It doesn’t matter how red flamin’ hot you are at home. In MLS, to play away is to enter a whole new realm of challenges, as Austin FC experienced Saturday night in Portland.
Coming off two consecutive five-goal performances at Q2 Stadium to start the season, the Verde was unable to find the back of the net – or even hit the target – in a mostly even 1-0 loss to defending Western Conference champions Portland Timbers at Providence Park.
Austin FC possessed the ball for 61% of the match – an impressive figure for any road team – and translated that into 14 shots. But wayward shooting and off-nights from designated players Sebastián Driussi and Cecilio Dominguez, along with bend-but-don’t-break defense from the Timbers, kept Austin from registering any shots on target.
On the other end, Portland managed to get just one of its 13 shots on frame, but it beat Austin goalkeeper Brad Stuver and resulted in the only goal of the match. It came direct from a free opportunity kick conceded by Dani Pereira with a clumsy foul. Portland center back Bill Tuiloma got free from his Austin counterpart Ruben Gabrielsen and rose up to head Yimmi Chara’s dangerous cross into net. Gabrielsen, who was making his first start for the club, lost his footing on the artificial turf during the play to make matters worse.
“[I could have] dropped off a little bit earlier,” Gabrielsen said. “But set-piece goals will come and it was today. So, that’s football.”
Portland defenders blocked an impressive total of nine Austin FC shots through the match. However, in a handful of them, the ball seemed to deflect off an arm, leading to multiple pleas for a penalty kick from the Oaks. One such occasion required the Video Assistant Referee to intervene, but the decision eventually went in favor of the hosts.
After the match, Austin head coach Josh Wolff expressed some frustration with officiating, harkening back to the 2021 season when on multiple occasions he felt his team was unfairly ruled against.
“There were a number of calls again in this game – I got apologies at halftime for one of them – but, you know, I think there’s a lot of things that are different this year but unfortunately some things still seem to remain the same,” Wolff said.
The Verde returns to Q2 Stadium on Sunday, March 20, for a 3:30pm clash against the Seattle Sounders, nationally televised on FS1. The Sounders will be three days removed from a road trip to León, Mexico, for an important matchup in the Concacaf Champions League, and Austin FC will be back in front of its home fans, looking to get back to piling up the goals.
Read more Austin FC coverage – including Eric Goodman’s weekly column, “The Verde Report” – at austinchronicle.com/austin-fc. Follow him on Twitter: @goodman. To get game recaps, news, and analysis delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe at austinchronicle.com/newsletters.
This article appears in Guide to SXSW 2022.
