At the Whistle: Austin FC 0, Minnesota United FC 3

An unfortunate own goal pinned on Ilie Sánchez was all Minnesota United needed to sour the start of Austin FC's packed-with-games May, but they then scored two more goals after that to heap additional misery on the hosts, sending Verde down 3-0 Saturday night on a perfect-weather late spring evening ruined by soccer.

The Loons seemed content to let Verde have the ball early, and to head coach Nico Estévez's credit, Verde showed a couple of new wrinkles in progressing the ball forward, include two early feeds to Osman Bukari, including a 10th-minute move that got the Ghanaian one-on-one against Loons 'keeper Dayne St. Clair, able to protect his goal.

But very much against the run of play in the 22nd minute, Joaquín Pereyra sent in a shot that clipped Sánchez's heel, still looking ripe for saving, especially for Brad Stuver. But the rolling ball instead squirted through Stuver's legs, feebly crossing the line, and the Loons were on the scoreboard.

Then, in the 35th minute, Markanich got to a Bongokuhle Hlongwane cross, on a play that started with a long pass from St. Clair, leaping above Oleksandr Svatok to double the lead.

Estévez got to the hour mark without subbing, and then pulled both wingers in the front three for Diego Rubio and — making his Austin FC debut — Robert Taylor.

But despite that infusion of energy, Verde appeared to be doing more crossing and hoping, and Minnesota seemed largely content to defend their two-goal lead. Estévez then tried to infuse more energy into the match, pulling Besard Šabović and Jon Gallagher for CJ Fodrey and Jáder Obrian.

It momentarily appeared Guilherme Biro scored in the 77th minute, but clearly moved offside as the ball was about to be threaded to him for the easy-but-there's-a-reason-for-that finish.

Taylor showed flashes of what he might become for this team, including sliding in and just missing on an 84th-minute cross from Brandon Vázquez in front of goal.

In the first minute of stoppage time, Pereyra let loose with a shot from the edge of the box that found its way past Stuver, finally getting a goal after losing credit for what he might have thought was his in the first half.

Austin would finish, per the Q2 Stadium scoreboard, with 65% possession and zero goals.

Best Verde moment (that wasn’t a goal)

There was a nice Owen Wolff-Myrto Uzuni interchange down the left side in the 13th minute, as well as the aforementioned bursts forward. But, again, those moments were most pronounced early in the contest (and didn't lead to any actual scoring).

Worst Verde moment (that wasn't a goal allowed)

Uzuni took a free kick at the edge of the box toward the end of the first half that turned out to be one of Verde's best chances to score. His resulting shot went well over the bar. It wasn't the worst free kick ever taken, but added to the overall disheartening mood.

Something you might have missed

We got at least two Uzuni hands-on-head moments following missed chances in front of goal. It's getting to be a regular thing with him now, it seems.

One nerdy tidbit

Thirteen minutes into the game, Austin FC had an 85% to 15% possession advantage over the Loons.

A question we have heading into the press conference

Was Austin expecting to get the amount of possession they did so early in the game, or did that catch Austin off guard? (Once again, they didn't produce with those opportunities to be on the ball. That might not be their strong suit. They may not have a strong suit offensively right now.)

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