The Verde Report: Gyasi Zardes Embodies the Ultimate Striker’s Dilemma

Saturday’s winning goal lifted Gyasi Zardes into the top 10 all-time among MLS goalscorers (photo by Joe Nogalski)

Center forward. Number nine. Striker. Whatever parlance you prefer, there is no position in team sports that is more closely tied to a single statistic.

Goals. You either score them, or you fail to score them.

It’s beautifully binary. Simple. Fair.

For other positions on the soccer pitch, the demands are more subjective, more abstract. Creativity. Physicality. Decision-making. These things are often in the eye of the beholder.

Even goalkeepers are tasked with more than simply stopping shots, having also to organize their defenders and distribute passes from the back.

But strikers? Score goals. Everything else comes secondary.

Gyasi Zardes knows this as well as anyone. The 32-year-old Austin FC No. 9 has been on both sides of the equation. He’s been a top-six goalscorer on three separate occasions in his 12-year MLS career. He also once went an entire year without finding the back of the net for LA Galaxy from 2016 to 2017.

He was nine days away from replicating the inauspicious feat with the Verde and Black, having not scored since July 15, 2023.

But on Saturday night, making an increasingly rare start due to first-choice striker Diego Rubio’s suspension for yellow card accumulation, Zardes erased 12 months of frustration in 25 minutes of game action.

The former USA international scored two vintage goals – an equalizer and a match-winner – to lift Austin FC to a vital, 2-1 comeback victory over New York City FC at Q2 Stadium.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Zardes said after the win. “Personally, I’ve been trying to score since the first game of the season, and it hasn’t come. But I’ve observed many strikers in the past that were in my position and didn’t score until later in the season. You have to keep your head down. You have to keep working. And sure enough, the goals came tonight.”

From a personality standpoint, it’s impossible not to like Zardes. If there’s a more approachable, more courteous, and more positive presence in the Verde locker room, this columnist has yet to meet him.

“[Gyasi] is an incredible human being. He shows great spirit and perseverance,” said ATX head coach Josh Wolff, who coached Zardes at various stops well before the two reunited in Austin.

And yet, the Southern California native has been a lightning rod for criticism his entire career. That reality has certainly followed him to Austin.

Much of it stems from what many American soccer fans would label an underwhelming national team career, in which Zardes spent much of 2015-22 as a starting striker for the United States (he still managed to score 14 goals in 67 games, ranking him 15th all-time in U.S. soccer history).

There are certainly elements to Zardes’ game that can frustrate. He’s never been the paciest striker nor the most technically gifted. But he’s done the thing that matters most: score goals.

105 of them in his MLS career, to be exact. Saturday’s winning goal lifted Zardes into the top 10 all-time among MLS goalscorers, a milestone that wasn’t lost on the veteran.

“It’s a great feeling,” Zardes said. “All the hard work over the years, all the teammates that have helped me.”

It will, of course, take much more than one match to return Zardes into the good graces of ATX fans, especially considering that, with the exception of the club’s three designated players, he earns the highest wage of any player on the roster.

But Zardes has no intention of simply cashing a paycheck on his way to retirement. There’s plenty more he still hopes to achieve.

“Just gotta keep working hard so I can keep going,” Zardes said. “It’s a legacy I’m trying to build, and I just want to keep winning and keep going.”