At the Whistle: Austin FC 0, Sporting Kansas City 2
Since it's Valentine's Day: Roses are red/some cards are too/Verde lost two players/and then lost 0 to 2.
Austin FC's final preseason tuneup for 2026 went sour, as it finished two players down in a 2-0 loss to Sporting Kansas City at the Coachella Valley Invitational on Saturday, in Indio, Calif.
Verde started with Brad Stuver in goal, a backline of Jon Gallagher, Guilherme Biro, Oleksander Svatok, and Brendan Hines-Ike, a midfield of Dani Pereira, Ilie Sánchez, and Facundo Torres — making his first start for Verde — and then Jayden Nelson as a left wing, Joseph Rosales as a right wing (!), and Myrto Uzuni up top.
Nelson got Verde's first good chance in the 9th minute, forcing SKC goalkeeper John Pulskamp into a diving save, with Rosales taking the rebound and driving it over the corner of the goal frame.
SKC answered with its own chance in the 16th, with Manu Garcia serving up the match's initial set piece to an open-in-front-of-goal Jacob Bartlett, but Stuver was able to repel the header away.
Verde showed some appreciable liveliness and looked to be trying diagonal passes and other adventuresome moves forward with what appeared to be the potential opening day starting lineup — though possibly with Torres and Rosales out of their (best and most natural) positions, but also seemingly with some fluidity in their on-field positioning.
Rosales nearly got Verde on the board in the 36th minute, getting a shot blocked by Zorhan Bassong and then rolling from the contact suffered on the attempt.
But then, in the 42nd minute, Stephen Afrifa found Dejan Joveljić in front of goal with an incisive pass from the wing, and the Serbian striker found the top far corner with a header well past Stuver's reach to grab the up-until-then elusive lead.
Nelson had a chance reminiscent of his 9th-minute attempt in the 52nd minute, with a Gallagher cross to Uzuni fed back to Nelson, but his volley went well over the bar.
Afrifa then got loose for a 60th-minute attempt, reeling away from Gallagher to get off a shot that Stuver had to stretch to save.
Verde made some moves around the hour mark, sending on CJ Fodrey, Besard Šabović, Nicolás Dubersarsky, Jon Bell, and Robert Taylor for Uzuni, Rosales, Sanchez, Svatok, and Torres.
In the 65th minute, the newly on Fodrey had a chance on goal, but Nelson arrived first, and the two inadvertently collided with each other, negating the chance.
Šabović then thoughtfully helped head coach Nico Estévez out with a 10-on-11, down by one with around 20 minutes left simulation, by getting a straight red card in the 68th minute to make for a very short morning workout.
Not to be outdone, Biro got himself sent off less than four minutes after that. (My guy, 9-on-11 is not as realistic a scenario.) Žan Kolmanič and Mateja Đorđević then spelled Nelson and Hines-Ike.
Stuver then got called into action again in the 75th to save a potential second goal from Joveljić. Kolmanič nearly scored on a near-post shot on a surprise breakaway in the 83rd, resulting in a corner and a vague chance before SKC regained control of the ball.
Somewhere along the way, SKC got a player sent off to get Verde back to a single-man disadvantage. But SKC managed to get an 89th-minute strike from Daniel Salloi, off a Joveljić backheel, to remove any remaining suspense.
Best Verde moment (that wasn’t a goal)
As with last Saturday's match, it was an early move from Nelson; in this case, the opportune 9th-minute shot on goal left wanting.
Worst Verde moment (that wasn't a goal allowed)
Two red cards in four minutes deep into a 1-0 game is not an encouraging sign for the start of the 2026 campaign.
One thing you might have missed
At the 32-minute mark, you can clearly see Austin FC superfan Tom Hallock in a banana suit. (H/T to Zac Graham of the North End Podcast with the screen grab).
One nerdy tidbit
Since it's hard to pull stats from this YouTube-narrated format, let me introduce a slight bit of worry about Torres, who has not scored in his limited preseason minutes. While he did score in his last two appearances for Palmeiras, both in December, with a yellow card accumulation suspension between the two — but was scoreless in his 14 matches prior.
Where this fits into the preseason's narrative
Given that SKC has a depleted roster and is widely predicted as a Wooden Spoon "winner," and given that Verde had two players sent off in a two-goal loss, this is clearly not a good way to finish the preseason. James, Kelvin Yeboah, Bongokuhle Hlongwane, and the rest of the Loons are just seven days away. (That's the same Loons team that beat SKC 3-0 at Coachella. By transitive properties, Austin's already lost to Minnesota 5-0.)
A question we have that we would have asked had there been a press conference
The same one we've had all preseason: What is Estévez seeing that encourages him about the offense? But, also, was this a match to continue trying things out, or was this regarded as more of an actual dress rehearsal for the opener?
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.
On Monday morning, Austin FC confirmed that Saturday night's loss to SKC was an inflection point. The club will now search for its third head coach and third sporting director.
