'One day we'll score the goals': Austin FC, after 10 matches, teetering between hope and hopelessness
Verde head coach Nico Estévez believes the goals will come. Do you?
Several things can be true at once.
After 10 matches, Austin FC is 5-4-1, playing at a 1.6 point per game clip that would produce the club's best season since 2022, just off the 1.65 PPG pace that got them second in the West.
After 10 matches, though, Verde have scored just seven goals, second lowest of the 2025 MLS teams who have played 10 matches to date, only better than a CF Montréal team that has invested far less in their attacking corps than Verde has.
Austin FC's still second in the West pending the outcome of Sunday matches, which will still likely leave the team no worse than fifth.
But the team's also lost its last two away matches by a combined 7-1 margin, and has a worrisome three of five losses in away matches played so far. Wins at LAFC and St. Louis could prove pivotal when it comes time to assess Decision Day odds, but this could be a team trying to answer the question "Will we make the playoffs?" versus "How many home matches will we play?" if current worrying negative trends chip away at their current position — second, yes, but just four points above the playoff line.
Austin's 2-0 loss to Houston on Saturday wasn't just the fumbling of an opportunity to snatch a road win against a reeling team.
Sure, the Dynamo's acquisition and immediate deployment of Ondřej Lingr arguably has earned them 40% of the points they've now amassed this season, and Saturday's outcome is a reminder that most MLS teams aren't the sum of early-season slow starts, and just because the Dynamo only averaged 0.56 PPG through their first nine matches, that doesn't mean they'll continue to play at that pace.
But they also had 11 players either questionable or out on their injury list on Friday, and though some of the questionable players were fit enough to make second-half sub appearances, a good deal of MLS success is making the most of your opportunities – racking up a good home record, getting results on the road as possible, and no matter what the venue, beating teams when they're vulnerable.
About the scoring
Naturally, the first thing on my mind after Saturday's match was Verde getting just seven goals in their first 10 matches, despite a good first 30 minutes in which the visitors were winning the possession battle and had engineered 0.17 worth of xG (per MLSSoccer.com's metrics) on three shots. While not stunning, it certainly bested Houston's single 0.09 xG attempt in their first half-hour, even if the momentum chart showed considerable flatness.
The passing map shows little connectedness among the front three players and not much service to those attacking players – perhaps a worrying sign that the offense that looked so potent in creating chances against the Galaxy eight days ago is inconsistent.
Austin FC head coach Nico Estévez didn't see it that way.
"In the first half, we had a couple of really good actions from Jáder [Obrian] running behind from [Osman] Bukari, and then crosses from [Jon] Gallagher joining also. And we have a really good linkup in place in the first half, using [Myrto] Uzuni and then playing wide and then attacking the box.
"Today, we had really good service, and in some of these situations, for us, it's just that we have to score," he added. "[If] you don't score, it's really difficult to win a game ... we have to keep working and trying to be better on that ... Offensively, in the first half, besides those moments, we were a little bit flat. It's true that we controlled the ball, but I miss a little bit of more verticality and aggression from our side, something that we took at halftime ... right away from the beginning of the second half, we were more vertical. We adjusted a couple things in the positioning of our center backs, that they were too low," noting that he also adjusted fullback positioning and sought for wings to run in behind.
Moving from tactics to The Wizard of Oz, Estévez sought for a less heart/more brain approach to play, but also expressed a confidence in what Austin was doing with a bewilderment that it didn't – as it hasn't for so many matches now – resulted in goals.
"I think we had very clear chances today ... one day we'll score the goals," he asserted. "This is the only thing I can tell [you] ... I mean, I cannot, I don't have a crystal ball, right?
"We can be more aggressive in a moment, as we were in the second half at the beginning, but the chances are there, and the opponent didn't have much chances to score," he added. "And I hope that this changes. Sometimes there are moments that teams have [when] they don't score goals, but I'm very optimistic that we will score goals."
The shot chart from Sebastián Bush's MLS Analytics – which featured a more dismal American Soccer Analysis-calculated xG disparity than the league site had – shows that Verde engineered no great or good chances in mustering only two shots on target.
As Saturday came to a close, Brandon Vázquez – who wasn't even active for this match due to illness – still led the club with two goals through 10 matches. Uzuni, a club record signing who scored 35 goals in 87 league matches for Granada (49 of those matches in La Liga, where he managed 12 goals against some of the best defensive units in the world), is on pace for just three goals this season, as is Bukari (who scored 19 goals in 57 league matches for Red Star Belgrade prior to coming to Austin).
