Union-Atlanta prediction: Is Atlanta’s winning streak for real?

It’s the time of year in Major League Soccer when a two-game winning streak by a team just outside a playoff spot is grounds for believing that team is about to launch a run of destiny.

And if that team is Atlanta United, with its huge crowds and big-money payroll, all the merrier.

Playmaker Thiago Almada, whom Atlanta bought for $16 million in February, has scored goals in both wins. Star striker Josef Martínez seems to have patched up the rift with manager Gonzalo Pineda that got him suspended for a game, at least enough to get back on the field in Wednesday’s victory at Orlando. (Martínez reportedly got in an altercation with Pineda in Portland earlier this month, and knocked over a table that sent a batch of chicken and rice onto the locker room floor.)

Even the oddsmakers in Vegas have raced back to the Atlanta bandwagon, setting the home team at +145 to win on Saturday (3:50 p.m., UniMás, TUDN, twitter.com/MLS). The Union are +155, not far off, but still not the favorite, and a tie is +260.

But don’t let it fly under the radar that after the Orlando game, United right back Ronald Hernández said this of the Union: “No matter how fluid we play, they’re always more effective than we are.”

That has been the case for nearly three years now. The Union are unbeaten in their last five games against the Five Stripes, three in the league and two in last year’s Concacaf Champions League. A result that keeps the streak going will book a place in next year’s Champions League.

I think the Union will get that result, not least because Atlanta’s 1-0 win at Orlando was its first shutout since the end of July — a streak of eight games. But I think it will be a tie instead of a win. And as predictions go, picking a tie is always the best way to be wrong.

Prediction: Atlanta 1, Union 1

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