Austin FC — in need of a win or at least a draw on a Wednesday night in which the team started 9th in the West — couldn’t get either.
Sebastián Driuissi scored a timely 8th goal of the year in the second half to answer Jordan Morris’s opener. But Albert Rusnák, a luxury of a halftime sub for Joao Paolo, got a 90th-minute goal to give Seattle the win. That sent Verde to their fifth straight loss in all competitions, finishing 2-1 — and, by the end of the evening, to 10th in the West, concerningly below the playoff line.
Summer nights and the Sounders coming to town have customarily been a bad mix: In July 2021, the Rave Green beat Verde 1-0 in the infamous “five teenagers” match, and three of the five under-20s who played in that match — Josh Atencio, Reed Baker-Whiting, and Ethan Dobbelaere started the match on Wednesday, almost as if head coach Brian Schmetzer was trolling his counterpart with his lineup choices.
Shortly after halftime, the Sounders found the opening goal through two of the stars who also got starts — with Nico Lodeiro sending a free kick perilously in front of goal and Jordan Morris clanging the ball off Brad Stuver’s chest to score.
That was perhaps foretold by one of the best chances left wanting for Seattle in the first half — in the 38th minute, Morris got around just-announced Costa Rica national team player Julio Cascante and fired a shot in that Stuver was able to save.
Austin got close to scoring four minutes prior, for their best chance of the first half, with a double d’oh in the 34th minute. Memo Rodriguez forced Stefan Frei into a save, and Emiliano Rigoni got a leg around Nouhou at a tight angle near the post to attempt the putback.
That also foretold what would happen in the 56th minute: Rigoni got off a Jon Gallagher-assisted header that Stefan Frei pawed out of the goal — with at least one of the camera angles shown on the stadium jumbotron showing the ball being scooped out from beyond the post inside the goal.