I peeked in on a lot of fan comments last night, as fans tend to vent after tough losses and there's quite a bit to parse through. One fretted along the lines of "players seem to be good until they get to Austin," and though that's certainly a sweeping statement ignoring the likes of Brad Stuver, Brandon Hines-Ike, and 2021 and 2022 Diego Fagundez, I understand the sentiment and the genuine concern behind it.
Estévez believes that his players will score the goals one day. Last season, when his team struggled out of the gate with 10 goals in the first 10 games, goals did come — but largely only after he was dismissed on June 9. He's likely not to be dismissed in 2025 given that he's been Verde less than six months, but he's certainly got to be experiencing an uncomfortable déjà vu about now.
Midfield concerns
The third shot Austin took in the match was a fateful one – a long-distance effort from Dani Pereira leaving him injured after getting it off.
"I think he's going to be a long time out," said Estévez, clarifying that it was a quadriceps injury, and not revealing much beyond that pending tests early next week, but suspecting that it could be a month or longer – and not just any month, but a month crammed with seven league matches, at least one U.S. Open Cup match, and then a second depending on whether Austin can beat El Paso at home in that tournament Round of 32 contest.
While Owen Wolff exited the match intact, he may have suffered a bit of ego bruising given that it was arguably his worst match this season. The first (and, as offensive woes continue, deciding) goal came on a double error from the 20-year-old – first bodying Griffin Dorsey in the box for what could have been a PK-worthy foul in the eyes of referee Chris Penso, and then making a bad pass when Penso gave the advantage, which effectively functioned as an assist to Lingr, who chested down the ball and slotted it just inside the post and just past a diving Stuver.
Ilie Sánchez, being a good captain in answering a question about Wolff's mistake, defended his play in Saturday's post-match video press conference by pointing to the entire season's body of work.
"What do you want me to say to our best player so far? There is nothing to say to Owen ... other than to keep doing what you're doing," he assessed. "He is the one that's been putting the team on his shoulders."
While Wolff has had a fantastic season so far, Saturday's performance indicates that in addition to everyone having at least one occasional off-night, the Verde roster is still incomplete. The newly-Robert Taylor might provide the sort of spark Lingr is providing for Houston, and he might be the missing creative piece that Verde needs to link a still-solid defense with an offense hungry for goals.
But, also, he may not ... and the concerns that arose and then stuck in 2023 and 2024, whether it was injuries or lack of scoring sending a bubble team under the playoff line, could surface in a sickeningly familiar way once again.
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.
Austin FC's record signing should have more than one goal at this stage of the season. We look at how he compares to other record signings other clubs made, and fret a bit.
Several things can be true at once.
After 10 matches, Austin FC is 5-4-1, playing at a 1.6 point per game clip that would produce the club's best season since 2022, just off the 1.65 PPG pace that got them second in the West.
After 10 matches, though, Verde have scored just seven goals, second lowest of the 2025 MLS teams who have played 10 matches to date, only better than a CF Montréal team that has invested far less in their attacking corps than Verde has.
Austin FC's still second in the West pending the outcome of Sunday matches, which will still likely leave the team no worse than fifth.
But the team's also lost its last two away matches by a combined 7-1 margin, and has a worrisome three of five losses in away matches played so far. Wins at LAFC and St. Louis could prove pivotal when it comes time to assess Decision Day odds, but this could be a team trying to answer the question "Will we make the playoffs?" versus "How many home matches will we play?" if current worrying negative trends chip away at their current position — second, yes, but just four points above the playoff line.
Austin's 2-0 loss to Houston on Saturday wasn't just the fumbling of an opportunity to snatch a road win against a reeling team.
Sure, the Dynamo's acquisition and immediate deployment of Ondřej Lingr arguably has earned them 40% of the points they've now amassed this season, and Saturday's outcome is a reminder that most MLS teams aren't the sum of early-season slow starts, and just because the Dynamo only averaged 0.56 PPG through their first nine matches, that doesn't mean they'll continue to play at that pace.
But they also had 11 players either questionable or out on their injury list on Friday, and though some of the questionable players were fit enough to make second-half sub appearances, a good deal of MLS success is making the most of your opportunities – racking up a good home record, getting results on the road as possible, and no matter what the venue, beating teams when they're vulnerable.
About the scoring
Naturally, the first thing on my mind after Saturday's match was Verde getting just seven goals in their first 10 matches, despite a good first 30 minutes in which the visitors were winning the possession battle and had engineered 0.17 worth of xG (per MLSSoccer.com's metrics) on three shots. While not stunning, it certainly bested Houston's single 0.09 xG attempt in their first half-hour, even if the momentum chart showed considerable flatness.
The passing map shows little connectedness among the front three players and not much service to those attacking players – perhaps a worrying sign that the offense that looked so potent in creating chances against the Galaxy eight days ago is inconsistent.
