Atlanta United continues to aggressively construct a roster shaping up to be a very strong one by MLS expansion team standards.
The latest piece to the Atlanta puzzle is Greg Garza, with Goal.com reporting that Atlanta United has added Garza on loan for the 2017 season.
Atlanta acquired the rights to the left back in a trade this week. According to the Goal.com report, the Columbus Crew had the discovery rights on the Club Tijuana man. Garza’s deal is a loan with an option for Atlanta to buy at the completion of the loan.
The 25-year-old defender has been with Xolos for five years, but he hasn’t seen the pitch much since suffering a hip injury that cost him most of the 2015 season. Before suffering the injury, Garza forged his way into the USMNT picture, looking like a candidate to be the team’s starting left back before injuries took him out of the picture.
Garza joins a growing list of experienced players Atlanta has brought to the club during its first offseason. Michael Parkhurst and Zach Loyd were acquired to bolster the defense last week, USMNT goalkeeper Brad Guzan is expected to join via transfer once the transfer window opens in January, and the club has put together an impressive haul in attack led by Miguel Almiron. Hector Villalba and Kenwyne Jones.
Very good start for Atlanta:
Michael Parkhurst
Greg Garza
Zach Loyd
Mark Bloom
Miguel Almirón
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpEPrZ0f_uU
Crazy discovery claims
As a Xolos fan, I couldn’t be happier to offload this dead weight. Thank you Atlanta!!!!
Is a loan away around mls – usmnt player allocation rules? Did they have to trade the Crew something? Hoping to hear that whole system was scraped since atlanta has brought in 3 usmnt players out of the open market. Building a solid team there.
Carlos Bocanegra might be turning into a pretty legit GM.
Agree with you on Atlanta putting together a solid inaugural season.
However, don’t hold your breath on MLS being transparent about your initial question or have faith in MLS journalist doing their research to acquire such information. For the life of me I don’t understand the laziness or lack of drive to provide extremely relevant details.
My understanding is that all players on loan to MLS must include an option to buy for the league to authorize that loan.
I’m guessing there’s some concern over his hip. If he’s sound and the player he was before the injury, Atlanta will probably buy him, if he isn’t, they won’t. Pretty good bit of business, especially if he turns out for them.
Was debateing about dropping the 380 for Stl United season tickets. Ughh now I’m tempted. Garza is a decent player. I will wait to see if they add more.
Thinking the same. Coming from 2 hours away in South Carolina but it might – might! – end up worth it if they can add 1-2 more players and that Miguel Almiron kid turns out to be for real. I’m pretty confident Kenwyne Jones will be a stud up top for ATL,