Maybe Austin FC isn’t destined to make this year’s playoffs.
Despite generating nearly 3.5 worth of expected goals by one service’s metric — a stat that Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff was eager to share after Saturday’s match — Verde fell 2-1 to Toronto FC in an away match that provided an opportunity to bring Verde within reach of ninth place and a berth in this year’s post-season.
Instead, Wolff and his team return to Austin before a crucial two-match swing taking them to Los Angeles on Wednesday to face LAFC, then back home on Saturday to host the Dynamo.
As has been the case more than once this season, Wolff was left reconciling the opportunities his team generated in front of goal and the lack of goals resulting from those chances.
“We create way, way, way too many chances through run of play and through set pieces in both halves,” Wolff said, generally alluding to some of those chances, and then specifically isolating one painful first-half sequence where “the ball is inside the six, and we miss or whiff the toe poke. Opportunities where we are getting in front of goal break and again, the inability to connect the pass in front of goal, to open players or make a better decision and execute it.”
While he doesn’t believe this is the end of the line for Verde, saying, “The playoffs are still achievable,” he also remarked, “We have to pick up points … we want to arrive at that last game with the ability to win, to get in, and we know it's going to be challenging. This was a game [in which] I think there was one point at least, but three points available. We’ve just — you’ve got to take care of your chances in a better way. And if you do that, I think you're leaving here with a better feeling.”
