• Home
  • Newsletter
  • Austin FC draws Red Bulls, 3-3, in Coachella Valley Invitational finale
By Phil West profile image Phil West
4 min read

Austin FC draws Red Bulls, 3-3, in Coachella Valley Invitational finale

Jimmy Farkarlun, Diego Rubio, and Jader Obrian all scored, but Verde once again couldn't keep a lead in Wednesday's preseason contest.

Austin FC’s penultimate preseason game for 2024 — and the finale in its three-match Coachella Valley Invitational run — was a wild (we assume) 3-3 tilt with New York Red Bulls on Wednesday. That leaves Verde with a 2W 1L 3D record through six preseason matches, even though preseason results don’t count.

As with last Wednesday’s match against Chicago Fire FC, this one had its information entirely mediated by social media — unfortunately, I couldn’t stay in Indio past Sunday to watch this one as well, though it was tempting.

Special thanks to Jennifer Levitt, though, who kept Los Verdes Slack updated with live posts throughout the match, revealing things we might not know otherwise (like an Emi Rigoni would-be goal called back for offside which could have proven vital).

It happened: Guilherme Biro has now officially kicked a ball in a match for Verde (Austin FC/Twitter)

The questions I had going into this one, carrying over in part from my getting to see them and talk to them on Sunday, included:

  • The injury to Julio Cascante that Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff just kind of casually dropped into an answer about team fitness on Sunday. After how Wednesday unfurled, it’s more of a concern now.
  • Jimmy Farkarlun (is it Jimmy? Bryant? Wolff calls him “Bryant” and was puzzled when I asked about “Jimmy” on Sunday) had a breakout match on Sunday, so I was wondering about his continued progress.
  • Concerns about how the first-team offense looks with the new emphasis on defense, instruction to the fullbacks to maybe not get so far forward to escape the calamity of last season and 55 goals against, and two of the three goals on Sunday not coming until quite late.

I was also curious about Diego Rubio; he had a lively and productive 20 minutes in Sunday’s match — would that continue?

Here’s what we found out on Wednesday.

By Phil West profile image Phil West
Updated on
Newsletter