Alarming Austin FC Losses Prove More Than Head Coach Can Swallow

Remember a week ago? Austin FC was fresh off consecutive draws against powerhouse clubs LAFC and Inter Miami, and the feeling around the team (and in these pages) was that the Verde and Black were finally about to hit their stride heading into the heart of spring.

Yeah, about that …

Four halves of soccer and a pair of ghastly 2-1 defeats later, and the club is in a full-blown crisis.

The first took place at home on Saturday against LA Galaxy, dropping Austin’s MLS record to 1W-3D-3L – good enough for 13th place out of 15 in the Western Conference. That was followed up by no less than a humiliating defeat away against USL Championship (minor league) side Louisville City in the U.S. Open Cup Tuesday night. The same competition that saw ATX host a final a season ago, this season sees the club eliminated in its very first game.

The scorelines flatter Austin FC in both cases, as well. Nico Estévez’s club trailed 2-0 in both contests, only managing to claw half the deficit back in the 85th minute on Saturday and in the 70th minute on Tuesday. Both goals came off set-pieces – Austin has been excellent at those, scoring five times from corner kicks or free kicks through seven games. In all other phases of action, the club has been dreadful, scoring just three goals (plus one opponent’s own goal) from open play.

Anyone who watched both efforts would rightly call them some version of highly discouraging and flat-out unacceptable. Anyone, it would seem, apart from Estévez himself.

“I think we played average today and we have to recognize that, even though I don’t think the loss is a fair result,” was the message following the Galaxy game. The Louisville postmortem took the spin to new levels, bordering on downright delusion.

“Even though we didn’t have a good first half, we could score two or three goals [before halftime]. I think in the second half, we could score like three, four goals also, and it’s unlucky that we didn’t.”

There you have it. In a just world Austin FC would have scored anywhere from five to seven goals total in the match (never mind that the club put just three shots on goal over the 90 minutes), and the fact that they did not defies all laws of probability. The Verde and Black must have had a run-in with WWE’s Danhausen at the airport because obviously they… are… CURSED!

At least goalkeeper Damian Las, fresh off his Austin FC senior debut no less, had the stones to address the performance frankly.

“From me, from the team, we apologize for the loss today. It’s unacceptable,” Las said. “We all know that.”

The root of Estévez’s problem isn’t how he defends woeful results in his press conferences, of course. It’s the fact that he keeps winding up in the position to do so. And the reason for that is most certainly not because Austin FC is some unstoppable footballing force that inexplicably can’t get the ball to cross the goal line. It most certainly is because his club routinely looks unthreatening, indecisive, and downright meek when in possession of the ball, and not quite as well-organized defensively as last season when not in possession of the ball.

Injuries still loom large over the season, and dynamic playmaker Owen Wolff supposedly could return as soon as this Saturday when ATXFC takes on Toronto FC on the road. There’s plenty of time for Estévez to turn the tide and get his club pointed in the right direction, but it will require some honest self-criticism for that to happen.

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.

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