The Verde Report: Predictable Austin FC Isn’t Just Playing Badly. It’s Playing Boring.

Midfielder Alex Ring has had to do more defending than usually lately, filling in at center back for shorthanded Austin FC (Courtesy of Austin FC)

It has not been the start to the 2023 season that Austin FC fans had in mind. After setting the league on fire to the tune of a final four finish in 2022 – overachieving in the eyes of many – the Verde and Black have experienced a degree of regression back to the mean through the first five weeks of this campaign. Perhaps some of that was to be expected.

On the one hand, a glance at the Western Conference standings offers little cause for panic. Austin FC sits sixth, in the middle of the new nine-team playoff format, with a bang-average record of two wins, two losses, and Saturday's 1-1 draw against the Colorado Rapids. The club's season-opening loss to St. Louis CITY SC even looks a bit less bad in retrospect, considering the expansion side is somehow a perfect 5-0-0 on the young season.

But while the standings tell one story, Austin FC's performances tell another, much more concerning tale. For starters, the goalscoring is down significantly from where it was a season ago. ATXFC averaged just under two goals per game throughout the entire 2022 season. This year, that figure is hovering just over one (six goals through five games).

Before the start of the season, head coach Josh Wolff talked about how Austin wouldn't be taking anyone by surprise this season, and that has certainly borne out. The ATX plan of attack has become painfully predictable, and other clubs have figured out how to defend against it. It starts with keeping a body on Sebastián Driussi at all times, closing down his space and forcing the MVP finalist away from goal. Then, crowd the center of the 18-yard box so Austin is forced to move the ball out to either wing. And when the inevitable cross to the back post comes in, use your height advantage (and against Austin, just about everyone has a height advantage) to clear the danger. Not only is Austin's attack ineffective, it's also brutally boring to watch.

By and large, it's really been that simple to keep Austin FC out of the back of the net. Gyasi Zardes has been a ghost in his first ATX starts at striker. Wingers Diego Fagúndez and Emiliano Rigoni have lacked creativity. El Tree can't really beat anyone with speed, and has hardly threatened on the counterattack at all. In terms of dangerous runs into the box, only Jon Gallagher has consistently shown a willingness to make them, and what do you know? The Irish fullback currently has half of Austin's goals in the year.

"I'll take it, [but] I can't imagine it'll last much longer," Gallagher said of his top-scorer status. Better hope he's right.

Then there's the defense, with its own set of issues. Against Colorado over the weekend and with Leo Väisänen away on national team duty, Austin FC dressed an entire 19-man squad without a single natural center back to speak of. If not for a superb performance by Brad Stuver in goal, the pairing of Alex Ring and Nick Lima – both playing out of position – would have gotten flat-out exposed by the winless Rapids.

"We don't have a center back at the moment," Wolff said, either blatantly ignoring or weirdly dissing Kipp Keller and Amro Tarek, neither of whom has yet been given a chance to rebound from nightmare performances earlier in the year (though Keller did start for Austin FC II in the MLS NEXT Pro club's debut match on Friday).

Glass half full? Austin FC has so far survived its early season struggles. Glass half empty? That could soon change. The Verde and Black face a road test against defending MLS Cup champions LAFC on Saturday, April 8, in a rematch of last year's Western Conference Final, which may serve as a litmus test for just how far ATXFC has fallen since that October match.