'We were happy with what we did against Houston': Austin FC prepares for Denverde, then Leagues Cup, with optimism

Judging from what Davy Arnaud said in his Thursday morning media availability, you wouldn't think his team just lost 3-0 to Houston to remain 14th in the West at the halfway point of the season.

"We have a clear way that we want to do it and we want to play," Arnaud told the assembled media (both of them[[1]]), ahead of Saturday's match at Colorado, which leads into a 15-day pause in league action to allow for Verde's three Leagues Cup matches. "We're continuing to get better every single game, and we look at the process of what we're doing. We assess the results obviously, first based on the result, but from an attacking standpoint, with the ball, we were happy with what we did against Houston.

"We arrived in some really good positions," he explained. "We had 21 crosses in the game, which was the fourth most in the league this week. We arrived with three or four arrivers consistently in the box. We broke their last line. We're so close to getting two goals in that game. I know we don't score, but we're in so many positions. If we play that same game again, and we arrive in the positions we did," highlighting chances that Jon Gallagher, Brandon Vázquez, and Przemysław Płacheta had, "we're arriving in positions to score goals, so the process of what we're doing doesn't change. We believe in what we're doing and how we're attacking. And again, we have to keep getting better and now executing the final action."

He did grant that his team needs to be "more controlled" and "give a little less space behind our back line" than it did against Houston, while also diagnosing where the offense ran into issues.

"We really challenge these guys to consistently get a minimum of three players in the box, when we get in wide areas to cross balls, to serve balls, to provide service to the guys who are in there," he said. "It's hard in Houston. You know they sit low with a lot of numbers below the ball. It's not easy to generate goals against teams that defend like that. Having said that, again, we were happy looking at it with the chances we did generate, being on the road against a good team. We don't get the goal, but we have to look at it from the perspective of 'Did we arrive in good areas? Did we arrive with good numbers? And did we get good chances?' Which I thought overall, for a road game, I thought overall we did."

One key attacker — winger Jayden Nelson — was left on the bench for the last two matches, including a dramatic turn of events Saturday in which Nelson appeared ready to enter the match, before Arnaud sent the now-World Cup veteran back to the bench for not being "in the right mindset," in favor of Žan Kolmanič. According to Arnaud, whatever friction emerged late in that loss between he and Nelson is in the past.

"Jayden and I had a really good conversation a couple days after the game," he said. "Listen, this is an emotional game that we play, and I've also been a player too. I understand Jayden wants to play, he wants to help the team, and there's certain frustrations, but I have zero doubt about Jayden and his buy-in. Jayden is an awesome guy. Jayden's about the team. Jayden, I have no doubt, is going to keep helping this team. He's fully bought in, and, again, there are certain guys that you could maybe worry about, or past teams I've been on ... it's zero of an issue with Jayden."

Who will play?

Arnaud will also be down an additional midfielder heading into the annual match that Austin FC fans know as Denverde — a series of away matches that has included Austin FC's first-ever goal (from Diego Fagundez), a goal by Rafael Navarro in a 2-0 loss in 2024, an own goal by Rafael Navarro in a 2-0 win in 2025, a goal by former DP center back Andreas Maxsø in a 1-0 loss in 2023, and a 3-0 loss in September 2021 to offset the 1-1 draw in the initial Denverde match. Overall, factoring in the matches at Q2 as well as Dick's Sporting Goods Park, Austin FC is 4W 5L 2D lifetime against the Rapids, heading into this season's initial installment, with the hosts just above Verde at 13th in the West table.

On Thursday morning, Arnaud confirmed the veracity of reports that U22 Initiative player Nicolás Dubersarsky was off to Argentine side Tigre on a year loan with an option for Tigre to buy; by evening, that was declared finalized via press release. While it opens up a U22 spot and an international spot on the roster through the 2027 sprint season, it also leaves Arnaud with just Ilie Sánchez to slot in at the base of the midfield as a "natural" six, though perhaps it allows Joseph Rosales to play more centrally rather than drifting there as an inverted wingback.

