Brian Kidd called his Atlanta homecoming a success. It helped that his Manchester City team made him a winner.
Given blocked two penalty shootout kicks and Manchester City beat Club America 4-1 in the tiebreaker after the teams played to a 1-1 draw in the exhibition game Wednesday night.
Kidd, the assistant coach for Manchester City, played as a professional for the old Atlanta Chiefs in 1981.
''This was sentimental for me,'' Kidd said. ''I always have fond memories of the city and the people. Atlanta is always close to my heart.''
Emmanuel Adebayor, Silva Jo, Vladimir Weiss and Patrick Vieira made Manchester City a perfect 4 for 4 on the penalty kicks. Pardo Pavel had Club America's only successful penalty kick.
Manchester City improved to 2-2 on its exhibition tour of the United States.
Adebayor scored the only goal of the first half and Club America's Enrique Esqueda tied it early in the second half.
Midfielder Yaya Toure made his debut after signing this summer with Manchester City, joining his brother, Kolo Toure. The brothers played for Ivory Coast in the World Cup.
Manchester City also was bolstered by the first appearances for Gareth Barry and Shaun Wright-Phillips since England was eliminated from the World Cup.
''The team got a lot out of the game in terms of fitness and working together,'' said Manchester City's Adam Johnson.
Club America's Aquivaldo Mosquera's takedown on Johnson in the box set up Adebayor's penalty kick in the 36th minute. Adebayor scored with his kick past goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa.
Johnson insisted the penalty, which appeared marginal, ''was 100 percent a foul.''
Club America tied it early in the second half on Esqueda's shot from the right corner.
Daniel Montenegro of Club America was denied in each half on shots that deflected off the posts. Adebayor almost won the game in regulation, but his shot in the 88th minute hit the crossbar above Ochoa.
Less than a minute later, Montenegro's penalty kick was too high.
Atlanta organizers hoped to use the exhibition to showcase the city's enthusiasm for soccer as it bids for the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. FIFA will announce the host countries on Dec. 2.
Last year, more than 50,000 fans attended Club America's 2-1 win over A.C. Milan at the Georgia Dome. Wednesday night's crowd of 33,721 included 3,000 free tickets to various Atlanta youth organizations, according to Michael Reene of the organizing committee. Promotions for the game included advance sales of two tickets for $25.
''Times are tough,'' Reene said. ''I would have loved to have seen 75,000 here, but nobody was promising that. ... This is a respectable crowd.''
Reene said he was encouraged the exhibition attracted more ''traditional'' soccer fans, along with those with loyalties to the teams from Mexico and England.
''To me the mix of the crowd is very balanced this year,'' Reene said.
Natural grass was installed for the game, temporarily replacing the FieldTurf used by the NFL's Atlanta Falcons.
