The Verde Report: Austin FC Hopes to Take Advantage of Forgiving MLS Structure
Coach Estévez has his eye on the long game
By Eric Goodman, Fri., June 6, 2025
They say, “To err is human, to forgive is divine.” If that’s the case, then MLS is surely God’s favorite soccer league.
Not only does Major League Soccer refuse to threaten its basement-dwellers with relegation like just about every other respectable league in the civilized world, but it hands out playoff places like McDonald’s gives out Happy Meal toys.
Even after a particularly toilsome month of May, Austin FC’s season outlook, when viewed through that lens, might not be as bleak as it may feel.
Through exactly 50% of the regular season (17 of 34 games), the Verde and Black hold a mediocre record of five wins, seven losses, and five draws for a total of 20 points – good enough for 10th in the West and 21st in all of MLS. Austin’s 10 goals are the fewest scored by any team in the league, and its -9 goal difference is tied for fourth worst. Those numbers obviously aren’t great. But here’s the thing: They don’t really need to be.
In MLS’s playoff format, 18 of 30 teams (60%) qualify for some form of postseason soccer. And unlike in the NBA, where Cinderella runs are rare due to the difficulty of beating a superior team over a 7-game series, MLS is literally designed to promote unpredictable outcomes. Look no further than last season’s semifinalists, which included two clubs that were nowhere near the top of the table at the halfway point of the season. Orlando City ranked 14th out of 15th in the Eastern Conference, while the Seattle Sounders were ninth in the East.
These are all things first-year ATXFC coach Nico Estévez is keeping in mind as he works to unlock the maximum potential of the club’s reshaped roster.
“You have to [continue to] build the team throughout the end of the season, because there are teams that start really, really strong, and then they fade during the year. And then there are teams that start slow... and they arrive to the playoffs, and they arrive to the final, and they win the championship,” Estévez said.
The Spanish coach, brought up in the weekly do-or-die crucible of La Liga, said adopting a more season-long mindset was one of the biggest adjustments he had to make when he first came to the league as an assistant coach in 2014.
“If we have the mindset that we are building something right towards the end of the season, we can be successful,” Estévez said.
In the meantime, though, Austin FC captain Ilie Sánchez offered some advice to the club’s ardent supporters during extended periods of struggle.
“The fans need to express – and I think they are doing already well – how they feel about the performances, how they feel about us not scoring, how they feel about the good performances we have, so we feel the difference between when they are happy and when they are not happy. Stick with the team for 90-plus minutes, and after the game, let us know how we did,” Sánchez requested.
The veteran midfielder wasn’t exactly specific as to how he envisions that feedback getting communicated, but one thing this fan base certainly does not lack is creativity.
It might make for a good way to pass the weeks until the club starts putting together consistent results. In a league as merciful as MLS, you only need a few to go your way before you can officially call yourself a playoff team..
Want the latest Austin FC news delivered straight to your inbox? Subscribe at austinchronicle.com/newsletters.