(It also could give a little more sustenance to the rumor that Uruguayan defensive midfielder Emi Martinez could be coming over from Palmeiras to Austin, though his contract and transfer fee would likely require a designated player slot — which Austin currently does not have.)

Arnaud also confirmed that Jon Bell's pubis injury and Mikkel Desler's Achilles injury remain issues, leaving the back line thin for Saturday.

However, come Leagues Cup, the tournament's roster rules will apparently allow for several second-team call-ups[[2]], including midfielder Jorge Alastuey — a player that some (including Verde All Day) have been advocating for Arnaud to activate to see how he fares against MLS competition (and, with Leagues Cup factored in, Liga MX competition).

"As far as Jorge goes, we're very pleased and proud of what Jorge's done in the last year and a half here," Arnaud said. "He's out here in training with us pretty often, as much as he is with the second team, and we're hoping to use him as needed in training. And then how things progress from there, we'll still see. We're still working on a few things, but we're happy with what Jorge's done."

[Note: Less than a half hour after publishing this story, the club announced it signed Alastuey to a first-team contract. Thanks for listening to us!]

'I really want to win games with Austin'

One player who looks like he could have more midfield opportunities, Besard Šabović, was chosen for Thursday's media availability — a sign that he'll at least be on the roster come Saturday.

"They're a difficult team at home," Šabović said of the Rapids. "They have some advantage with altitude stuff that we are not maybe used to. But other than that, it's a good team, and we have to respect them for what they're good at, and that we have been working on since the last game. So we are well prepared."

While acknowledging the defensive lapses that cost Verde the match at Houston, he's with Arnaud in seeing positives from the performance.

"When you have two, three mistakes and they punish you at those moments, it's very tough, and that set the tone for the whole game, but I don't think the result was like an equal picture for the game," he observed.

Šabović noted that despite a challenging season for he and his teammates, Arnaud as an interim head coach and the midseason break provided a needed reset — and in Arnaud, he sees a coach with a very defined playing style.

"It was a really tough start of the season for me and for the team. Me not playing as much as I wanted, and maybe when I played, not contributing the way I wanted to contribute, and of course very frustrating if it does not goes well for you and for the team. So I think the short break we had was very well spent for me, focusing. Obviously, David being the new head coach gives you a new energy and more hunger to show and to be ready. So, [I've] just been training a lot and putting in the work, trying to show that I really want to play and I really want to to win games with Austin.

"We're playing a different type of style now in offense and defense," he continued. "I think David has a clear picture and we try to do the same things and become good at our Austin FC identity, rather than to play against or to manage too much of the opposite teams. Like how they play, we want to focus more on our play and how we're going to play rather than how they are playing, and how we can like be ready to be against them more than they should be willing to play against us."

That said, he also acknowledges there's room for improvement.

"We have to become better as a collective because we have goals as a team, and to reach those goals, we have to win games. And for that to happen, we have to put the work in here every day to have the results in the games," he said. "I've really been trying to push myself, and I think a lot of players have been trying to push themselves., because nobody is happy at where we are right now, and we are really trying to change things around.

"We're really more keeping each other accountable, but in a good way," he added. "Like, if you're a close friend or brother [and] something's messing up, you can tell him straight away, straight up, not [behind] his back. So I think we have to have, I don't know how you say it in English, but like a high ceiling, so we can tell each other things, but take it in the right way. Because at the end of the day, we all want to win the game together, and we're all trying to reach the same goal. So we're not against each other. We're all with each other. So you have to take when somebody says something, you have to take in a good way, because he wants you to do good and not bad."

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]]: Including Verde All Day's Moisés Chiullán!

[[2]]: There's some confusing wording in those rules about players needing to meet MLS roster rules, and the limit on second-team short-term call-ups that Alastuey has already met ... but in conferring with the club, and remembering Valentin Nöel's case when he was with the club, we're reasonably sure Alastuey can be part of the Leagues Cup squad.