A new jersey unveiled and a preseason match only gauzily unveiled
Austin FC fans got to confirm the existence of a kit they knew a lot about, then got a smidge of info about the team's preseason form.
On Wednesday, Austin FC officially debuted its new Heartbeat Kit, the third home uniform in the club's five-year history, via a short film narrated by Matthew McConaughey (a minority owner in the club), and cameos by Gary Clark, Jr. (who the club previously shared modeling the kit in its social media accounts to provide the first proper look at it), Jimmie Vaughn, and Ray Benson — keeping some Austin music elder hall of famer throughlines with the narrative around last year's Armadillo Kit — and featuring some of the fans you might have seen bringing energy on game day (and subscribing to Verde All Day; thank you!).
Energy once brought for schedule releases now go to kit releases
My assessment of the jersey has experienced several stages. First, there was the Footy Headlines rendering, which did not inspire, and then the photo of what might have been a crude replica jersey on a hanger, which also didn't inspire.
Then, there was the unofficial reveal from Jane Ko's inadvertent (probably) Instagram post, which was better in that it was shown in its real colors on a real human being, but still brought some questions to the table (namely, the collar, which I believe she tucked in, weirdly), and then the official club unveiling, which happily revealed that the collar was a lot better than we'd been led to believe. The kit is saddled with the weird swooping stripes on the sides that are de rigueur for this year's Adidas kits, but they're less intrusive here compared to some of the other jerseys released around the league.
Hey, we know that guy (Austin FC Communications)
On the whole, it's a bold departure from the green and black vertical stripe look that the club established in its first two home kits — the original with a normal number of stripes, and the Las Voces kit, nicknamed the "barcode kit" for its abnormal number of stripes.
I'm predicting that when we get another home kit in 2027, the club will revert back to some variation of green and black striping (or maybe a predominantly black kit with thin green stripes just to mix it up even more), but going green-on-green means that fans will be able to rep Verde in the stands in some fairly sun-friendly colors this year, whether wearing the Heartbeat Kit or last year's Armadillo Kit.
Oh, also, Austin FC played soccer today
The team finished out its Coachella Valley Invitational sojourn on Wednesday afternoon[[1]] with a match against Charlotte FC that did not stream and was only delivered to Austin FC fans in short communication bursts via WhatsApp and just WhatsApp. By the way, did you know that Austin FC maintains a WhatsApp account?
Charlotte won 1-0, but highlights of the match for Austin, per WhatsApp[[2]], were:
Stefan Cleveland saving a 85th-minute penalty kick (yes, Cleveland played keeper for the whole 90), and
Osman Bukari, part of a contingent of six second-half subs, hit a shot from distance (from a left wing position; curious) in the 81st minute that Charlotte's keeper had to tip over the bar.
Austin rolled out a starting lineup that mix starters and subs/second-teamers:
GK: Stefan Cleveland
Defenders: Mikkel Desler, Oleksandr Svatok, Leo Väisänen, Žan Kolmanič
Midfielders: Ervin Torres, Micah Burton, Diego Rubio, Diego Abarco
Forwards: CJ Fodrey, Jimmybryant Farkarlun
This is a best guess, but based on where these players typically play and the order in which the club listed them, they maybe started in a 4-4-2? With players you wouldn't normally feature in a starting 4-4-2 attack?
The line change in the second half (exact minute not provided), included the aforementioned Bukari, along with Owen Wolff, Jon Gallagher, Julio Cascante, Guilherme Biro, and Brendan Hines-Ike.
In the Preseason Is a Liar 2025 Tour, it's clear that head coach Nico Estévez is, as Bruce Arena once famously said about Clint Dempsey, in "he tries shit" mode. I'm sure it's more calculated than that, and there's some greater purpose here in seeing which players combine and play off each other best, but let's such say it's unlikely that Brandon Vázquez, Dani Pereira, and Brad Stuver would sit in any regular season match of import were they available [[3]].
What's next?
Kit-wise, Austin FC's hosting a Heartbeat Kit event at the Parish (501 Brushy, just east of downtown, it's functionally East Downtown) on Thursday night. I have no idea how non-media people get in; sorry. Incidentally, this is the venue where Austin FC premiered its logo, so there's a cool fifth-year full-circle narrative here. (Here's an archived article from 2018 when I covered the event for Pro Soccer USA; excited that I found this, because I did a lot of amazing work for this site around the Columbus-to-Austin move and the media company in charge of the site just decided to POOF the site at the onset of COVID-19.[[4]]
As for the squad, they're playing a Saturday match against Nashville SC that is also closed-door. That includes for media. (I asked. It doesn't hurt to ask.)
I assume we'll get social media updates on myriad platforms and not just WhatsApp. But there's no substitute for being there, which we'll get to do again in 10 days.
[[1]]: 1 pm CT; 11 am PT
[[2]]: Yes, I'm belaboring the WhatsApp thing a bit, but also, if you're reading this online, you need to go to the site to check out the code injection I just imported into the website that allows for incredible dynamic mouse-over footnotes.
