A born identity: Austin FC, beginning to define themselves five matches in

It's not that Austin FC wants to avoid having the ball, head coach Nico Estévez assured media members he spoke to on Friday ahead of Sunday's match at St. Louis City SC.

That's just the way it's been working out.

"I think our possession drop in the last two games [is because we've played] two different style of teams [that are] position based," Estévez said. "It's not that we want to have the most position, but we also we don't want to have low possession."

While crediting the job LAFC and San Diego FC did — albeit in a pair of daytime wins over the last two weeks – he also noted, "We can find a good opportunity to increase our possessions, also being a threat against the opponent in all transitions."

And even with the low possession numbers, Verde find themselves second in the West at this early juncture of the season, in which storylines are beginning to align.

There are the clear teams in trouble — a CF Montréal team that's already fired its coach, a Revolution team that just scored its first goal as I sat down to write this (in its fifth match of the season), and three West teams (Houston, LA Galaxy, SKC) without a win through all of their first five tilts.

There are the teams that definitely look playoff-bound, including teams like LAFC and Miami projected to do well, as well as some surprises with double-digit points so far — though injuries and slumps can thwart the forward momentum of teams (like Vancouver, Philadelphia, Charlotte, and Nashville in 2025) who start well out of the gate.

Austin, second in the West on nine points, is still in that "could be a mirage, but more likely could be a solid playoff team at worst" zone, with more definitive table-shaping to come in the next month.

But according to Estévez, there's an identity emerging.

'A team that is difficult to beat'

"We are a new group, and we have new players, a new staff, and we're building towards something that we believe that we can create an identity that everyone knows and is very recognizable for everyone when they see Austin FC," he said.

And though he cautioned, "We are not there yet," he also noted there are some defining characteristics emerging. That starts with Verde being "a team that is difficult to to beat, a team that has a good mentality when they don't have the ball, everyone works hard, vertical in moments on transition and also build up."

He also indicated that with time will come consistency.

"When things are not going well, or we're struggling, we always can get back to our base," Estévez noted. "And I think identity helps. It helps you to know who you are, why we're doing that, and then from there, we can build and to not forget what our strengths are and who we are as a team and on the pitch. It's something that we can see — the mentality of the team, the togetherness, the working hard, the resilience, the grit and determination on going forward ... games when we have to go forward, the verticality, and then we're finding now how we apply that to playing with the ball and without the ball.

"And I think without the ball, we are aligned those values and that identity," he added. "I think, with the ball, we're finding the ways, the verticality, the speed, the determination, the aggression on attacking." He also sees the team making progress in dealing with the press on both sides of the ball, including breaking through a defensive press to provide for quick attacks.

"I think we're going in that direction, but it's still early."

He should have more

Brandon Vázquez, the player tapped to answer media questions, was man of the match in last Sunday's win. Though he scored a goal in that match to open his 2025 account, he expressed disappointment immediately after the match to have not converted on more of his chances, and that lingered for him throughout this week.

"Overall, I've had good performances in helping the team attack, in transition to attacking," he observed. "I've been playing a bit deeper than usual to try to combine with the midfield to transition into attacking ... Nico's doing a great job in analyzing what we need to improve on, and he's worked with me individually, with the attacking coaches, so we can get the best out of myself and the team. But, you know, I'm never satisfied with my performances. I always want to keep improving. I always want to keep helping."

For Estévez, though, believes the scoring from his designated player forward will — like everything else still need to coalesce for his relatively-new team — develop over time.

"He did a really good job to put himself in a really good positions to score goals, and I think this will make him believe on the way that we will attack," Estévez said. "He's going to have the chances and he's going to score goals for us. It's to keep learning about the players, keep finding their best positions, their best movements, the best way to the type of game model that we want to play, how we want to attack. And from there I think we will see our forward scoring goals."

Vázquez sees some wisdom in that.

"It's gonna take a little bit, but the more time we spend on the field together, during training, doing finishing drills, having a partnership, the more we're gonna understand each other, our habits, our tendencies," he reflected. "I think it's important that we get as much time together as possible, so that we know what each of us is going to do without even looking. We're on the right path to be there soon, so I'm excited about that."

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