0-0, followed by 'Oh! Oh!': Austin FC draws San Antonio FC in preseason opener, then announces Facundo Torres signing
Austin FC started the 2026 preseason with a scoreless draw against San Antonio. But then it announced one of its most consequential player signings ever.
It was quite an eventful Friday.
In a match originally scheduled for Saturday — moved up to Friday afternoon to allow the teams to beat an advancing winter storm — Austin FC started its 2026 preseason[[1]] with a 0-0 draw against San Antonio FC behind closed doors [[2]] at St. David's Performance Center.
Then, to counter what appears on the surface to have been an underwhelming performance — albeit, with a number of key offensive pieces missing — the club made official its rumored Facundo Torres signing, which we already did our chart-heavy analysis on in anticipation of it going official.[[3]]
But the details of the deal add to the lore of Austin FC sporting director Rodolfo Borrell, who has the Uruguayan winger under contract until, counting the option year, the summer of 2031.
San Antonio FC famously (or infamously) beat Austin FC 2-1 on April 20, 2022, in Verde's first-ever U.S. Open Cup — and despite preseason matchups after that, that's remained a defining moment for what could be a rivalry should the teams ever get to play in a tournament again.
As is customary for preseason, Austin FC head coach Nico Estévez opted for a split-squad approach, and filled in some lineup holes with Austin FC II players.
Here's how the team started:
Brad Stuver; Jon Gallagher, Jon Bell, Mateja Đorđević, Guilherme Biro; Ilie Sánchez, Joseph Rosales; Patrick Cayelli, Ervin Torres, Mohammad Badawiya; CJ Fodrey.
Badawiya is an Austin FC II midfielder who has come up through the Academy ranks, and Cayelli is a SuperDraft pick who will likely also end up as an Austin FC II midfielder[[4]]. I'm assuming a 4-2-3-1 formation to start, based on the looks of this.
Stefan Dobrijevic, another SuperDraft pick, spelled Cayelli after a half hour.
You might not recognize all the names, especially Barro, who is an Austin FC II player from Côte d'Ivoire who moved to Spain and previously played with RCD Mallorca B. Alastuey and Dănciuțiu are VerDos veterans.
I honestly can't figure out this formation; it looks like a 3-3-3-1, with Hines-Ike as a lone centerback, Kolmanič and Thomas playing as elbow backs, but with no obvious wingbacks to round out the back five. On paper, it looks like a very narrow formation.
Micah Burton spelled Dănciuțiu in the 65th, Chuy Moreno (an Academy player on an amateur deal with VerDos) came in for Šabović in the 70th, and no one scored any goals.
If you count the 2027 "sprint" season as a full season, the Facundo Torres is an incredible five-year deal (2026 season, 2027 petit season, 2027-2028, 2028-2029, and 2029-30 season), with an option year in 2030-2031. To give you perspective, when Austin FC played its first home game, my daughter was almost four, and when it comes time for the club to activate Torres' option (being optimistic that he'll be great here), my daughter will be a teenager. This contract is a commitment that makes Torres Verde throughout the entirety of his prime soccer-playing years.
He also retains the green card he got when he was with Orlando, so he won't take one of the club's precious international spots. That's right: Two of Verde's three designated players are domestic. That's not common in MLS.
The club also crafted a fantastic inspiring arrival quote for him: "“I couldn’t be happier to be an Austin FC player. The ambition behind what the Club[[5]] is building and the incredible soccer community there were both big factors in convincing me that this was the right move to make.”
The question I've got immediately for my short-term concerns: How many minutes will he play on Feb. 1 when Austin hosts NYCFC at Q2 Stadium? While I love looking at his stats and spider charts, I also want to see him live on a field against MLS competition.
Judging from the North End Podcast's Green Smoke "Emergency Livestream" (that's almost an IP violation, guys) earlier today, a lot of fans are not only excited to see him play, but to see him "defy" the "disappointing" expected assist numbers that national pundits have been citing in questioning the move for Verde.
For the record, as focused on numbers as I am, I also acknowledge that Torres was probably not lying awake at night while racking up 72 goal contributions during 48, 63, and 52-point seasons and wondering, "Why isn't my xA higher?"
In short, this is a good signing, he will be a fun player, and you should be happy.
Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. For more coverage, check out Emergency Podcast! (an Austin FC Podcast) wherever you get your podcasts.
[[1]]: Suggested tagline: "Preseason results STILL don't matter!"
[[2]]: A Verde Hill trip with binoculars might have been a possibility, but not on a weekday afternoon; all I have to go on is social media posting.
[[3]]: This is something I must address. You may have heard earlier this week that FBref, the site where I sourced charts and did data deep dives, announced to the world, "The provider of our advanced soccer data sent us a letter terminating our access to their data feeds and requiring the deletion of their data from the site immediately." I'm connected with two additional sources that will help me research numbers and make charts, and I'm planning to unveil some of that as soon as the news doesn't get in the way of the article I'm planning, but it will look different – perhaps better – but I will miss FBref a great deal. Fandom for nerds just took a sad step back.
[[4]]: Austin FC Comms lead Cam Koubek reminds me that Cayelli is technically a trialist as a non-Generation Adidas SuperDraft pick until he signs a contract, even though the arc of MLS preseason is long, but it bends toward Cayelli being a VerDos player.
[[5]]: Players always pronounce it with a capital C.
On Thursday, Austin FC head coach Nico Estévez touted new arrival Joseph Rosales as being positionally flexible. Which is good, given the current injury-riddled Verde attack.
