'Always ready to fight': Austin FC prepares for a familiar foe at home
Based on recent form and what oddsmakers are saying, this match doesn't bode well for Austin FC. But as this team's coach and captain will tell you, it's really up to the players.
In the words of Han Solo, "Never tell me the odds."
Austin FC is already a considerable home underdog[[1]] to LAFC on Saturday night, returning to Q2 Stadium after two straight losses away to drop the team's overall record to 1W 2L 1D.
But for head coach Nico Estévez, the return home and the keenness of the rivalry with LAFC is a recipe for potentially getting his team's season back on track.
"We have a great opportunity," Estévez told media on Thursday. "We have a team that won all the games [it's played this season], hasn't conceded a goal in the league, and we played against them last year in the playoffs, and we were upset after those matchups that we had against them," he said, certainly meaning that they were dismayed with the result and not "upset" in the "expected to win but lost" sense.
"Now, I think it's a great opportunity for us, with our fans, to redeem ourselves from what happened last year," he added. "Also, to see the progress and improvement and having that, with our fans helping us ... we'll approach a game that we are looking forward [to] and we're excited [about]."
It's true that in four league matches this season, LAFC's scored eight goals without conceding a single one, though stars Denis Bouanga (one goal, one assist) and Son Heung-min (zero goals, three assists) haven't been quite as statistically dominant as you might expect them to be at this stage of the season. But it also indicates a spread-the-wealth mentality that has brought about six goal scorers for the Black & Gold just four matches in.
On resiliency
Estévez indicates this is a game in which his team's collective character might be revealed.
"The team is always ready to fight," he said. "The team is always ready to, in moments where things are not going in the right way, they want to make a step forward, in the resiliency that they have.
"It's something that if you want to be and build an identity of a team that wants to be successful, you need to know that it's moments in the league, it's moments in the season where things are not going your way, or even moments in the game that are not going your way, and it's those moments where you have to show up, it's the moments where you have to show that mentality that you still keep believing, keep going, and then this will be rewarded at the end."
Captain Ilie Sánchez — who knows LAFC more than most, having played there for three seasons between 2022 and 2024 — echoed his coach's thoughts.
"I don't think there is a right time for anything in soccer or in life. You just have to take the moment and make it right for you, and that's the challenge of having a game every week, or two games every week, but also the opportunity that you can relieve yourself from not having the results that you expected recently," he said. "So no matter what it is, the schedule or who is coming to play here, or if we have to go on the road, we just have to try to do the best we can to adjust and to get the result that we want."
Frail Four update
According to Estévez, not much has changed on the injury front with the currently unavailable players — Robert Taylor and Owen Wolff still may get action in the match at Miami on April 4, Dani Pereira would return in mid-April in a best-case scenario, and Brandon Vázquez's 2026 debut is somewhere on the horizon but not yet finding a fixed date.
There is good news in that Mikkel Desler should see time on the pitch Saturday, though Estévez didn't indicate if he'd start. Guilherme Biro is also back in action and playable after serving his second one-game suspension of the year — this one, for his red card against Charlotte, was league-mandated, whereas the opening match suspension following a preseason red card was a club decision.
There's now a new worry, though, and a possible expansion into a Frail Five, with Jayden Nelson. According to Estévez, Nelson has a back issue, possibly involving a nerve, that leaves him day-to-day for Saturday's match.
Estévez did talk about Jorge Alastuey's "willingness" to play wide when assessing wing options, meaning a second call-up and a decision about putting him on a supplemental roster spot (unconventionally coupled with an international spot spend) could come as soon as Sunday. Four short-term call ups from the second team are allowed, but only two on-field activations can happen from those four. Alastuey, of course, got about a half hour in his first call-up last Saturday — speaking to Alastuey's potential, Verde's desperation, or perhaps both, seeing that Estévez hasn't been prone to bring second-team call-ups onto the pitch their first trips out.
Nelson's saga is not the weirdest injury story heading into this match, though. Newly acquired Canadian international midfielder Stephen Eustáquio will be out for this match — and will miss Canada's international window — for an injury that started when he collided with referee Drew Fischer.
According to MLSSoccer.com's Charles Boehm, that led to Eustáquio getting a deep tissue massage to relieve a dead leg ... which actually ruptured the dead leg, creating a hematoma that is now sidelining him.
(In typical LAFC-not-missing-a-beat fashion, another Canadian international midfielder, Mathieu Choinière, scored a brace in last Saturday's win over St. Louis to keep the win streak going.)
[[1]]: According to one betting site, Austin is a +260 to win ... the longest odds of all teams hosting MLS matches this weekend.
Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. For more coverage, check out Emergency Podcast! (an Austin FC Podcast) wherever you get your podcasts.
Verde suffered an own goal and a relative lack of chances compared to the hosts on Saturday night. But head coach Nico Estévez still believes his team did enough to split the points.
