Austin returned after nearly a month off with the same problems, as they lost 6-3 from CITYPARK in St. Louis.
This was a performance that didn’t go to plan, as Austin went down early and never recovered.
Austin put out a lineup they haven’t used this year, as new addition Memo Rodriguez started for departed Diego Fagundez.
Other notables in the starting lineup are Adam Lundqvist starting in place of Nick Lima, Matt Hedges getting the start at center back, and Maxi Urruti getting the start at striker.
Who Is Stepping Up?
This match has to rank as one of the more poor performances as a collective Austin FC unit. With that said, let’s look at the glimmers of positivity to take away from the match.
The only two starters who gave some positive output were Memo Rodriguez and Sebastian Driussi. Memo came in, looked confident, and was able to push this attack forward at times. It wasn’t a great performance, but it wasn’t a complete negative, which separates him from a bunch of the other starters.
Driussi had good and bad moments. Again, I’ll put him here only because everyone else who started played worse. Driussi did finish the match with five shots and scored off a penalty. He was also 35/38 on passes for a 92% passing percentage. He didn’t have his magic, but it wasn’t a complete negative.
Coming off the bench, Will Bruin and Emiliano Rigoni were able to come in and give a spark to this attack, as both had second-half goals. It was good to see both have good moments in attack when they have struggled in their minutes this season. Hopefully, they can continue to apply offensive pressure in their minutes going forward.
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Who Is Dropping Off?
As I said, a lot of players could be added to this list. I’ll start with Julio Cascante, who looked mismatched all night in defense. He was seen ball watching and appeared slow with a lack of urgency throughout the night.
Adam Lundqvist gave a poor performance as he was subbed off in the 57th minute. After having some bright moments early on in the season, Lundy is a player that seems to be best used off of the bench.
Brad Stuver had a less than normal night for him as he saw six balls go in the net past him and one of those came off a poor ball given away from him in the late minutes to St. Louis for an easy goal. A rough night for Stu in the back.
I could add some more players to this list, I don’t think Owen Wolff gave a good performance and think Gyasi Zardes should be the consistent starter at striker, because I am not sure what Maxi Urruti has shown this year.
But, I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about how they had a month off to give this performance. I know Diego is gone, but Josh Wolff did not look like he had these guys prepared to honestly have a chance at leaving with points.
The pressure should be on Wolff going forward for the rest of the campaign. If they don’t make the playoffs, look for the hot seat to ramp up for Josh Wolff.
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Austin FC continues their season as they go on the road to play for Copa Tejas in Frisco, Texas as they take on FC Dallas at 7:30pm on Saturday.
Do you think this team can regroup and get a result against Dallas? Let us know in the comments below.
Images courtesy Apple TV
Man. Hard game to watch. I feel like the game was summed up in two plays: Memo’s beautiful shot that the keeper deflected and Stuver’s throw to STL for the final goal. The first was just the way we played offensively: close but somehow just not connecting. I was surprised that Driussi had such a high pass percentage; felt like we just couldn’t connect.
The second – Stuver’s giveaway – was the punctuation to what had happened all game. We GAVE St Louis so many opportunities and, unlike us, capitalized.
Thanks for the commentary!