Last year, Austin FC sporting director Rodolfo Borrell famously said, "We have no GAM." MLS just revealed that, compared to the rest of the league, Verde's situation hasn't improved much.
A sports hernia is not the same thing as a hernia, and that's good. But it's still sidelining Owen Wolff for what's optimistically estimated at four to six weeks.
It was quite an eventful Friday.
In a match originally scheduled for Saturday — moved up to Friday afternoon to allow the teams to beat an advancing winter storm — Austin FC started its 2026 preseason[[1]] with a 0-0 draw against San Antonio FC behind closed doors [[2]] at St. David's Performance Center.
Then, to counter what appears on the surface to have been an underwhelming performance — albeit, with a number of key offensive pieces missing — the club made official its rumored Facundo Torres signing, which we already did our chart-heavy analysis on in anticipation of it going official.[[3]]
But the details of the deal add to the lore of Austin FC sporting director Rodolfo Borrell, who has the Uruguayan winger under contract until, counting the option year, the summer of 2031.
But let's get to the match first.
What we know about the scoreless draw
San Antonio FC famously (or infamously) beat Austin FC 2-1 on April 20, 2022, in Verde's first-ever U.S. Open Cup — and despite preseason matchups after that, that's remained a defining moment for what could be a rivalry should the teams ever get to play in a tournament again.
As is customary for preseason, Austin FC head coach Nico Estévez opted for a split-squad approach, and filled in some lineup holes with Austin FC II players.
Here's how the team started:
Badawiya is an Austin FC II midfielder who has come up through the Academy ranks, and Cayelli is a SuperDraft pick who will likely also end up as an Austin FC II midfielder[[4]]. I'm assuming a 4-2-3-1 formation to start, based on the looks of this.
Stefan Dobrijevic, another SuperDraft pick, spelled Cayelli after a half hour.
The second-half lineup looked like this:
You might not recognize all the names, especially Barro, who is an Austin FC II player from Côte d'Ivoire who moved to Spain and previously played with RCD Mallorca B. Alastuey and Dănciuțiu are VerDos veterans.
I honestly can't figure out this formation; it looks like a 3-3-3-1, with Hines-Ike as a lone centerback, Kolmanič and Thomas playing as elbow backs, but with no obvious wingbacks to round out the back five. On paper, it looks like a very narrow formation.
Micah Burton spelled Dănciuțiu in the 65th, Chuy Moreno (an Academy player on an amateur deal with VerDos) came in for Šabović in the 70th, and no one scored any goals.
San Antonio FC's Instagram account had some nice pics of Verde players interwoven, and Austin FC's 'gram did its usual thing.
A 5+1, you say?
If you count the 2027 "sprint" season as a full season, the Facundo Torres is an incredible five-year deal (2026 season, 2027 petit season, 2027-2028, 2028-2029, and 2029-30 season), with an option year in 2030-2031. To give you perspective, when Austin FC played its first home game, my daughter was almost four, and when it comes time for the club to activate Torres' option (being optimistic that he'll be great here), my daughter will be a teenager. This contract is a commitment that makes Torres Verde throughout the entirety of his prime soccer-playing years.
He also retains the green card he got when he was with Orlando, so he won't take one of the club's precious international spots. That's right: Two of Verde's three designated players are domestic. That's not common in MLS.
The club also crafted a fantastic inspiring arrival quote for him: "“I couldn’t be happier to be an Austin FC player. The ambition behind what the Club[[5]] is building and the incredible soccer community there were both big factors in convincing me that this was the right move to make.”
The question I've got immediately for my short-term concerns: How many minutes will he play on Feb. 1 when Austin hosts NYCFC at Q2 Stadium? While I love looking at his stats and spider charts, I also want to see him live on a field against MLS competition.
Judging from the North End Podcast's Green Smoke "Emergency Livestream" (that's almost an IP violation, guys) earlier today, a lot of fans are not only excited to see him play, but to see him "defy" the "disappointing" expected assist numbers that national pundits have been citing in questioning the move for Verde.
For the record, as focused on numbers as I am, I also acknowledge that Torres was probably not lying awake at night while racking up 72 goal contributions during 48, 63, and 52-point seasons and wondering, "Why isn't my xA higher?"
In short, this is a good signing, he will be a fun player, and you should be happy.
Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. For more coverage, check out Emergency Podcast! (an Austin FC Podcast) wherever you get your podcasts.
[[1]]: Suggested tagline: "Preseason results STILL don't matter!"
[[2]]: A Verde Hill trip with binoculars might have been a possibility, but not on a weekday afternoon; all I have to go on is social media posting.
[[3]]: This is something I must address. You may have heard earlier this week that FBref, the site where I sourced charts and did data deep dives, announced to the world, "The provider of our advanced soccer data sent us a letter terminating our access to their data feeds and requiring the deletion of their data from the site immediately." I'm connected with two additional sources that will help me research numbers and make charts, and I'm planning to unveil some of that as soon as the news doesn't get in the way of the article I'm planning, but it will look different – perhaps better – but I will miss FBref a great deal. Fandom for nerds just took a sad step back.
[[4]]: Austin FC Comms lead Cam Koubek reminds me that Cayelli is technically a trialist as a non-Generation Adidas SuperDraft pick until he signs a contract, even though the arc of MLS preseason is long, but it bends toward Cayelli being a VerDos player.
[[5]]: Players always pronounce it with a capital C.
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