Sloppy Austin FC Drops Season Opener to Debutantes St. Louis

Austin FC players and coaches in the Q2 Stadium locker room prepare for a season-opening matchup against St. Louis CITY FC. (courtesy of Austin FC)

It wasn’t too long ago that Austin FC shipped out to Los Angeles for the franchise’s first-ever match in 2021, only to be denied a winning start to life in MLS. The same can’t be said for St. Louis CITY SC, who captured a thrilling 3-2 victory in its club debut at the expense of the Verde and Black at Q2 Stadium.

Despite a pair of moments of individual brilliance, mistakes abounded for Austin FC throughout the 90 minutes as the Oaks were nothing close to the sharp, consistently dangerous outfit that lost only three home matches all of last season. St. Louis, who have been given the league’s longest odds to win MLS Cup this season at +8000, successfully frustrated their hosts with an all-out press and physical attack, forcing Austin FC into constant giveaways and punishing those mistakes with composure in front of goal.

It took only eight minutes into the match for adversity to strike for El Tree when the club’s most senior center back, Julio Cascante, fell to the turf with a knee injury. “He obviously felt it quite quickly when he kind of dug his knee into the ground, so we hope it’s not too severe,” said head coach Josh Wolff after the match, adding that Cascante will get imaging done on the knee Sunday to determine the severity of the injury. The veteran defender told a handful of reporters, “It’s good,” as he exited the stadium late Saturday, moving gingerly but without an obvious limp or any brace on the knee.

Cascante was immediately replaced in the match by 22-year-old Kipp Keller, the only central defender on the ATX bench. Keller, who could not have anticipated having to play the vast majority of the match, had the kind of game that you try to forget but never really do. The nightmare started from a 24th-minute corner kick. Keller, marking St. Louis center back Tim Parker one-on-one, allowed Parker to free himself up to meet the cross with a dangerous header. The mistake could have been erased by goalkeeper Brad Stuver, but Stuver whiffed on his attempt to punch the ball before Parker could get his head to it, as STL took an early 1-0 lead.

By first half stoppage time, it seemed like Austin FC would reach the locker room down a goal and without a single shot on target. That is, until newcomer Leo Väisänen served up a gorgeous long ball to Sebastián Driussi, who took one touch into space and then lifted a filthy chip over the head of former Borussia Dortmund keeper Roman Bürki to level the score.

World class from El CRACK! 💥 pic.twitter.com/BhbQ8DvEzd

— Austin FC (@AustinFC) February 26, 2023

Jon Gallagher (left) and Diego Fagundez celebrate Gallagher's second half goal. See Jana Birchum's season opener photo gallery. (photo by Jana Birchum)

Things settled down for Austin to begin the second half. At the 68th minute, Jon Gallagher entered in place of Žan Kolmanič at left back, and within four minutes Gallagher was streaking into the St. Louis penalty box and firing a lethal finish off the far post and in for a 2-1 Verde lead.

Then everything went pear-shaped for Keller and Austin FC. With the ball deep in his own half in the 78th minute, Keller attempted to play a casual, no-look pass back to Stuver. He really should have looked, because if he had, he would have seen his former ATX teammate, Jared Stroud, standing directly between him and Stuver. To Stroud’s credit, he took the gift-wrapped pass, sized Stuver up one-on-one, and passed the ball calmly into the back of the net to bring the score even at 2-2.

Stroud back in Austin 😏 pic.twitter.com/uRlAQNE7ch

— St Louis CITY SC (@stlCITYsc) February 26, 2023

The freak goal stunned the entire stadium and left the home side shell-shocked for the remainder of the match. That allowed St. Louis to charge forward once more in the 86th minute on a breakaway, resulting in Keller faced up directly against STL DP striker João Klauss. Klauss made one smooth cut, sent Keller, a native of St. Louis, flying out of the way, then wrapped his finish around Stuver for the winning goal.

“We opened the door and they took full advantage of it,” Wolff said.

The good news for Austin is that there’s a long season ahead and Saturday’s opener could eventually prove to be just a blip on the radar. That, though, likely depends on the status of Cascante’s knee. Center back was already the weakest position on the ATX roster in terms of depth and experience, and those things will be put to the test if Cascante misses time. Keller, who was not made available to media after the match, would likely be a huge part of that, meaning his coaches and teammates will have to pick him up after Saturday’s nightmare performance.

“Of course we have to be there for him,” Väisänen said, recalling tough matches in his own career. “It’s up to him that he needs to bounce back, [but] we support him… It’s tough to get your shit together and go again.”

For more Austin FC news and analysis, visit The Austin Chronicle's Austin FC hub. Follow “The Verde Report” columnist Eric Goodman on Twitter: @goodman.