playoffs, Atlanta United now go on the road again to face Orlando City. The team will need to look to Guzan's example -- plus get performances from field players like the ones they got against Miami -- if the journey will continue. Yet, there once again is internal belief that they can secure an upset. "Ultimately, what I've been telling the group is that it doesn't matter what anybody said on the outside -- good or bad," Valentino said. "It wasn't me fostering [confidence], it was us fostering it together and having internal belief in ourselves and what we can do on the field. The way we operate on a day-to-day basis? People can't see that." While very few people expected Atlanta to get to that point, and even some on the inside had to be doubting their chances, the team feels they now have a clear goal -- one that they are three wins away from securing. "It has to be MLS Cup," Guzan said. "It's about trophies. It's about winning, especially at this point in the season." It's a goal that would keep him working well into December, keep the cold winter feeling plenty pleasant and would continue to shock just about everyone, maybe even Atlanta United themselves.
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