Saturday night brought Austin FC fans the 12th-place team in the West against the 14th-place team in the West, in a contest where scoring was clearly going to be at a premium.
It also brought a Copa Tejas to Austin thanks to a 0-0 draw between Dallas and Houston that ended while Verde was reeling from a late first-half set-piece goal that put them down 1-0 in a match they had to win.
The goal came off a set piece in the 41st minute, with Andreas Maxsø held by Jon Gallagher on a corner kick but still managing to get his foot on an unimpeded ball and surprising Brad Stuver for the opener.
And it could have been merely the goal to make it 2-0 had Moïse Bombito not muffed a wide-open shot from a corner kick at the back post a few minutes earlier.
But that single well-worked goal was all the Colorado Rapids needed, beating Verde 1-0 in what head coach Josh Wolff termed a “must-win” match. As with other prior “must-win” matches at this stretch of the season, Austin couldn’t get the win, extending a dismal winless streak to 10 matches, and all but dooming the team to two of its first three seasons without playoff qualification.
