What we can glean from Austin FC's 2-2 draw vs. Chicago Fire FC in preseason action

If a 90-minute Coachella Valley Invitational preseason match drops in the desert, and it wasn't streamed by the club, did it actually take place?

The answer to that contrived existential question is "yes," as Austin FC had its most offensively productive match of the 2026 preseason with a 2-2 draw over Chicago Fire FC in the club's penultimate Coachella (and preseason) match on Wednesday.

Here's what we learned based on eyewitness accounts from people on site, as well as what the club shared.

The lineups

We have to start the tea leaves reading by looking at the starting lineup. Here's what we got from the club.

Aside from the surprise of Damian Las as the starting goalkeeper, this looks like a basic back four, with Jon Gallagher and Žan Kolmanič at fullback and Oleksandr Svatok and Jon Bell as center backs. Then, you have a double pivot of Dani Pereira and Ilie Sánchez in the midfield, and then a front four of Facundo Torres and Myrto Uzuni (we'll get to their debuts in a moment) and Robert Taylor and Joseph Rosales.

From friend-of-Verde-All-Day correspondent Tom Hallock, to a Slack group I'm part of: "Taylor was playing with pace and tenacity. Could have just been a mismatch or something but he was pushing Chicago’s backline along with the other 3 attackers often (seemed like we were attacking in a 2-4-4, with Taylor on left wing, Facu & Uzuni central, and Rosales on the right wing). Felt like he was fully engaged and pushing play forward."

Aside from Taylor looking good (and we'll also get to him in a moment), Rosales on the right wing is an additionally intriguing/puzzling preseason development, as is Torres playing centrally (though Austin FC head coach Nico Estévez did hint at that earlier in the preseason).

Torres only got about a 40-minute runout as part of a first, five-man sub right before halftime.

Well done, wingers

By that first change — which saw Taylor score to answer Andrew Gutman's opener for Chicago — Rosales gave way to Austin FC II's Mo Badawiya in what seemed like a calculated choice to get lots of players minutes.

Uzuni got in at halftime, as did Ervin Torres for Pereira ... a sub that means we were only a few minutes removed from having two Torreses on the field. (There's an opportunity for that again on Saturday.

Then, we got another rotation right after the hour mark, which brought on the second goalscorer for the first.

Nelson scored two minutes after subbing on, and from there, Verde only had one more change — Jorge Alastuey, looking less likely to find his way on the first team thanks to an additional international-spot-for-GAM move that the club made, around minute 70 — in what ended up being a draw thanks to an 82nd-minute Jack Elliott goal, but with Austin FC scoring as many in its fifth preseason match as it did in its previous four combined.

Hallock, checking in with me, had this to say about the two DPs.

"Facu and Myrto looked good; it's hard to tell fully because of the miscues that seem to be common in preseason games (misreads, missed passes, poor timing etc). Facu seemed to be dropping in a little more (like a 10 or a false 9), and Myrto and Taylor were really pushing the backline (a couple offsides because of it)."

Quotes from after the match

As we did following the previous Coachella match, we got some quotes from Estévez on, in this case, what we didn't see, along with some quotes from Nelson.

"It's good to have back players like Myrto and like Facundo in the team," Estévez said. "I think all the work that we've been doing in the preseason, things that we are fixing, things that we are working on, you could see we had more fluidity with those players in the team ... it also gave energy to the group and quality in the areas that we need when we have the ball.

"The commitment from the group today on the defensive side and the battles, the duals, the team did a really good job," he added. "We were missing some pieces that are important for those things work," he observed. And I think this first game is kind of like a real game, where we have some of the pieces that we're going to use in the team."

Still, he said there's more to work on, which is becoming a theme of this preseason.

"Now, it's about how we can be more consistent, and the moments that we find those situations and more oriented to finalize those chances on goal in the defensive side. I think we have to keep cleaning some things up; defensively on set pieces today is something that we have to see. I think we were a very strong team last year on set pieces, and we have to use that as an alert. We have to work on that more, and everyone has to be focused." (Both

Nelson echoed Estévez's observations about the team being more cohesive.

"It was a good step forward from the last two games that we played," he said. "It's a good game to build off of, but I think we did well offensively. We had more ideas and we had more connections, which we want. So yeah, it was a good step forward."

What comes next

Verde's final preseason match comes Saturday at noon CT (10 am local time) against Sporting Kansas City, whose current lineup is so depleted that the club just did a roster number release for 2026, featuring just 10 players. SKC did beat NYCFC 2-1 at Coachella on Wednesday, with Calvin Harris and Dejan Joveljić scoring within three minutes midway through the first half to provide enough of a margin for the win.

From there, the Verde squad returns home to get into its match week rhythm for the home opener against Minnesota United FC. The Loons, of course, are transforming under new acquisition James Rodríguez, though transforming into what we're not yet quite sure.

“I am very happy about this new stage in my life,” said James in his opening press conference, per MLSSoccer.com's coverage. “I've played at big clubs, in good clubs, but I wanted this league. I wanted to be able to play here, and well, when the chance came to be with this great club, everything was a little slow, but it happened. We made efforts on both sides.

“I'm going to do well, the team will do well too, and we're going to win things. Until the last day, I'm going to give my all for the people who trusted in me, more than anything else.”

That includes new assistant coach Josh Wolff, which will be a side storyline heading into that match.

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.