Austin visited BC Place and couldn’t find points as they drop a 2-1 result.

We knew it would be hard without Dani Pereira, and with the recent road results, this didn’t feel like a must-win. Dani was out due to yellow card accumulation; he will return against Sporting Kansas City on Saturday.

He is very much needed on this team, but I am glad he was able to rest up, as he has played the most minutes out of any Austin player not named Brad Stuver.

We saw two changes to the starting XI. Maxi Urruti played in place of Gyasi Zardes and Jhojan Valencia got the start in replacement of Dani Pereira.

Who Is Stepping Up?

The game probably didn’t go as planned when Rodney Redes is the lone goal scorer and the brightest in the attack for the team. Redes scored his first goal in MLS play over his three years with Austin.

The rest of the performances within the team left a lot to be desired.

I thought Jhojan Valencia did fine coming in for Dani. He had 100% accurate passes and a few recoveries on defense. He was not the issue in the midfield.

Maybe the only other player who didn’t play poor was Jon Gallagher. He looked fine for the most part, and had a few good challenges defensively and looked to move the ball forward in the attack.

Hopefully with Dani returning Saturday, we will see some of the other guys step up as they play more comfortable with Pereira on the field.

Who Is Dropping Off?

I could put most of the team on this list tonight. But, I’ll highlight just a few that had performances that stood out negatively.

Kipp Keller didn’t look good throughout the night. The young player has gotten opportunities due to injuries and has been improving. But he looked slow and out of place in a few moments.

The biggest blunder came as Vancouver went up 2-1 in the 72nd minute. Keller was seen trying to hang on with Sergio Cordova, and as he was tracking back, he looked to make some kind of contact with Brad Stuver or at least get in his way.

Keller’s biggest issue as a young player is his lack of self-awareness, and that was highlighted again tonight.

Julio Cascante also had a poor night. Especially being nowhere to be found on the first Vancouver goal. He also had trouble winning the ball, as he was just two for six on ground duels throughout the match.

Owen Wolff has seemed to disappear since his return from international duty. A lot of his performances may have been masked because of how good Dani Pereira is. In this match, without Dani, you saw the lack of movement and creativity of Owen stand out more.

Another one that stood out was Brad Stuver. This might be because we have come to expect greatness from him.

The ball went through his legs on the first goal and the second goal whatever happened with Kipp happened. Both goals there was no real attempt at saving it.

Granted, the defense was poor for both goals.

The entire attack could probably be put on this list as they had trouble all night in the final third producing chances.

Maxi Urruti couldn’t take advantage of his chance, as he didn’t produce any real chances in the attack. Gyasi Zardes seems to have the striker position on lock; he was just given a rest by Josh Wolff as we are in the midst of a string of games.

The Verde and Black return home to Q2 Stadium on Saturday as they take on Sporting Kansas City at 8:30 pm.

Can the guys find a way to find a result?

Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Cover image courtesy AppleTV