The Verde Report: After Back-to-Back Losses, Austin FC Must Regroup for Stretch Run
Wolff: “The focus has to be recaptured”
By Eric Goodman, Fri., Sept. 9, 2022
Adversity clung to Austin FC like a bad rash in 2021. Key long-term injuries, ill-timed red cards, and a league-worst rate of converting expected goals into actual goals doomed the club to an expansion season of unyielding struggle and strife. It's been brighter skies and greener grass this year, of course. Austin FC has been one of the healthiest clubs in the league in 2022, the sendings-off haven't been nearly as costly, and in a wild worst-to-first flip, the Oaks lead Major League Soccer in goals minus expected goals (one could say, unexpected goals) this season. Verde life is good.
Well, until recently, that is. Austin's last two contests – a 2-1 home defeat to the Portland Timbers followed by a 3-0 road rout at the hands of Nashville SC – have put El Tree back in touch with an old friend: adversity. For just the second time all season, Josh Wolff's club was beaten in back-to-back matches and scored just one goal over the 180 minutes, equaling the lowest output over two matches this season. The club was without striker Maxi Urruti in Nashville due to injury, though the Argentine is not expected to miss further time. With just five matches to go in the regular season and Austin FC still in pursuit of a home playoff game, Wolff hopes his club can use the recent struggles as motivation to recapture their top form.
"The adversity, it's a challenge. The focus has to be recaptured, the performances have to be picked up a touch," Wolff said. "You want the momentum, but at the end of the day, we've got to use this to help us."
It's the right approach, as Austin FC marches into uncharted territory for the young franchise. It's officially crunch time. And while the Oaks may be in a relatively comfortable position in the standings, their upcoming opponents aren't so lucky. The Seattle Sounders, who Austin FC visits this weekend, are facing the threat of missing out on the playoffs for, remarkably, the first time in club history. After that it's Real Salt Lake and Nashville at home in quick succession. Both clubs are fighting to hold their places in the playoff picture. Any of those clubs could conceivably head back to Central Texas in a few weeks' time as Austin FC's first-round opponent. It's the time of year when teams show what they're really made of. Austin FC's veterans already know it, while its newbies are getting a crash course.
"We're going into a stretch of games that are going to dictate how the playoffs shape up," goalkeeper Brad Stuver said. "I think these last two games have really shown guys that don't really know MLS what an MLS playoff game looks like."
You could chalk it up to the keeper in him, but Stuver has been around the league long enough to understand that teams rarely score their way through the playoff rounds to an MLS Cup title. Much more often, it's defense that wins the day.
"The ability to really grind out a result is something we need to learn how to do. We need to get back to the idea that we're going to be tough to play against defensively," Stuver said. "These two games don't change that, it just gives us the extra motivation we need to fine-tune it a little bit."
