Austin FC rang in the halfway point of the 2025 MLS regular season with a 2-0 loss to San Diego FC in the club’s first trip to Snapdragon Stadium.
In keeping with ATXFC’s theme of dull, disjointed, and ultimately disappointing performances, there was little put on display to excite the large contingent of Verde fans who used the match as an excuse to spend the weekend in Southern California.
Here are our takeaways from the match:
No Bite Back
Early on in the season, Austin FC captured some impressive road wins at LAFC and at St. Louis City primarily by defending stoutly and then jumping on any opportunity to counter-attack. For the first hour against San Diego, the club did the first part, but showed no teeth in the rare occasions when it won the ball back.
“We weren’t clean enough today with the ball, and we lost the ball too early,” coach Nico Estévez lamented after the match.
Austin’s final attacking line was poor: eight shot attempts, just two on target, and an expected goals tally of 0.5. And the way Austin FC has been underperforming its expected goals to a near-historic rate this season, that’s a virtual guarantee for a goose-egg on the scoreboard.
Stars Shine for SDFC
One of the biggest themes for Austin FC this season has been the club’s inability to get consistent impact from its highest-profile players. San Diego, meanwhile, hasn’t had that problem, and it certainly wasn’t the case Saturday night.
Mexican international Hirving “Chucky” Lozano was terrific – or terrifying, if you sat in the green section – for his 66 minutes on the pitch, orchestrating the first goal with a well-timed run behind the Austin FC back line. Lozano then patiently waited for teammates to run into the box, and found another San Diego star, Luca de la Torre, for the clinical finish.
Then, in stoppage time, San Diego found the kill shot courtesy of more calm passing, this time from designated player Andres Dreyer, who picked out Milan Iloski for the routine shot and second goal.
Everything in MLS is easier when your best players play like your best players, something Austin FC has experienced too infrequently this season.
May Mayhem
Austin FC will be thrilled to finally see the calendar flip from May to June after an exhausting stretch of nine matches in four weeks.
The Verde and Black won a pair of U.S. Open Cup matches in that span, but failed to win any of its seven MLS clashes. The final tally was zero wins, three draws, and four losses.
“It fell short of our expectations,” goalkeeper Brad Stuver said of the grueling month. “We’re happy that we made the quarterfinals of the Open Cup, but in league play, it fell short of expectations that we had. We wanted to go into the halfway point in a playoff position to gear us up for the second half of the season, and that didn’t happen.”
Instead, Austin FC starts the second half of the season 10th in the Western Conference, one place outside of the final “play-in” spot with 20 points through 17 games.
It also begins a month of June with six fewer games than the previous month: two matches on the road against Colorado and Seattle, split by the lone home clash of the month against the New York Red Bulls.
The opportunities for points will be at a premium, for better or worse.
For more Austin FC news and analysis, visit The Austin Chronicle‘s Austin FC hub. Follow The Verde Report columnist Eric Goodman on X: @goodman.
This article appears in May 30 • 2025.