A hallmark sign of a great team is one that can win when not playing its best. Struggling teams, meanwhile, tend to lose even when playing well.
Austin FC, a struggling team if ever there was one, learned as much Wednesday night in a 2-1 defeat at home to a shorthanded Los Angeles FC squad.
Tough luck on both ends of the pitch, as well as on the video replay monitor, dampened what was an encouraging performance back-to-front for El Tree. The end result, though, was a fourth straight loss and a seventh in the last eight matches.
With a shred of plausible playoff hope still alive, Austin coach Josh Wolff deployed an experienced starting XI spearheaded by a two-man front line of designated players Cecilio Domínguez and Sebastián Driussi. Both enjoyed one of their better games in Verde, while third DP Tomás Pochettino sat out the match with hamstring tightness.
Just four days after conceding an opening goal in the first minute against the Houston Dynamo, Austin FC appeared to have bagged an early goal of their own in the third minute when Driussi got in behind the LAFC defense and threaded his shot through the legs of goalkeeper Tomás Romero. A Q2 Stadium eruption gradually gave way to groans and confusion as Video Assistant Referee spotted Dominguez offside in the buildup, disallowing the goal. The local TV broadcast did not have – or, at least, did not show – an angle wide enough to tell if the call was correct, though VAR may have had access to another camera shot.
LAFC’s most dangerous moment of the first half came in the 24th minute when Cristian Arango’s shot from 14 yards out forced a vintage Brad Stuver save. Stuver dove low to his right for the one-armed parry, his league-leading 100th save of the season.
The home side’s luck went further south as VAR awarded LAFC a penalty kick from a seemingly insignificant phase of play early in the second half. LA wing back Kim Moon-Hwan attempted a routine cross from the far right edge of the penalty box, which clipped Diego Fagundez in the upper arm as Fagundez braced for the ball’s impact. VAR, ruling by the letter of the law – presumably – rather than by the spirit of the law, deemed it a handball and a spot kick, which Arango converted for the opening goal.
Fagundez got his redemption in the 67th minute, finishing off a tremendous Austin FC buildup with the equalizing goal. Alex Ring and Dominguez combined for most of the work, but Fagundez arrived in the right spot to bury the rebound when Dominguez’s initial shot hit the post. The goal, Fagundez’s fifth on the season, tied him with Dominguez for the team lead.
Austin continued the pressure for the next 10 minutes and pushed forward for a go-ahead goal, which backfired in the 81st minute when LAFC retook the lead from a counter attack. Substitute Daniel Musovski sprinted directly between ATX center backs Julio Cascante and Jhohan Romaña, received an accurate pass from José Cifuentes, then beat Stuver with his shot for the game-winner.
“Individually, collectively, I think it was a good performance,” Wolff assessed afterward. “Winning isn’t coming easy right now. We’ve got to continue to grind and continue to push.”
Notably, Wolff waited until the 87th minute to inject Moussa Djitté, the club’s imposing Senegalese striker, into a match which hung in the balance for most of the second half, citing a hesitancy to remove Dominguez from the action. “I thought Ceci was doing well… I didn’t want to take him out and lose the momentum that he brought and the energy that he was still providing,” Wolff said. He did not acknowledge the possibility of Djitté entering in place of any of the nine other outfield players.
The loss gives Austin FC 15 on the season to go with five wins and four draws, with 10 matches remaining. The playoffs have become a pipe dream for the last-place expansion club, which should begin shifting focus to the 2022 season starting with its next match, Saturday at home against the San Jose Earthquakes. After all, most season ticket memberships have already auto-renewed for Year 2, per The Striker Texas.
Read more Austin FC coverage – including Eric Goodman’s weekly column, The Verde Report – at austinchronicle.com/austin-fc.
This article appears in September 10 • 2021.
