Austin FC visited Providence Park in Portland as they took on the Timbers late Saturday night. The scoreline was the same as a week ago — drawing a 2-2 result. But, even though it was a similar result, this week felt sweeter as it looked like Portland had this game won, and the guys showed fight without their captain Sebastian Driussi.

The Starting XI looked different than anyone could have expected as there were several changes, most notably Driussi, who has been reported as injured with a groin strain and is expected to be out for the next several weeks. Gyasi Zardes got the start at striker, and Julio Cascante was back in his starting center back spot but this time as the captain with Driussi out. Cascante looked good in his return. Rodney Redes continues to start after he delivered a good performance last week against the San Jose Earthquakes.

Who Is Stepping Up?

Emiliano Rigoni had one of his most impressive performances in the Verde and Black kit. He delivered a few good crosses to create chances and made good runs throughout the night. One of the crosses landed right to Jon Gallagher in the 59th minute for the first Austin FC goal of the night. I hope these types of performances continue throughout this season.

Jon Gallagher is still the leading scorer for Austin with four goals on the season. With goal number four, he set his personal goal record in a season here in Austin — he had three in his 2021 campaign with the team. While it’s not ideal for your leading scorer to be a defensive player, Josh Wolff will take any goal contributions he can get.

Dani Pereira is our top player this season. He continues to give good performances, doing all that is asked of him and then some. He is the engine that gets this attack going and steady on the defensive side. What more can we ask for?

Lastly, Will Bruin, who came on for Gyasi Zardes in the 84th minute, scored a header off of a beautiful cross from Owen Wolff in the 92nd minute. Teen Wolff possibly had his best performance thus far as he was a vital part of both goal contributions and was the YETI Man Of The Match. The stoppage time moment to save the game felt so needed and made this match — which looked to be dwindling down to a loss — feel like a huge result for ATXFC when it turned into a tie.

Who Is Dropping Off?

Gyasi Zardes did not look good throughout the night up top. He looked slow and never seemed comfortable out there. This is obviously not what the Verde faithful expected or desired out of Zardes this season, as he has zero goal contributions thus far.

With Zardes and Maxi Urruti not delivering goals, would you like to see Will Bruin start at the top?

Brad Stuver, who has been great thus far, had a night where he would like to have another chance at stopping that second Portland goal. It seemed like a goal that in prior weeks Stu would have saved routinely. He had some good-looking saves throughout the night, but it wasn’t the great performance we have seen from him in prior weeks.

Overall, this performance by Austin FC on the road had more positive performances than negative ones.

This team has gone down by a goal four times in the last two games and scored an equalizer in response each time. The resiliency and confidence we saw in 2022 is starting to come back.

Austin FC hosts New Mexico United in the U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday, May 10, at 8pm and then will continue MLS play as they host their rival from Frisco at Q2 stadium this Saturday, May 13, at 7:30pm.

Will they get their first win in two months? Can they continue to build off of these last two performances? Will they redeem their 2022 U.S. Open Cup fallout? Let us know in the comments below.