For the second consecutive weekend, Austin FC treated its home fans to a highly enjoyable 2-0 win over a Western Conference foe of questionable quality. After handing the Houston Dynamo the L a week ago, the Verde and Black sent St. Louis City back up north empty-handed on Sunday.
Austin blitzed St. Louis straight from the opening whistle, creating three tremendous scoring chances inside the first 10 minutes. However, errant shots by Christian Ramirez and Jon Gallagher, combined with top-class goalkeeping from St. Louis captain and former Borussia Dortmund great Roman Bürki, kept the match scoreless.
Bürki once again showed why he’s among the league’s highest-paid goalkeepers in the 21st minute, leaping to make a spectacular reaction save of a Myrto Uzuni header from point-blank range.
Guilherme Biro appeared to open the scoring for the hosts in the 35th minute, attacking a cross and dispatching into the back of the net. But Biro apparently got confused which sport he was playing because he essentially volleyball-spiked the ball with his right hand, which, if you’re new to soccer, is very much against the rules.
And after another flurry of Austin chances late in the first half that amounted to nothing, the match reached the halftime break scoreless.
Then it was St. Louis’ turn to squander a chance in the 56th minute, and this one had to be seen to be believed. It came from a nightmare mistake from ATX defender Mikkel Desler, who attempted to play a pass back to Brad Stuver but mis-hit it completely. That gifted St. Louis forwards Marcel Hartel and Simon Betcher a 2-on-0 breakaway toward Stuver’s goal, with 35-year-old Ilie Sánchez sprinting back to attempt to apply a remote amount of pressure. Perhaps it affected Hartel, who played his pass to Betcher too far wide, causing Betcher’s shot to crash harmlessly into the outside netting of the goal.
“Yeah, we got lucky,” Stuver admitted afterward, while also crediting an unsung segment of the Austin FC organization. “I think the ball took a little bit of a bounce on the new little patch of grass that we have from the 18 [yard line] down. So I think that helped us. So thanks to the grounds crew for getting me an assist on that one as well.”
ATX finally broke the seal in the 69th minute, once again flexing the club’s set piece excellence and scoring shortly after a corner kick. After St. Louis partially cleared the initial cross, Austin swung the ball around to Dani Pereira, who chipped in a perfect pass for Ramirez to get his bleach blond head onto it and just beat Bürki at the near post.
At the stroke of 80 minutes, Austin scored again following a corner kick – a St. Louis corner kick, that is. Stuver caught the cross in his own box and then quickly initiated a counter-attack by rolling the ball toward Joseph Rosales. Four progressive passes followed to Facundo Torres, to Gallagher, to Ramirez, and finally to Uzuni, who curled a shot into the bottom corner for the two-goal advantage.
Though that marked the end of the goals, it wasn’t the last moment of celebration for the Verde and Black. In the dying minutes of the game, both Owen Wolff and Brandon Vázquez subbed into the match to make their 2026 season debuts, each coming off recovery from surgery. Both players got massive ovations from the crowd, especially Vázquez, who had been out since an ACL tear last July.
“Being able to be back with the team, being able to step back onto the field and hearing the stadium go crazy, it was an amazing feeling,” Vázquez said.
However, the day wasn’t exempt from the club’s season of injury whack-a-mole. Winger Jayden Nelson, originally listed in the club’s starting lineup, was scratched following warm ups with an apparent flare up of a nagging calf injury.
“We have to see what the medical side says, but it’s something that we have to fix, because this is not good, you know, for anyone,” Estévez said of Nelson’s fluctuating availability. “It’s not good for the team, it’s not good for him, it’s not for the teammates.”
Austin FC will hope to continue its winning ways on the road Sunday against Minnesota United.
For more Austin FC news and analysis, visit The Austin Chronicle’s Austin FC hub. Sign up for The Verde Report newsletter to get the latest news delivered straight to your inbox, and follow The Verde Report columnist Eric Goodman on X: @goodman.
