Rodolfo Borrell’s Austin FC Renovation Puts Josh Wolff in a Tricky Spot

Josh Wolff at a preseason training session in January (Photo by Jana Birchum)

Imagine you built yourself a house. It’s a pretty nice house. Not perfect – sacrifices had to be made to fit your neighborhood’s strict zoning regulations and HOA guidelines – but it’s pretty nice. You get compliments when you have people over, especially after all the furniture and wall decor is settled. It’s not the nicest house in the neighborhood, but you’re confident it’s up there.

Then one day, less than three years after moving in, HGTV’s Property Brothers barge through the door. Drew and Jonathan want to take your house to the next level. It’s going to be the envy of the entire town, they promise. It’s the Property Brothers, so obviously you say yes. They know what they’re doing.

You’re expecting a minor remodel. It’s already a nice, new house, after all. But the Property Brothers see it differently. They tell you your house isn’t as nice as you thought. It’s actually pretty ugly, and there’s some instability in the foundation, they say. The plan? A complete teardown and rebuild. You already signed the HGTV contract, so this is happening.

The demo phase goes quickly. The whole place is gutted before you know it. That cool light fixture in the living room you grew really attached to? Gone. The Property Brothers sold it to that family a few blocks west with the beachfront house.

The rebuild is slow going. It occurs to you that Drew and Jonathan have never dealt with a property in your neighborhood before, and are having a hard time adapting to the restrictions. This is going to take longer than you thought. The end product might be worth it, but in the meantime, you’ve got to live in an active construction site.

So it goes in the House of Verde.

Austin FC, a club entering just its fourth season in Major League Soccer, a club that reached the Western Conference Final in its second year but struggled mightily in its third, now finds itself in the middle of a full roster overhaul under the supervision of Rodolfo Borrell, ATXFC’s soccer Property Brother.

Since leaving Manchester City for Austin in June of last year, Borrell has preached sustainability. He’s thinking long-term, aiming to place a consistent winner in Q2 Stadium for years down the road. A revamped scouting department, a top-tier youth academy (he recently told ESPN that if he had his way, he’d build out the ATX academy down to the U6 level), and financial flexibility are his Infinity Stones.

But what does that mean for 2024? And more specifically, what does that mean for fourth-year head coach Josh Wolff? When preseason camp opened in late January, it was comical how few senior-level players trotted out for Wolff’s first training session of the season. A handful of ATXFC II players and trialists were needed just to run 11 vs. 11 drills. Granted, fullback signing Guilherme Biro was still en route from his native Brazil and a deal with free-agent striker Diego Rubio had yet to be struck, but barring a last-minute flurry of signings, Austin FC will enter the 2024 season with a startlingly incomplete roster. Help of any real consequence won’t come until this summer, at the earliest.

No manager, not even Borrell’s old boss Pep Guardiola, can be expected to win under those circumstances. Does that mean Wolff gets a total pass in what should be – and would be, for most coaches at most clubs – a decisive fourth season? Of course not. Wolff still has to show he can hold a locker room together and maximize the abilities of the players he has at his disposal. But in terms of results, exceptions should be tempered.

After all, he’s living in an active construction site at the moment.