Nope-a Tejas: Austin FC Falls Short In Trophy Decider Against Dallas

Toyota Stadium in Frisco hosted the final matchup between Texas MLS clubs of the 2021 season (photo by Eric Goodman)

Austin FC just can’t have nice things. You can add Copa Tejas to the list.

Saturday night’s meeting between Austin FC and FC Dallas in Frisco served as a debutante ball for the fan-founded rivalry trophy, but it was Los Verdes Texas-dipping out of Toyota Stadium while El Matador celebrated with the shiny new copa following a 2-1 Dallas win.

The last meaningful match of Austin FC’s season in many ways represented the club’s inaugural campaign as a whole: Huge anticipation at the start, early signs of possible success quickly erased, then a slow and painful march to the finish without much to show for the effort.

To both clubs’ credit, in the absence of anything else of consequence to play for in 2021, each deployed a starting lineup worthy of a legitimate cup final. For Austin, that meant an attacking front four of Cecilio Domínguez, Moussa Djitté, Sebastián Driussi, and Diego Fagundez.

After an extended feeling-out period to start the match, in the 36th minute Fagundez again demonstrated why he has been Austin FC’s most reliable player this season. The Uruguayan dribbled to his right, teed himself up at the top of the 18-yard box, then fired a curling shot around Dallas keeper Jimmy Maurer and into the side netting, giving Austin FC the 1-0 lead.

A beauty of a goal, @DiegolFagundez. 🤩 pic.twitter.com/Dff6junds5

— Austin FC (@AustinFC) October 31, 2021

It was Fagundez’s seventh goal of the season, tying him with Domínguez for the team lead, as well as the 60th goal of his MLS career.

“It’s one of those things [where] you need to step up in games like this, and when I have my chance I try to finish it.” Fagundez said. “It doesn’t matter how pretty the goal is or if you score, when you don’t win the game it doesn’t really matter.”

The lead lasted all of two minutes before Jáder Obrian shot past Nick Lima down the right flank, shuttled a pass across Brad Stuver in the ATX goal and found Jesús Ferreira at the back post for a tap-in. Of the four goals Ferreira has scored in three matches against Austin FC this season, that was the biggest, bringing a half-filled Toyota Stadium to its feet. On Halloween Eve, the U.S. international broke into Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” to celebrate.

Jesús walk with me pic.twitter.com/JK18l0RLxo

— FC Dallas (@FCDallas) October 31, 2021

Tied at the halftime break, the stage was set for a thriller of a second half. But the complexion of the match changed on a dime in the 58th minute when Paxton Pomykal got free behind the ATX defense. Hector Jiménez stuck out an arm to reel Pomykal back in, causing the Dallas forward to hit the deck. Jiménez was immediately shown a red card for denying a goalscoring opportunity and the Oaks were forced to play the rest of the match with 10 men.

They did so admirably for stretches, but FC Dallas found the winning goal in the 80th minute by way of Franco Jara, who had entered as a substitute just seconds prior. Jara launched himself at an Obrian cross and sent a volley past Stuver, who could only watch the ball fly by into the net.

A hard fight, some tough luck, but overall more of the same from the Verde, who have a long way to go before winning big-time, late-season matches becomes a possibility. After the match, head coach Josh Wolff pointed to discipline and maturity as areas for growth within the club, but also suggested that Austin FC doesn’t have the horses to challenge for MLS supremacy, even within the state of Texas.

“We obviously need to also bring in more personnel, more competitive personnel in a number of areas. Those are things that are already being talked about and addressed,” Wolff said.

Sounds like a busy offseason in store for the club, but not before a final pair of matches to close out Austin FC’s expansion season, including Wednesday night’s matchup against Sporting Kansas City in the last go-round at Q2 Stadium in 2021.

Read more Austin FC coverage – including Eric Goodman’s weekly column, The Verde Report – at austinchronicle.com/austin-fc. Follow him on Twitter: @goodman.