The Verde Report: Josh Wolff Lets His Guard Down

Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff greets "Pollo FC," the club's unofficial mascot, outside PNC Stadium in Houston (Courtesy of George A. Garcia)

Not many people know this, but when Ben Kenobi said, "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy," he wasn't referring to Mos Eisley spaceport, but to the website Twitter. I'm told some funny-talking Austinite has plans to renovate the place soon, but until then, as Kenobi warned, "We must be cautious." Thankfully, @AustinFC has been keeping the typically toxic site populated with a steady stream of beautifully crafted, behind-the-scenes vignettes that have taken fans inside the Verde's dressing room as Austin FC continues to outperform expectations in its second MLS season.

Following the club's 2-1 comeback victory at the Houston Dynamo last Saturday, the latest of four straight league wins, Austin FC's social media team caught perhaps its most revealing moment yet of head coach Josh Wolff. Before climbing aboard the team's bus for the trip home, Wolff greeted a huddle of traveling Verde die-hards, thanked them for their consistent support at home and on the road, and urged them not to let the passion die out anytime soon. "Keep bringing the spirit. Keep bringing it," Wolff said. He snuck in, "Do it in a responsible way," because, hey, he's still a father of four.

It was the first instance on record of Wolff interacting with Verde fans organically, up close, excluding some planned photo ops. The exchange was brief, but hugely significant, I think, because it suggested that Wolff has finally begun to truly understand and embrace the loud, unapologetic weirdness of the ATX fan base.

There's no getting around the fact that, in 2021, there was a disconnect between the club's supporters and its soccer boss. Austin FC struggled to get consistent results on the field, and a large portion of the fan base placed the blame (rather unfairly) at the feet of the first-year coach. Wolff, meanwhile, would regularly thank fans for their support in press conferences, but otherwise kept his distance and remained generally cagey when interacting with media. He even expressed willingness at one point to "come over and help crank away on some tifos" in the supporters' section for a U.S. national team match, but it never materialized. Maybe COVID got in the way.

This season, though, Wolff has had all the answers. His club has lost just once in nine matches and has been near the top of the Western Conference since week one. His decision to play Dani Pereira as a defensive "No. 6" midfielder rather than a more central "No. 8" – which was met with skepticism – has allowed Pereira to flourish, and Wolff has gotten the very best out of Argentine stars Maxi Urruti and Sebastián Driussi (the latter looking, through the first quarter of the season at least, like a league MVP). Players have talked all season about the club's united culture, and the social media vignettes back that up each week. In-house, Wolff's leadership is hitting all the right notes.

Now we'll see how much that can bleed into the Q2 Stadium stands. To be clear, not every great coach needs to be a crowd-pleasing extrovert, and the suburban Atlanta native can be forgiven for not immediately relating to a horde of craft-beer-obsessing Selena fanatics who've anointed a green rubber chicken the club's unofficial mascot. But a quick look around the soccer and sports world finds that many of the best coaches – Klopp, Simeone, Popovich, Tomlin – wield tremendous influence not just among their team's players, but among their team's fan base as well. If "The Wolff of Sixth Street" can keep growing his rapport with the Verde faithful, the relationship might just produce a ring (or several) at the end of it.