Austin FC head coach Nico Estévez didn't see it that way.
"In the first half, we had a couple of really good actions from Jáder [Obrian] running behind from [Osman] Bukari, and then crosses from [Jon] Gallagher joining also. And we have a really good linkup in place in the first half, using [Myrto] Uzuni and then playing wide and then attacking the box.
"Today, we had really good service, and in some of these situations, for us, it's just that we have to score," he added. "[If] you don't score, it's really difficult to win a game ... we have to keep working and trying to be better on that ... Offensively, in the first half, besides those moments, we were a little bit flat. It's true that we controlled the ball, but I miss a little bit of more verticality and aggression from our side, something that we took at halftime ... right away from the beginning of the second half, we were more vertical. We adjusted a couple things in the positioning of our center backs, that they were too low," noting that he also adjusted fullback positioning and sought for wings to run in behind.
Moving from tactics to The Wizard of Oz, Estévez sought for a less heart/more brain approach to play, but also expressed a confidence in what Austin was doing with a bewilderment that it didn't – as it hasn't for so many matches now – resulted in goals.
"I think we had very clear chances today ... one day we'll score the goals," he asserted. "This is the only thing I can tell [you] ... I mean, I cannot, I don't have a crystal ball, right?
"We can be more aggressive in a moment, as we were in the second half at the beginning, but the chances are there, and the opponent didn't have much chances to score," he added. "And I hope that this changes. Sometimes there are moments that teams have [when] they don't score goals, but I'm very optimistic that we will score goals."
The shot chart from Sebastián Bush's MLS Analytics – which featured a more dismal American Soccer Analysis-calculated xG disparity than the league site had – shows that Verde engineered no great or good chances in mustering only two shots on target.
As Saturday came to a close, Brandon Vázquez – who wasn't even active for this match due to illness – still led the club with two goals through 10 matches. Uzuni, a club record signing who scored 35 goals in 87 league matches for Granada (49 of those matches in La Liga, where he managed 12 goals against some of the best defensive units in the world), is on pace for just three goals this season, as is Bukari (who scored 19 goals in 57 league matches for Red Star Belgrade prior to coming to Austin).
I peeked in on a lot of fan comments last night, as fans tend to vent after tough losses and there's quite a bit to parse through. One fretted along the lines of "players seem to be good until they get to Austin," and though that's certainly a sweeping statement ignoring the likes of Brad Stuver, Brandon Hines-Ike, and 2021 and 2022 Diego Fagundez, I understand the sentiment and the genuine concern behind it.
Estévez believes that his players will score the goals one day. Last season, when his team struggled out of the gate with 10 goals in the first 10 games, goals did come — but largely only after he was dismissed on June 9. He's likely not to be dismissed in 2025 given that he's been Verde less than six months, but he's certainly got to be experiencing an uncomfortable déjà vu about now.
Midfield concerns
The third shot Austin took in the match was a fateful one – a long-distance effort from Dani Pereira leaving him injured after getting it off.
"I think he's going to be a long time out," said Estévez, clarifying that it was a quadriceps injury, and not revealing much beyond that pending tests early next week, but suspecting that it could be a month or longer – and not just any month, but a month crammed with seven league matches, at least one U.S. Open Cup match, and then a second depending on whether Austin can beat El Paso at home in that tournament Round of 32 contest.
While Owen Wolff exited the match intact, he may have suffered a bit of ego bruising given that it was arguably his worst match this season. The first (and, as offensive woes continue, deciding) goal came on a double error from the 20-year-old – first bodying Griffin Dorsey in the box for what could have been a PK-worthy foul in the eyes of referee Chris Penso, and then making a bad pass when Penso gave the advantage, which effectively functioned as an assist to Lingr, who chested down the ball and slotted it just inside the post and just past a diving Stuver.
Ilie Sánchez, being a good captain in answering a question about Wolff's mistake, defended his play in Saturday's post-match video press conference by pointing to the entire season's body of work.
"What do you want me to say to our best player so far? There is nothing to say to Owen ... other than to keep doing what you're doing," he assessed. "He is the one that's been putting the team on his shoulders."
While Wolff has had a fantastic season so far, Saturday's performance indicates that in addition to everyone having at least one occasional off-night, the Verde roster is still incomplete. The newly-Robert Taylor might provide the sort of spark Lingr is providing for Houston, and he might be the missing creative piece that Verde needs to link a still-solid defense with an offense hungry for goals.
But, also, he may not ... and the concerns that arose and then stuck in 2023 and 2024, whether it was injuries or lack of scoring sending a bubble team under the playoff line, could surface in a sickeningly familiar way once again.
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.
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