The Verde Report: Austin FC Finally Looks Like a Complete Team ... Only Seven Months Late

Mikkel Desler is one of three midseason Austin FC signings that have helped reshape the club (courtesy of Austin FC)

Sometimes, things just aren’t quite ready when we’d like them to be.

Sometimes, the dishes are still in the dishwasher when it’s time to serve dinner. Sometimes, the face of makeup is still a work in progress when you’ve got to leave for work. Sometimes, the laundry has to be shoved straight from the dryer into the suitcase without folding it nice and neat for the trip.

And if you happen to be the sporting director of a pro soccer team, sometimes the roster isn’t quite fully baked in time for the first 75% of the season.

Fortunately for Austin FC, it’s not about how you start. In Major League Soccer, it’s very much about how you finish.

The Verde and Black are threatening to finish the 2024 season strong, after an encouraging 2-0 away win against Nashville SC to start the late-season push toward a potential playoff spot.

On the way to victory at Geodis Park, Austin FC looked like an entirely different team than the one that won just two of its first 12 road games of the season. And that is, of course, because it is an entirely different team.

Functionally, anyway. The midseason additions made by sporting director Rodolfo Borrell – bringing in a dynamic DP winger in Osman Bukari, a crafty right back in Mikkel Desler, and an experienced international center back in Oleksandr Svatok – have reshaped the entire Verde squad in ways that go further than just adding talent.

Bukari has already been a godsend for Josh Wolff’s attacking system. Not only does the Ghanaian present a goalscoring threat from the flank, his unpredictability and one-on-one dribbling ability is a terror for opposing defenses, which takes the focus away from Austin’s other playmakers, most notably Sebastián Driussi.

Bukari’s insertion into the starting lineup has also bounced the club’s joint-leading goalscorer, Jáder Obrian, to the bench, giving Wolff a much-needed substitute option late in games.

The addition of Desler has had a similar domino effect. Some ATX fans feared the Dane’s arrival would come at the expense of beloved converted fullback Jon Gallagher’s playing time. Instead, Wolff has been able to return Gallagher to his more natural position of winger, unleashing the Irishman’s attacking instincts. The impact was immediate, with Gallagher scoring the opening goal in Nashville.

“Johnny can always fill in at fullback, left or right. That’s also why he’s so valuable to us,” Wolff said. “But as a winger, he’s got speed, he’s got verticality, he wants to score goals. That’s who he is. That’s what he is.”

And while Svatok has yet to see his first action with ATXFC, his presence alone has already had an impact within the locker room and on the training ground. The Nashville match marked the first time in 2024 that a healthy ATXFC rotation player (in this case, Julio Cascante) did not fit among the 20-man match day roster.

“We have competition for the first time in a long time,” Wolff said. “We have the ability to maneuver based on what we think gives the team the best chance to win.”

That’s a rather important ability for a coach to have, some would say.

So, in late August of a season that started in February, Austin FC finally sounds like a club that’s ready for the 2024 campaign.

That’s certainly good news. But with so little room for error between Austin FC and a playoff berth, it may prove to be too little, too late.