Austin FC head coach Nico Estévez famously said last season that "preseason is a liar" — not so much concerned with match outcomes as with the progressive education of a team coming together and absorbing principles for the season to come.
This year, it's about playing less horizontally and more vertically, in an effort to improve offensively after a 2025 in which Verde was improved defensively from 2024, but anemic-to-passable on offense as the season evolved.
So, even with four key attackers missing, and even though Austin FC lost 2-0 at home to NYCFC on Sunday before a modest crowd of season ticket holders, Estévez was pleased with what he saw.
"What encouraged me is we made mistakes in transition, because we rushed to play more vertical than we did last year," he said. "That is something that we're looking for, but we need to find the balance, like how we are prepared, how we are ready to press after los[ing] the ball."
He went on to explain the thought process behind keeping enough defenders back to deal with any counters or opponents pushing forward — something that notably went awry on the visitors' two scoring plays — and keeping players forward.
