Austin FC is the party that just won’t simmer down. Even after a 1-1 draw with FC Dallas on Saturday ended El Tree’s four-match winning streak, it was all smiles in Verde land as the club lifted its first-ever trophy: the second edition of Copa Tejas.
Austin FC remains in a tight battle with LAFC at the very top of the MLS standings and, as “The Verde Report” argued last week, is showing all the makings of a bona fide championship contender. Things are clicking, plain and simple.
There’s only one issue: a $2.5 million heap of Paraguayan deadweight currently being held afloat, based on his Instagram, by a paddleboard in the middle of Town Lake. Also known as Cecilio Domínguez.
Since May, when Domínguez was reinstated by MLS following an investigation into reports of a domestic disturbance between him and his former partner, Austin FC has kept its star winger out of sight and (they wish) out of mind. It’s become obvious that Domínguez is no longer in the club’s plans, and so far, that hasn’t hurt Austin FC’s on-field escapades. But make no mistake: Domínguez needs to be moved, and he needs to be moved now.
Austin FC is the best success story in Major League Soccer this season, having gone from second-worst in the West last season to second-best at time of writing. Locker room solidarity is at an all-time high, and just about every member of the roster is contributing in some form, like anatomical organs inside a decathlete’s well-sculpted body. Right now, Domínguez is the appendix. Isolated, serving no function whatsoever, but lingering as a potential problem with each passing day. It has to be cut out.
Now, to his credit, Domínguez himself seems to be handling things rather well. “Cecilio is doing a great job. He’s in training every day … There’s not much more we can ask of him,” Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff said last week. Sure, the optics of an out-of-action player sunbathing on a raft Downtown aren’t great, but Domínguez is allowed to live his life. The club has made its own choice regarding Domíguez’s future, so it falls to the club – specifically Sporting Director Claudio Reyna – to now finish the job.
Domínguez is a Designated Player. MLS clubs can max out at three of those, and the most successful clubs usually get big-time production from all three. If Austin FC is going to make a serious run at MLS Cup this year (and why not?), the club cannot continue to electively get nothing out of one-third of its star trio.
Which brings us to August 4, the last date of the MLS midseason transfer window. Austin FC has until then to replace Domínguez with a DP the club would actually play … if it can find a suitor for the 27-year-old Paraguayan. “Yes there are clubs interested,” Domínguez’s agent, Diego Serrati, told The Striker earlier this week.
There are also multiple reports linking the Verde and Black to a potential Domínguez replacement, Argentine winger Emiliano Rigoni, currently with Brazilian club São Paulo. But it’s a one-in, one-out policy as far as that’s concerned. The first objective has to be offloading Domínguez, even if the club ends up taking a loss on the transfer fee. If Austin FC ownership, including CEO Anthony Precourt, is serious about making the tough decisions necessary to win trophies, and if Reyna is truly as connected within the global soccer landscape as his reputation purports him to be, then there should be no issues finding an end to the Domínguez saga by the Aug. 4 deadline.
The cost of keeping him around could be nothing less than a championship.
Editor’s note: On July 23, Austin FC announced that the club and Cecilio Domínguez had mutually agreed to terminate Domínguez’s MLS contract.
This article appears in July 22 • 2022.