Verde went to a stadium on Saturday night that hasn't been so friendly to them in recent years. That trend continued, though not be the lopsided margin of years past.
On this Pi Day, we connect with Wasatch Soccer Sentinel to learn more about RSL ahead of Saturday night's match in Sandy. That includes info about three teenage players making a difference.
In the words of Han Solo, "Never tell me the odds."
Austin FC is already a considerable home underdog[[1]] to LAFC on Saturday night, returning to Q2 Stadium after two straight losses away to drop the team's overall record to 1W 2L 1D.
But for head coach Nico Estévez, the return home and the keenness of the rivalry with LAFC is a recipe for potentially getting his team's season back on track.
"We have a great opportunity," Estévez told media on Thursday. "We have a team that won all the games [it's played this season], hasn't conceded a goal in the league, and we played against them last year in the playoffs, and we were upset after those matchups that we had against them," he said, certainly meaning that they were dismayed with the result and not "upset" in the "expected to win but lost" sense.
"Now, I think it's a great opportunity for us, with our fans, to redeem ourselves from what happened last year," he added. "Also, to see the progress and improvement and having that, with our fans helping us ... we'll approach a game that we are looking forward [to] and we're excited [about]."
It's true that in four league matches this season, LAFC's scored eight goals without conceding a single one, though stars Denis Bouanga (one goal, one assist) and Son Heung-min (zero goals, three assists) haven't been quite as statistically dominant as you might expect them to be at this stage of the season. But it also indicates a spread-the-wealth mentality that has brought about six goal scorers for the Black & Gold just four matches in.
On resiliency
Estévez indicates this is a game in which his team's collective character might be revealed.
"The team is always ready to fight," he said. "The team is always ready to, in moments where things are not going in the right way, they want to make a step forward, in the resiliency that they have.
"It's something that if you want to be and build an identity of a team that wants to be successful, you need to know that it's moments in the league, it's moments in the season where things are not going your way, or even moments in the game that are not going your way, and it's those moments where you have to show up, it's the moments where you have to show that mentality that you still keep believing, keep going, and then this will be rewarded at the end."
Captain Ilie Sánchez — who knows LAFC more than most, having played there for three seasons between 2022 and 2024 — echoed his coach's thoughts.
"I don't think there is a right time for anything in soccer or in life. You just have to take the moment and make it right for you, and that's the challenge of having a game every week, or two games every week, but also the opportunity that you can relieve yourself from not having the results that you expected recently," he said. "So no matter what it is, the schedule or who is coming to play here, or if we have to go on the road, we just have to try to do the best we can to adjust and to get the result that we want."
Frail Four update
According to Estévez, not much has changed on the injury front with the currently unavailable players — Robert Taylor and Owen Wolff still may get action in the match at Miami on April 4, Dani Pereira would return in mid-April in a best-case scenario, and Brandon Vázquez's 2026 debut is somewhere on the horizon but not yet finding a fixed date.
There is good news in that Mikkel Desler should see time on the pitch Saturday, though Estévez didn't indicate if he'd start. Guilherme Biro is also back in action and playable after serving his second one-game suspension of the year — this one, for his red card against Charlotte, was league-mandated, whereas the opening match suspension following a preseason red card was a club decision.
There's now a new worry, though, and a possible expansion into a Frail Five, with Jayden Nelson. According to Estévez, Nelson has a back issue, possibly involving a nerve, that leaves him day-to-day for Saturday's match.
Estévez did talk about Jorge Alastuey's "willingness" to play wide when assessing wing options, meaning a second call-up and a decision about putting him on a supplemental roster spot (unconventionally coupled with an international spot spend) could come as soon as Sunday. Four short-term call ups from the second team are allowed, but only two on-field activations can happen from those four. Alastuey, of course, got about a half hour in his first call-up last Saturday — speaking to Alastuey's potential, Verde's desperation, or perhaps both, seeing that Estévez hasn't been prone to bring second-team call-ups onto the pitch their first trips out.
Nelson's saga is not the weirdest injury story heading into this match, though. Newly acquired Canadian international midfielder Stephen Eustáquio will be out for this match — and will miss Canada's international window — for an injury that started when he collided with referee Drew Fischer.
According to MLSSoccer.com's Charles Boehm, that led to Eustáquio getting a deep tissue massage to relieve a dead leg ... which actually ruptured the dead leg, creating a hematoma that is now sidelining him.
(In typical LAFC-not-missing-a-beat fashion, another Canadian international midfielder, Mathieu Choinière, scored a brace in last Saturday's win over St. Louis to keep the win streak going.)
[[1]]: According to one betting site, Austin is a +260 to win ... the longest odds of all teams hosting MLS matches this weekend.
Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. For more coverage, check out Emergency Podcast! (an Austin FC Podcast) wherever you get your podcasts.
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