The joy of sixth: Celebrating a win over LAFC that might have doomed Austin FC to play LAFC again soon

On its surface, Austin FC beating LAFC 1-0 on Sunday evening is a good thing: It got the team to 47 points on the season with a chance to get to the 50-point plateau on Saturday, it ensured they'll finish in sixth place regardless of what happens on Decision Day, and it completes a season sweep of the team that ended their only playoff campaign to date.

But for head coach Nico Estévez, Sunday's win — with key players from both teams out on international break — serves as a dress rehearsal for what's to come.

"I felt that we were lucky that we still have two games to prepare the playoffs, and then we use these games to prepare ourselves for what is coming," he said. "I think San Jose is going to ask us different questions. We play a way that is something that we're going to have to do in the playoff. We did play a different style of play, and we'll have to be really good in those games in order to prepare the team. I think the results, as always, are important, but for me, it's more using these as a preparation for what is coming."

Estévez did recognize that the win was good for his team's morale, coming after a three-game slide that included losing the U.S. Open Cup final, arguably the biggest match in the team's relatively young five-year history.

"It's not easy to recover from a week like the one that we got, and ... as I always say, when you win, you can be very high. When you lose, you can be very low," he remarked. "And now, we were the best team in the world when we were winning, and we were the worst team in the world when we lost those games in the past week.

"We stay in balance, and working hard with the players is what put us in that position," he continued. "Credit to the players ... we know now that we finished sixth, and after a long season with injuries, with playing games in international breaks, missing players, with playing two competitions, arriving to a final and finishing sixth ... we have to feel very proud about the players, because it is not easy."

Estévez also got to enjoy a moment of reflection, based on a question I asked him about the journey that he's been on the last few years — including not finishing out the 2024 season after being dismissed by FC Dallas that June, before emerging in Austin five months later. His comment on that is worthy of a pull quote.

"I've started four seasons in MLS, I finished three as a head coach. In those three, I made the playoffs."

He then turned his attention back to the team.

"It feels really good because it's a lot of work put in before the preseason, in the preseason, during the year, ups, downs, and managing a lot of things. And I think it's important to think about all the hard work that this group has done. And we lost one of our best players in the middle of the season when we had to bounce back, we were unfortunate ... losing Brandon Vázquez, and I think the response for the team and how we came together, it was great to see, and it has been a fantastic season for us.

"It wasn't easy," he added, noting that the two competitions were taxing and they feel relatively good about where they are.

'Stick to the plan'

Brad Stuver, who generously gave time to my colleagues while I was in the Estévez press conference, gave thoughtful answers about the match they'd successfully completed between bites of pizza.

"We knew it was going to be really tough, but we told our guys not to be frustrated, stay patient, stick to the plan, don't try and do anything extra," he reflected. "Because at the end of the day, we knew how they can be dangerous if we get impatient and open up space. They're dangerous on the counter attack and we needed to focus on that as well."

Thanks to this weekend's results — crucially, the FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake losses — San Jose still has a chance to edge into the playoffs, but it will need to start with a win over Austin and depend on results elsewhere. That means, playing away on Saturday, Stuver and company will face the best (or at least most desperate-to-win) version of San Jose.

"It's just about having the mentality to use this game like it's a playoff game," he said. "We know that they're going to be desperate, they'll have guys forward, they're going to be aggressive. And for us, it's learning from that moment, using that as a learning experience."

He added, "This is a club that's only played three playoff games," citing the 2022 run as the lone postseason experience — something not many of the current Verde players experienced.

However, Žan Kolmanič, who got the game-winning assist, was one of those.

"It feels unreal, especially for the guys who have been here. You know, since the beginning, we've gone through all the possible scenarios in the last five seasons," he said. "This is what we worked towards this whole season. And we have one more game left, which is going to be pretty much our last preparation, so that we can start playing the playoffs the right way."

Who will they face?

The irony of this win over a Son Heung-min and Denis Bouanga-less LAFC is it now makes it more likely Verde will match up against the dynamic duo in the first round of the postseason.

With Austin's win, LAFC can't secure the No. 1 seed — Vancouver wins the West with a result on Saturday at home against Dallas — and there's still a scenario in which LAFC could drop all the way to fourth.

But it's now most likely — given playoff math scenarios we'll visit later this week — that the 2022 Western Conference final foes are due for a 2025 first-round rematch.

Unlike all the other playoff teams it could face, Austin does have the season series sweep over the Black & Gold, having won by an identical 1-0 scoreline in March while shutting Bouanga down.

"We know that it's always tough to play against them," said Kolmanič. "But as we showed this year, they are beatable. So hopefully, if it comes to that scenario, we're going to give it our best and we'll see what happens."

Estévez made similar observations.

"At the end of the day, we'll have to accept what opponent we have, if it's LAFC, if it's Minnesota, if it's San Diego ... we'll prepare, and it doesn't matter what they have. We played against Bouanga at the beginning of the league, and I think we did a good job stopping him. We have to work as a team in order to do it. For us, it's just [being] focused on ourselves, and when the team that we play arrives, we know that we will prepare the best we can to beat them."

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.