Atlanta Fire United

★★★Olie S

It's an average club. They have the potential to be great, and I want them to be great. These are comments from my obervations on the academy side: One area they need help with is administratively. I've seen many times where they have double booked their coaches for games, tryouts, etc. They really need people to help them with scheduling and programming. It feels like the people who run it love soccer, but don't know how to manage or run a business/organization. Also, information is slow to come out. It can be days before an event and you still don't know days or times. There are some other soccer organizations that are great at getting their information out there and early for proper planning. They should look at them for examples. They also need a curriculum for training fundamentals. You have some great coaches who do that all the way to coaches who like to just scrimmage all practice. It should not be a hit or miss with coaches. You should have the confidence that the kids are growing and learning at the younger levels. Lastly, it's not a need, but I'm surprised they don't have a pre-academy. It would help bring in more developed players in the beginning. Even if they don't have a formal program, they could have an ongoing weekly sessions for people not in the academy, so get better and prepare because the recreation side coaches are also hit or miss, which is expected because they are all volunteer coaches. Overall, they are a smaller program in terms on just having a singular location and they could do great things because of that. They say they are changing things starting the 2026 season, but that's just words until we see tangible changes.

★★★★★Charlie Keum

For those who are new. Do not start at U10 or later unless your son has played for several years, it will take years to catch up. Other than that, great place for advanced players

★★Diana Vergara

My son has played with Atlanta Fire for 4 years. His first year he played for a rec team which was great as an entry level for his age. He moved to select and had great experiences with the gold team. He also played for the elite team on multiple occasions. This year he was moved down a level to silver “because of his height.” This has been the worst soccer season this far. Coaches for this level are extremely terrible at communication. Games are added sometimes one day or two before they occur. My son is a goalie and he doesn’t even get to play his position sometimes. Higher levels are held to higher standards in every aspect. If your child plays anything lower than gold, take them somewhere else. We have paid thousands of dollars and end up playing recreational teams for the same league sometimes. My daughter currently plays for elite for AFU, and the difference is night and day. Her coach is always prepared, always answers, always has the games scheduled weeks ahead of time. I have emailed my concerns and no one ever got back to me.

★Johnny

Over the course of the last 3 years or so we have played AFU on several occasions. It is sad that there sidelines (parents and young children spectators) can’t just let the kids play the game. Every game I have been to the parents have heckled refs, tried to intimidate the refs, called kids names and been very disrespectful to everyone at the game. The last game I was at the ref had to stop the game 3 times to tell the parents and their children to stop heckling the players and ref. Even AFU head coach asked the parents to stop and they kept going. I also watched one of AFU players ask his siblings and parents to please stop. Sad a youngster has a beg his parents to act mature at a soccer game and control his friends and siblings on the sidelines. I would never in a million years allow my child to play for a club with parents that act like children. Grow up and stop acting like delinquents. Also, loose the blow horn you ain’t cool and this ain’t some professional league soccer event. If you are considering this club maybe think again and drive to another more professional organization. Just my opinion from what I have experienced with this club over several games.

★★Praveen Ravela

Watch out when you register your kids to AFU Recreational Soccer sessions, your kid might end up with some random people with no soccer knowledge as coaches, AFU is allowing literally Zero soccer experienced people as Coaches. I think it’s been 4 seasons we wasted our time with AFU, couple of seasons no coach at all, one season one coach came for 2 weeks, one season appointed a total incompetent person with zero soccer experience as a coach. The irony with this guy is he doesn’t allow the kids to the game if they are not attentive he says, he himself does not know what soccer is, he teaches nothing, but he expects the kids to be attentive. I said incompetent because he doesn’t even know what Recreation means, And AFU allowed such incompetent people who volunteered for free sessions for their kids as coaches. I keep letting it go thinking that it would get better next season, and next, finally exhausted.