The Verde Report: Austin FC Showing More Fight (Literally) in Club’s Second Season
Coach Wolff: “This group has more spine to it.”
By Eric Goodman, Fri., March 25, 2022
Through the first four games of Austin FC's sophomore year, it's hard to realistically imagine the Verde having had a better start to the season: two dominant – record-setting, even – victories against bad teams followed by a pair of hard-fought matches (one road loss and one home draw) against two of the league's best clubs, in which Austin FC was perhaps unlucky to come away with only 1 point total.
And yet, an awkward truth remains, which is that the club sits just 1 solitary point better in the MLS standings than it did through four matches (all on the road) last season, a season in which the Verde eventually lost 21 times. Given that reality, how big can the difference between the two iterations of Austin FC possibly be? The answer seems to have less to do with the play on the field – though that has been many levels better, especially in the 10-goal extravaganza across the first two matches of the season – and more to do with the intangibles.
"Togetherness." "Character." "Maturity." Those words and others like them are popping up left and right during press conferences with coach Josh Wolff and select players. That was hardly the case a year ago at any point, let alone just a month into the season.
Those sentiments were especially present after the club's latest result, a 1-1 draw at home with the Seattle Sounders in which Austin FC went down a goal but fought back to capture the draw and nearly more. Coming back when conceding first is something the Verde did just twice last season (resulting in one eventual win and one eventual loss). For Wolff, who calls it like he sees it probably more than he's given credit for, the basis of the comeback was simple: "This group has more spine to it. It has more character."
Wolff also pointed to a big difference in the atmosphere at training sessions this season compared to last. "We had some dustups in training, so you know you're in a good place when your guys are fighting and competing in training, and there's some little bit of fights going on, and that's a sign of a good team. We lost 20 games last year, there wasn't a dustup."
Fault Wolff as much as you like for the club lacking fight a year ago. He was the coach then, too. But also know that the expansion squad he helmed in 2021 lacked anything close to the experience, both individually and as a group, of this year's squad, and had only a fraction of the talent. Dani Pereira might be the best example. The player who last year was fresh out of college and getting exposed at times by some MLS veterans now looks mature beyond his years in midfield and has so far held top signing Jhojan Valencia out of the starting lineup.
Despite plenty of fair criticism of Wolff for leaving club stalwart Diego Fagúndez on the bench to begin Sunday's match, the move worked exactly as intended: One of the club's feistiest attackers came on as a substitute in the second half and tied the game with a goal.
"Last year I think it was hard, when we were going down a man or down a goal, our mindset maybe wasn't the same as this year," Fagúndez said. "You can tell we're a group [that is] united, everybody fights for each other. So we knew that we could come back."
Fighting for each other. Fighting with each other. Either way, it's working for Austin FC, which now has the weekend off before a trip to face budding rivals San Jose Earthquakes on April 2.
