LA Galaxy 1, Austin FC 1: First impressions from the first Coachella match of 2025

In a Wednesday match that looked quite preseasony, with a notable flare-up between a Verde player and a former Verde player adding some fire, Austin FC drew LA Galaxy 1-1 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif., as part of the 2025 Coachella Valley Invitational.

While preseason matches have their own laconic quality to them (though you can really pep up a match watching it at 1.75 speed on YouTube, just sayin'), the match did have two notable goal sequences that do reveal some things about how the 2025 Austin FC season might go.

Here are a few of my initial impressions about the match.

The defense got caught out

The Galaxy's opening goal in the 8th minute started with fullback Miki Yamane getting past Dani Pereira and into space. From there, Yamane found Diego Fagundez to start an overload on MLS SuperDraft pick Riley Thomas' side of the field. Fagundez played Ruben Ramos Jr. in wide, and then Gabriel Pec made a near-post run to score. Ilie Sánchez was there for some too little/too late defense, but it showed a vulnerability that I'm sure Austin FC head coach Nico Estévez will want to work on.

(Here's the goal on The Bad Site, because the Galaxy hasn't landed on Bluesky yet.)

For much of the first half, Austin operated out of a back three, with Thomas cheating up the field. A stream on YouTube doesn't give us all the context we might want, and goals happen, and Pec is really good ... but still a concern to take into the opener.

A skirmish to spice up the rivalry

In the 18th minute, Oleksandr Svatok and Diego Fagundez battled at the edge of the final third. From one vantage point, namely mine, Svatok got to a 50/50 ball first and Fagundez fouled him. Fagundez, breaking the cardinal rule of interacting with fans on The Bad Site when you're mad ("Don't"), claims it was a "dirty kick out."

The thread that follows is a bit reminiscent of Sebastián Driussi's worst fan-facing moment of 2024, and the Bluesky post that we can show you (a series of stills) makes clear that this center back has some fight in him.

For narrative, and for base reasons, I wholeheartedly approve.

A goal worth waiting for

The goal, coming fairly late in the match, started with Austin committing to a high press, leading to a ball turned over to Žan Kolmanič, who fed Owen Wolff, who fed CJ Fodrey far upfield to force a corner.

Then, on a delightful short corner (reminder: I am Team Short Corner), Wolff found Kolmanič, who passed back to Wolff, who created productive chaos with a ball into the box. Antonio Gomez had the foresight (we'll assume this was intentional) to backheel a pass to a waiting Osman Bukari, who fired in a relatively easy but impressive-all-the-same goal.

(Also, we're all going to get the pronunciation right this year: It's BOO-ka-ree, not boo-KAR-ee.)

After the match, Bukari complimented Wolff for the one-v-one play that set up the goal.

Preseason continues to be a lie

Estévez's post-match comments indicated that this match and the three to follow are all about getting players minutes and not at all about results.

"I think it's good for every player to get the load in those games," he said, noting that Saturday's match against St. Louis City SC will change the rotations somewhat from Wednesday's approach, which gave two or three projected VerDos players each half the chance to run with the first team.

"We're getting some ideas ... it's still a long way to go. But I like the mentality of the team, and I like the effort that they're [giving], and I'm really, really happy with their attitude and the intentions."

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