The Morning After: Estevez assesses a clean sheet, dominating in midfield, and needing to finish better in an opening win

If you look at the very incomplete MLS standings with most (but not all) of the Week 1 matches played, you'll see that Austin FC is listed 4th in the West[[1]]. LAFC is right "above" Verde in the standings, even though they're on the exact same goals for, goals against, and goal differential.

But, following the 1-0 win over Sporting Kansas City on Saturday night in a cold and damp Q2 Stadium, Verde finds itself three points closer to securing a playoff berth and righting the listing ship that the last two seasons have been.

Of course, it's quite early to read into that: Last year's bottom-dwelling Quakes are currently atop the West thanks to a 4-0 win over RSL that furthers new head coach Bruce Arena's reputation as the MLS Whisperer.

While the win was welcome, Austin FC head coach Nico Estévez indicated the team still has some work to do, especially in the final third, where they managed 12 shots but just two on target, scoring the match's lone goal on a corner kick inartfully finished by Osman Bukari. (But it counted all the same.)

'I didn't do a good job setting him up'

"I think we have to be better there," Estévez reflected. "It's interesting, because I think we arrive in really good ways. I prefer to arrive and to create very clear chances than to create a lot of crosses without any sense ... to have more control ... more with more quality. And this is a little bit the lie of the game, right?

"Because if Brandon scores that one," referring to a Vázquez 82nd-minute shot that hit the crossbar, "and if Dani scored the one that he had," nodding to the 47th-minute close-range attempt that sailed over the crossbar, "you've scored three."

Per MLS Analytics, neither team crossed the 1 xG threshold, though SKC sat deeper and focused more on defense, going without a shot in the first half hour and registering an average defensive action line much lower than Austin's. (The defensive actions graphic shows just how much more SKC defended inside their own box.)

Estévez said it is on him (Yes! Accountability from a head coach after his first match with Verde!) to determine how to get better service to Vázquez in the greater quest toward more scoring.

"His work rate was amazing, the way that he pressed, the way that he helped the team; also, the way that he won the area duels, some of the runs that he made in behind, a couple of the chances that he had," he assessed. "I think we, in the attacking side, we have to provide more. I think we were good enough, and I didn't do a good job setting up him or the team to serve him better.

And I think it's something that I can improve, and I have to do better for the next games, because he was in great positions all the time. And if we can find him more, it will be great. But on the other hand, he was always with two defenders, and we found other players free because of that, and we were able to create good chances to score with other players."

'They controlled the midfield'

Estevez also praised the midfield trio of Pereira, Owen Wolff, and Ilie Sánchez.

"They were outstanding," he said when asked specifically about Pereira and Wolff. "They controlled the midfield with Ilie. Having Ilie helps to give them a little bit more organization. The game plan was based on them to give them the advantages, or when in the pocket, and Dani joining late in the pocket, first in the base, because he helps us a lot in the base with Ilie, and we create that special pocket with [fullback Guilherme] Biro a little bit low, Buka wide, Owen underneath in between the lines. And it worked very well. We were unlucky not to create more dangerous plays from those situations. But, I mean, they're really talented players ... and we're lucky to have them."

As for Sánchez, Estévez noted, "He dominates the game. He understands the game. His understanding of the game is different. I had a great conversation with a coach about midfielders around the world, and it's funny. He had a conversation with an assistant coach to Hansi Flick at Barcelona, and he said, 'It's amazing. the midfielders here in Barcelona, we don't have to tell them much. We analyze the game, and every movement that they make is the right movement to make, and it is coming from a great education.' He's had a great career, good coaches ... we're lucky to have him and help the young players to grow in that understanding."

A clean sheet to start

Even though the match might have not been ideal from the offensive side, Austin did register a shutout in the opener, only leaning on goalkeeper Brad Stuver for two saves. The defense did well to shut down SKC's offense, particularly in the second half when head coach Peter Vermes subbed in Dejan Joveljić and Manu Garcia to kick his offense into a higher gear.

That manifested in one particularly dangerous sequence in front of goal, in which Mikkel Desler cleanly stripped Joveljić of the ball as the striker successfully worked himself into tap-in range.[[2]]

"They were dicing us up there a little bit in midfield," Stuver admitted. "Joveljić is a great player, and was able to find himself a little bit of space. And we got extremely compact at that moment, and Desler was in a perfect spot to make that clearance. And that's what we've been working on. We've been working on having each other's backs and getting compact and making sure that we always have someone there to make the play."

"When it comes down to a situation into the box, it's reacting quickly," Desler said of his goal-saving play. "I saw he slipped through the central defense, and I went in behind him to try to cover him, and I managed to get there in time. And, yeah, it helped the team in that situation."

Julio Cascante, giving a positive but measured account of the defense coupled with determination to work anew this week, praised Sánchez for what he's doing to stabilize back line play with his presence.

"He gives you so much confidence the way that he plays, he just gives you [that] as a center back," Cascante said. "You do that comfortably, you can play with him, and he's not gonna do anything wrong. He has everything, the control and the quality, the class that he plays with ... it's impressive."

Sánchez, complimenting the entire team's defensive effort, "Kansas City brought in good players from the bench, some of them starters for the football team ... and I think that we saw a better version of ourselves in the second half."

And Jon Gallagher, a flexible chess piece who initially deployed as a left winger before finishing the match as a right back, observed, "You've seen games here in the past due to turn into basketball games in the last 30 minutes. We continue to dominate the last 30, but also keep it tight at the back and not allow transitions, which was really important. I thought everyone played a part."

Coaching is key

Both Stuver and Pereira, who have been with Austin FC for the club's whole history, noted a discernible difference with a new coaching staff at the helm.

"Nico is very driven, but he tries to work with players around like what they're seeing," Stuver revealed. "He asks what we're seeing. He definitely implements his style and expects us to do things a certain way, but he tries to put us in the best position where he sees that we can benefit from it.

"He doesn't want to make us uncomfortable in a situation," he continued. "He wants to give us the options, and then he wants us to make the decision when we go back and look, it might not always be the right decision, but he wants to give us at least two or three different opportunities on the field, so that when we have the ball, he's like, 'Okay, this is what you should see. These are the options that you have.' It's up to you to make the right one. That's something I really like about Nico."

"Obviously, new coaches have new ideas," Pereira added, commenting on how they prepared during preseason. "That's something I think a lot of us were looking forward to.

"We're all behind each other," he added. "You can see that we're so tight on the field, and outside the field, too ... We've started on the right foot, and hopefully we can keep it going."

Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. You can comment here if you’re a subscriber, or reach out via Bluesky.

[[1]]: Which is my preseason prediction if we're holding me to a preseason prediction.

[[2]]: Somehow, this play is not in the league's highlight package for this match, but it should be.