Nico Estévez had a lot to say in the wake of Saturday night's 2-1 loss to SKC. Was he indeed making his case to keep his job? And if so, was he convincing in doing so?
A Verde goal scored just before halftime made it look like a critical home win was forthcoming. The conference's worst team (by record) had other ideas.
Stefan Cleveland is now the starting goalkeeper for SKC, and won on Wednesday while Austin FC didn't. We talked about this and more with our favorite SKC reporter.
Austin FC's final preseason tuneup for 2026 went sour, as it finished two players down in a 2-0 loss to Sporting Kansas City at the Coachella Valley Invitational on Saturday, in Indio, Calif.
Verde started with Brad Stuver in goal, a backline of Jon Gallagher, Guilherme Biro, Oleksander Svatok, and Brendan Hines-Ike, a midfield of Dani Pereira, Ilie Sánchez, and Facundo Torres — making his first start for Verde — and then Jayden Nelson as a left wing, Joseph Rosales as a right wing (!), and Myrto Uzuni up top.
Nelson got Verde's first good chance in the 9th minute, forcing SKC goalkeeper John Pulskamp into a diving save, with Rosales taking the rebound and driving it over the corner of the goal frame.
SKC answered with its own chance in the 16th, with Manu Garcia serving up the match's initial set piece to an open-in-front-of-goal Jacob Bartlett, but Stuver was able to repel the header away.
Verde showed some appreciable liveliness and looked to be trying diagonal passes and other adventuresome moves forward with what appeared to be the potential opening day starting lineup — though possibly with Torres and Rosales out of their (best and most natural) positions, but also seemingly with some fluidity in their on-field positioning.
Rosales nearly got Verde on the board in the 36th minute, getting a shot blocked by Zorhan Bassong and then rolling from the contact suffered on the attempt.
But then, in the 42nd minute, Stephen Afrifa found Dejan Joveljić in front of goal with an incisive pass from the wing, and the Serbian striker found the top far corner with a header well past Stuver's reach to grab the up-until-then elusive lead.
Nelson had a chance reminiscent of his 9th-minute attempt in the 52nd minute, with a Gallagher cross to Uzuni fed back to Nelson, but his volley went well over the bar.
Afrifa then got loose for a 60th-minute attempt, reeling away from Gallagher to get off a shot that Stuver had to stretch to save.
Verde made some moves around the hour mark, sending on CJ Fodrey, Besard Šabović, Nicolás Dubersarsky, Jon Bell, and Robert Taylor for Uzuni, Rosales, Sanchez, Svatok, and Torres.
In the 65th minute, the newly on Fodrey had a chance on goal, but Nelson arrived first, and the two inadvertently collided with each other, negating the chance.
Šabović then thoughtfully helped head coach Nico Estévez out with a 10-on-11, down by one with around 20 minutes left simulation, by getting a straight red card in the 68th minute to make for a very short morning workout.
Not to be outdone, Biro got himself sent off less than four minutes after that. (My guy, 9-on-11 is not as realistic a scenario.) Žan Kolmanič and Mateja Đorđević then spelled Nelson and Hines-Ike.
Stuver then got called into action again in the 75th to save a potential second goal from Joveljić. Kolmanič nearly scored on a near-post shot on a surprise breakaway in the 83rd, resulting in a corner and a vague chance before SKC regained control of the ball.
Somewhere along the way, SKC got a player sent off to get Verde back to a single-man disadvantage. But SKC managed to get an 89th-minute strike from Daniel Salloi, off a Joveljić backheel, to remove any remaining suspense.
Best Verde moment (that wasn’t a goal)
As with last Saturday's match, it was an early move from Nelson; in this case, the opportune 9th-minute shot on goal left wanting.
Worst Verde moment (that wasn't a goal allowed)
Two red cards in four minutes deep into a 1-0 game is not an encouraging sign for the start of the 2026 campaign.
One thing you might have missed
At the 32-minute mark, you can clearly see Austin FC superfan Tom Hallock in a banana suit. (H/T to Zac Graham of the North End Podcast with the screen grab).
One nerdy tidbit
Since it's hard to pull stats from this YouTube-narrated format, let me introduce a slight bit of worry about Torres, who has not scored in his limited preseason minutes. While he did score in his last two appearances for Palmeiras, both in December, with a yellow card accumulation suspension between the two — but was scoreless in his 14 matches prior.
Where this fits into the preseason's narrative
Given that SKC has a depleted roster and is widely predicted as a Wooden Spoon "winner," and given that Verde had two players sent off in a two-goal loss, this is clearly not a good way to finish the preseason. James, Kelvin Yeboah, Bongokuhle Hlongwane, and the rest of the Loons are just seven days away. (That's the same Loons team that beat SKC 3-0 at Coachella. By transitive properties, Austin's already lost to Minnesota 5-0.)
A question we have that we would have asked had there been a press conference
The same one we've had all preseason: What is Estévez seeing that encourages him about the offense? But, also, was this a match to continue trying things out, or was this regarded as more of an actual dress rehearsal for the opener?
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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