“Miserable” Winless Stretch Takes Its Toll on Austin FC

If Austin FC wasn’t a soccer team and instead transformed into a mid-2000’s pop-punk band, it would be All Time Low.

Such is the state of the Verde vibes following an absolutely dreadful – even by recent ATXFC standards – result over the weekend: a 1-0 road loss against the Western Conference’s worst team, the Colorado Rapids, in a game the Verde and Black desperately needed to win. Dear Maria, count me out.

At the risk of beating a half-decomposed horse, Austin FC still hasn’t won a competitive match since mid-July, before Lionel Messi made his debut for Inter Miami and before Elon Musk took Twitter and the letter X and made them both lamer in the same day. The Colorado loss all but mathematically eliminates Austin from MLS Cup Playoff contention, essentially ending a weeks-long charade that the club could somehow turn things around and sneak its way into postseason games. It’s been a difficult and seemingly endless stretch for all involved, and this week goalkeeper Brad Stuver shed light on how the mind of an athlete processes such times.

“Obviously, we are in a result-oriented business. Everything is based on winning and making playoffs. That is what we're judged by, and the players take that to heart,” Stuver said on Tuesday. “This affects our daily lives, and then you go and ask any one of our families, our wives, our partners, they'll tell you that we're pretty miserable at home. So guys are dealing with it in their own ways.”

The challenge, Stuver said, is not allowing those emotions to continue to weigh the club down like an anchor. Easier said than done.

“If we get too far into our lows and we start wallowing in the losses and thinking, ‘Oh, we haven't won since July,’ we're gonna go out and we're going to perform extremely poorly,” Stuver said. “And I don't think we've done that. I think the guys have shown that we go out and we put everything we have into the game. We’re just not getting the results right now. It's not for lack of trying. It's not for the lack of heart or desire.”

For head coach Josh Wolff, the biggest frustration is the feeling that the club deserves more than what it’s got.

“I think you've seen throughout this year what this team is capable of. You have to realize opportunities and chances,” Wolff said. “It's deserving of more points. There's no doubt about it. We haven't realized that.”

On the other hand, in the words of two-time Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Parcells, you are what your record says you are. And Austin FC’s record has nothing nice to say about it. Rightly or wrongly, that always falls at the feet of the head coach.

“We’re always coaching for our jobs,” Wolff said, somewhat sidestepping a question about his status at the club. “This game is about results. We understand that.”

But striker Will Bruin, who badly missed the club’s best scoring chance of the night in the second half (and fully owned it afterward), reminded that there’s a limit to how much impact a coach can realistically have on a match, relative to the 11 players on the pitch.

“We've seen glimpses of how well we can play, but it's just the final product is lacking right now. And that's on the players on the field. So all the other narratives are just noise,” Bruin said. “At the end of the day, we as players need to look internally within the group and say who actually wants to win? Who wants to perform week in, week out? Who wants to step up and be the man and say, ‘Look, I'm gonna help right the ship’?”

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Austin FC faces D.C. United at Q2 Stadium at 7:30pm. Find our game recap here.

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.