> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://verdeallday.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # 'You can't give up until the door is closed': On another Austin FC home draw that could have been a win (and deconstructionism) - URL: https://verdeallday.com/morning-after-atxvcol-090926-davy-arnaud-facundo-torres-zan-kolmanic-jon-bell/ - Published: 2026-09-10T06:12:36.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-10T06:14:53.000Z - Description: Davy Arnaud and Facundo Torres saw a post-goal moment of exuberance a certain way. We'd like to understand it, but there's a French philosopher in the way (with 10 matches left in the 2026 season). - Author: Phil West - Tags: 2026 season, austin fc, davy arnaud, facundo torres, jon bell, zan kolmanic, the morning after In the 1960s, more than half a century before Austin FC was born, French philosopher Jacques Derrida gave the concept of deconstructionism to the world. It's a school of thought arguing that a shared understanding of any concept or even any concrete noun among people is difficult to achieve, and communication is a shifting, imperfect process. To Derrida, words don't have singular, neutral meanings, and the meaning of any text changes based on its history, context, and the individual's perspective. To conceive of it more simply, the tree you envision when I say "tree" might not be the tree I envision. You might be thinking of the live oak depicted in Austin FC's badge, even when rendered in white on purple as it was in Wednesday night's [1-1 draw](https://verdeallday.com/match-recap-atvcol-090926/) with the Colorado Rapids, making it two frustrating draws in a row with identical scorelines, whereas I might think of the pine trees of Cascadia, where Verde's playoff hopes hang in the balance when they face conference-leading Vancouver on Sunday. Or, to put it another way, the words Facundo Torres said following his match-tying goal late in Wednesday's match were arguably, markedly different from what interim head coach Davy Arnaud heard. He said words that both could likely, faithfully write down in recollection. But what those words signified to each? That's where it diverges. In a post-match locker room interview, following a very tense interaction between several players (that my colleagues witnessed while I was in the press conference room with Arnaud, sounding reminiscent, per their accounts, of the locker-room lows of 2024), Facundo Torres — Verde's lone goalscorer on Wednesday — revealed what he said to Arnaud in his journey to the sideline before the kickoff with 10 minutes and change remaining. "It was a request that, yes, we needed another striker," Torres said, confirming a colleague's question that his hand gestures looked like he was signalling to incorporate two No. 9s in the match's closing formation. "I felt that the team had already fallen too far back," Torres said, translated from Spanish. "So, we had found the tie and, I say this, I’m going to look for him because we needed to win. So, I went to tell him that we needed another No. 9\. Christian \[Ramírez\] had just come in, someone next to Christian, but well, Plachy ended up coming in," referring to winger/wingback Przemysław Płacheta. "He helped us a lot, but we still couldn't get the win." I asked Arnaud about the same moment, and whether Torres' exultations were merely celebratory or held some tactical nuggets. The tree that the designated player was envisioning was not — at least officially to us in the press conference setting — the tree that the interim head coach was envisioning. "He's celebrating, and he wants to go for it," Arnaud said. "He's ready to go win the game, right? He wants us to go be aggressive. He wants us to go get the second goal. But, yeah, I think everyone had the same feeling when the goal went in. It's a little bit of like, man, all right, let's go. Let's go. Let's go get the second goal." Verde did not get the second goal — though, with the limited sub options Arnaud had, he did do well to put in Ramírez for Brandon Vázquez and Žan Kolmanič in for Jon Gallagher around the hour mark. While Vázquez and Gallagher put in serviceable shifts — though Vázquez had a confounding cross-to-no-one just minutes before he was subbed out — the chemistry between Ramírez, Kolmanič, and Torres was evident in the goal that Kolmanič assisted on, and the chances that Kolmanič set up for Ramírez — who, at least based on my perspective, nearly won the match in the 90th. ## 'The answer's never going to change with Brandon' Arnaud still believes in what Vázquez is doing. "It's the same thing I say every single time, and the answer's never going to change with Brandon," Arnaud said. "He gives everything. He works hard. You know, he's tired ... he had the most ground covered last game. He ran like crazy last game. He ran himself to death this game." Of Vázquez's visibly upset reaction to being subbed off — video captured him punching the seat in front of him when taking his place next to teammates – Arnaud was supportive. "Sometimes it's time to make a change," he said. "And he's frustrated because we're losing the game. He's frustrated because he wants his goal, obviously. But my answer about Brandon will never change. I love Brandon the way he plays and what he does for us." Kolmanič was also pragmatic about trying to get Vázquez to open his account this season, so the tree that Arnaud sees helping the team in so many ways is not the tree that frustrated fans see, pointing to the designated player tree scoring no goals in the 689 MLS minutes he's played this season. "I feel like he's been doing such a great job, even not scoring goals," Kolmanič said. "As a striker, we know that he wants to have that confidence. But even sometimes when he's dragging the line down, opening up other players to get the goal or get to the end of the chance, I feel like that's a big deal that a lot of people don't see that we do see. "But then again ... it's good to have some stats to back it up," he added. "I feel like it's gonna come for him. We're gonna try and feed him the balls for him to get a goal and get back on the score sheet. But we have full faith in him, and we're talking a lot. So I just don't want him to get frustrated because he's doing a great job for the rest of the team that people that are around them every day see on a daily basis. So I'm not worried about that." ## Draws are not wins Though Austin FC is now unbeaten in its last five league matches — and in eight of nine, if you count Leagues Cup — Arnaud and his players are well aware that home draws rather than wins at this stage of the season aren't good enough. "We're getting to the point now where we know we need to and we want to win our home games," Arnaud said. "We need to get three points, and a little bit of frustration creeps in," he added, comparing the reaction going down a goal to Colorado on Wednesday to going down a goal against San Jose on Saturday. Kolmanič acknowledged wins were necessary but felt like the team was capable of them. "You can't give up until the door is closed, and for us, that door isn't closed. But so you know, the mentality is that we just keep going. You know, until and you know, I'm very confident in this team that we're going to be able to get close and maybe get the job done. You know, I just have to keep moving forward." Jon Bell, relatively new to the team, echoed Kolmanič in being more focused on winning every match rather than how other teams are faring — though Wednesday night's results moved Verde closer to the playoff line in a logjam they could have made even more absurd with a win. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1e/d1/1ed16f3e-4f96-4b65-9a04-4b0634738b99/content/images/2026/09/Screenshot-2026-09-10-at-00.43.12.png) "We just have to be tunnel vision, ignore everything that's on the outside, and just worry about the stuff that's on the inside within this group. I think that's the thing that matters most, is that everybody in this room believes in each other, and that we believe that we can get the job done," he said. Whether the frustrations that Verde players experienced on Wednesday get channeled into success or subsumes them will be one of the most fascinating questions to frame the rest of September. (And, answering a lingering ongoing issue that's underscored this recent weird patch, Myrto Uzuni is apparently possibly going to reenter the fray on Sunday per Arnaud.) Right now, the tree that some see as dropping four of six possible home points at a key juncture of the season, seemingly welded to 14th place, is the tree that other see as unbeaten in five and gathering itself for a Golden Tempo-like charge to Decision Day success. I spend a lot of time thinking about this team and I don't quite know what it is right now, and after everything I experienced first- and second-hand tonight, I'm more puzzled than ever. But, according to Derrida, so should you be as well. *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! 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