Add “perplexing” to the list of words Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff uses to describe his team, following a 2-0 loss to the Colorado Rapids on Saturday night. It’s a third straight loss — in a stretch in which Verde’s been outscored 9-1 and hasn’t managed a goal from open play.
“I think it's a fairly even game for the most part and, you know, goals will change games,” Wolff said, returning to one of his favorite maxims. “In the first half, the most perplexing part of the first half is the amount of times we're arriving around the last line, we're in positions to shoot, we're in positions to play balls in front of goal, and we're just not shooting or we're not executing the final pass at all. We're not even attempting it at times. And that's perplexing. That's disappointing.”
In particular, he questioned the decision-making of Jadér Obrian and Diego Rubio around goal, saying, “There's opportunities to shoot, there's opportunities to slip the ball to somebody else in front of goal,” faulting the players’ execution.
He then said, of Cole Bassett’s opening goal, “They put a ball in the box that somehow gets deflected or redirected, and they're able to take their chance and that's what the game is hinging on, sadly.”
