The Verde Report: Austin FC and the Virtue of Making Mistakes

Austin FC players celebrate a 4-3 comeback victory over Sporting Kansas City (courtesy of Austin FC)

Whoever's been writing the scripts for Austin FC's sophomore season is clearly in need of some time off. The "improbable comeback" storyline is getting beaten firmly into the ground.

Saturday's endorphin rush of a 4-3 victory over Sporting Kansas City at Q2 Stadium marked the fifth time this season that the Verde and Black has battled back from a two-goal deficit to rescue a draw or a win. The fact that 20% of the club's matches have followed this same plot arc has the entire ATXFC press corps scratching our collective heads wondering how that possibly could be.

Any casual observer might notice the trend and infer that in these matches, where Austin's opposition gets the better of things early on to the tune of a multigoal lead, Josh Wolff and Co. scrap whatever plan A might have been in place at kickoff and pivot to an altogether different plan B to turn the tide. Or, put more succinctly, they throw the plan out the window.

Sounds fairly reasonable ... unless you present the concept to coach Wolff himself, who took major umbrage when The Striker's Chris Bils did so following Saturday's victory over Kansas City. "I think that's the first thing, we don't throw the plan out the window," Wolff bristled back. "We don't throw the plan out. The plan is exactly what we go back to. And that's why this team performs."

Wolff, who spent two very formative years of his playing career in Germany, has long been of the distinctly German approach to soccer of rigid structure and organization. Austin FC's entire ethos is founded on those ideas, and Wolff takes tremendous pride in that fact. As he should, considering it has his club entrenched near the top of the Western Conference. However, if Austin FC were truly a perfect manifestation of Wolff's Germanophilic musings, the club would play deliberate, mistake-free soccer week in and week out.

The reality is that Austin FC makes loads of mistakes. The Oaks are among the most prone clubs in MLS to drawing red cards and conceding penalty kicks, as Ethan Finlay did Saturday to gift wrap a goal to SKC. They concede 1.36 goals per game on average, which is only slightly better than middle of the pack. Just 33% of their shots have hit the target this season, which ranks in the bottom half of the league.

The point here is not to pour cold water on Austin FC's season and accentuate the negative. Quite the opposite, in fact. By playing distinctly imperfect soccer but still managing to post results week after week, Austin FC has proven that its margin for error is actually quite massive. That's a tremendously valuable attribute and makes Austin FC a uniquely dangerous club to face. Even the very best clubs (yes, even the ones in Germany) cannot play flawless soccer each week. What matters more is a squad's ability to shake off a mistake or two (or three, or four) and still find enough quality and stamina in the tank to eke out a win.

Even Wolff himself – with some understandable reluctance – recognizes how special his squad's resilience is. "Obviously we'd like to not go down goals, but when we go down, there's not us batting an eye for one second. It's a testament to the entire group, the staff, and everyone that makes up this organization. We're quite proud of it," Wolff said.

All that said, Wolff and Verde fans surely welcome a comfortable, no-nonsense victory this weekend in St. Paul when Austin FC takes on fourth-place Minnesota United, Saturday at 7pm.