[[3]]: Indeed, I think we're headed for another every regular-season minute season for Stuver barring injury. I feel better about Cleveland as a sub than I did Andrew Tarbell after Stuver won the starting job (and now, in retrospect, Wolff naming Stuver the opening day starter in 2021 and sticking with him might be the singular best coaching decision Josh Wolff ever made, and that includes plugging Moussa Djitté into the lineup for the playoff-clinching hat trick) (also, if you're not reading this on the site, you need to, because the mouse-over footnotes are magical)
[[4]]: I also worked for a site managed by a different but similar major media company that did layoffs (layoffs that included me, a week after my first home purchase), right after 9/11 thanks to 9/11 uncertainty. A reminder that your subscription to this site helps people like me circumvent those forces.
On Wednesday, Austin FC officially debuted its new Heartbeat Kit, the third home uniform in the club's five-year history, via a short film narrated by Matthew McConaughey (a minority owner in the club), and cameos by Gary Clark, Jr. (who the club previously shared modeling the kit in its social media accounts to provide the first proper look at it), Jimmie Vaughn, and Ray Benson — keeping some Austin music elder hall of famer throughlines with the narrative around last year's Armadillo Kit — and featuring some of the fans you might have seen bringing energy on game day (and subscribing to Verde All Day; thank you!).
Energy once brought for schedule releases now go to kit releases
My assessment of the jersey has experienced several stages. First, there was the Footy Headlines rendering, which did not inspire, and then the photo of what might have been a crude replica jersey on a hanger, which also didn't inspire.
Then, there was the unofficial reveal from Jane Ko's inadvertent (probably) Instagram post, which was better in that it was shown in its real colors on a real human being, but still brought some questions to the table (namely, the collar, which I believe she tucked in, weirdly), and then the official club unveiling, which happily revealed that the collar was a lot better than we'd been led to believe. The kit is saddled with the weird swooping stripes on the sides that are de rigueur for this year's Adidas kits, but they're less intrusive here compared to some of the other jerseys released around the league.
On the whole, it's a bold departure from the green and black vertical stripe look that the club established in its first two home kits — the original with a normal number of stripes, and the Las Voces kit, nicknamed the "barcode kit" for its abnormal number of stripes.
I'm predicting that when we get another home kit in 2027, the club will revert back to some variation of green and black striping (or maybe a predominantly black kit with thin green stripes just to mix it up even more), but going green-on-green means that fans will be able to rep Verde in the stands in some fairly sun-friendly colors this year, whether wearing the Heartbeat Kit or last year's Armadillo Kit.
Oh, also, Austin FC played soccer today
The team finished out its Coachella Valley Invitational sojourn on Wednesday afternoon[[1]] with a match against Charlotte FC that did not stream and was only delivered to Austin FC fans in short communication bursts via WhatsApp and just WhatsApp. By the way, did you know that Austin FC maintains a WhatsApp account?
Charlotte won 1-0, but highlights of the match for Austin, per WhatsApp[[2]], were:
Austin rolled out a starting lineup that mix starters and subs/second-teamers:
This is a best guess, but based on where these players typically play and the order in which the club listed them, they maybe started in a 4-4-2? With players you wouldn't normally feature in a starting 4-4-2 attack?
The line change in the second half (exact minute not provided), included the aforementioned Bukari, along with Owen Wolff, Jon Gallagher, Julio Cascante, Guilherme Biro, and Brendan Hines-Ike.
In the Preseason Is a Liar 2025 Tour, it's clear that head coach Nico Estévez is, as Bruce Arena once famously said about Clint Dempsey, in "he tries shit" mode. I'm sure it's more calculated than that, and there's some greater purpose here in seeing which players combine and play off each other best, but let's such say it's unlikely that Brandon Vázquez, Dani Pereira, and Brad Stuver would sit in any regular season match of import were they available [[3]].
What's next?
Kit-wise, Austin FC's hosting a Heartbeat Kit event at the Parish (501 Brushy, just east of downtown, it's functionally East Downtown) on Thursday night. I have no idea how non-media people get in; sorry. Incidentally, this is the venue where Austin FC premiered its logo, so there's a cool fifth-year full-circle narrative here. (Here's an archived article from 2018 when I covered the event for Pro Soccer USA; excited that I found this, because I did a lot of amazing work for this site around the Columbus-to-Austin move and the media company in charge of the site just decided to POOF the site at the onset of COVID-19.[[4]]
As for the squad, they're playing a Saturday match against Nashville SC that is also closed-door. That includes for media. (I asked. It doesn't hurt to ask.)
I assume we'll get social media updates on myriad platforms and not just WhatsApp. But there's no substitute for being there, which we'll get to do again in 10 days.
[[1]]: 1 pm CT; 11 am PT
[[2]]: Yes, I'm belaboring the WhatsApp thing a bit, but also, if you're reading this online, you need to go to the site to check out the code injection I just imported into the website that allows for incredible dynamic mouse-over footnotes.
[[3]]: Indeed, I think we're headed for another every regular-season minute season for Stuver barring injury. I feel better about Cleveland as a sub than I did Andrew Tarbell after Stuver won the starting job (and now, in retrospect, Wolff naming Stuver the opening day starter in 2021 and sticking with him might be the singular best coaching decision Josh Wolff ever made, and that includes plugging Moussa Djitté into the lineup for the playoff-clinching hat trick) (also, if you're not reading this on the site, you need to, because the mouse-over footnotes are magical)
[[4]]: I also worked for a site managed by a different but similar major media company that did layoffs (layoffs that included me, a week after my first home purchase), right after 9/11 thanks to 9/11 uncertainty. A reminder that your subscription to this site helps people like me circumvent those forces.
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