The Verde Report: Austin FC Is Proving Its Critics Wrong With Each Win
Latest win lifts the club into a tie for fifth place in the West
By Eric Goodman, Fri., May 3, 2024
Verde is back, folks.
Austin FC delivered its fans a win straight out of the 2022 scrapbook with a 2-0 home triumph over the LA Galaxy on Saturday. El Tree blitzed the Western Conference leaders with a pair of goals inside the first 20 minutes, each coming from one of the club’s offseason newcomers (Diego Rubio and Jáder Obrian, respectively).
The win – Austin FC’s fourth in its last five matches – lifted the club into a tie for fifth place in the West, just three points off the top of the conference. All of a sudden, a season that seemed all but lost as recently as one month ago now appears not just alive and well, but potentially headed to places even the most optimistic of Verde fans would’ve assumed out of reach.
The state of the club has head coach Josh Wolff, deservedly, feeling satisfied and even emboldened. You can tell, because his favorite thing to do when in such a mood is to take not-so-subtle (and painfully cynical) jabs at the media, as he did following the Galaxy win.
“It’s 10 games into the season so we don’t get carried away. When you guys [the media] are slaughtering us earlier this year, I don’t get too bummed out. You guys do what you do. You got to pump out headlines and you got to get readers, I understand it. Whether I agree with that or not, that’s what you guys choose to do,” Wolff said.
Hopefully he can someday forgive those of us who cover the team for... covering the team? But that’s neither here nor there. When you’re winning, you can talk smack to whomever you please.
Now, as The Verde Report detailed last week, the numbers don’t exactly back up the good vibes Austin FC has cultivated over the past several weeks. The club remains an affront to the notion of expected goals (five more goals scored than expected, four fewer conceded than expected), but those aren’t the numbers that matter at the end of the day.
Winning is skill, one that’s eluded Austin FC for seasons at a time in the past. Not this year. El Tree has regained a grittiness to fight back when the opponent strikes first, as it did in comeback wins over FC Dallas and the San Jose Earthquakes. It has flexed a discipline to see out tight leads as it did against the Houston Dynamo and the Galaxy.
Crucially, Wolff has also settled on a first-choice lineup that promotes continuity, where all 11 players hold specific roles that complement one another.
Perhaps a bucket of cold Whistler Mountain water awaits the Verde and Black this weekend in a tough road matchup versus the Vancouver Whitecaps, who lead the West with 1.89 points per match. Even still, Austin FC has proven that it won’t be so easily dismissed by anyone, MLS teams and media alike.
MLS All-Star to Austin?
As if ATX soccer fans didn’t have enough reason to smile this week, ESPN reported Monday that Austin FC is finalizing a deal to host the 2025 MLS All-Star Game at Q2 Stadium next summer.
The event would bring the league’s biggest names, potentially including Lionel Messi, to Central Texas for an exhibition match against an opponent to be determined. In the past, MLS has pitted its All-Stars against top European clubs as well as an All-Star squad from Mexico’s Liga MX.
