In a little more than eight minutes, interim head coach Davy Arnaud dispensed of the last of his official Saturday night duties — answering 12 media questions in quick succession following Austin FC's 1-1 draw against the Philadelphia Union — while acknowledging there's a next big midweek test at hand.
"It's nice saying we don't play 'til Wednesday," Arnaud reflected. "That feels like, with the rhythm we've been in, it feels like it's a week now, because we've been playing so many games. But we'll take [Sunday] off, and I think it'll be good for the guys to get away for a day. But the staff will already be will be prepping for Toluca, and we understand it's a big game and a big opportunity for us to to get that Champions League spot — well, to win a trophy first of all, but give ourselves a chance to to get in Champions League."
Should Austin beat the Liga MX powers in Harrison, N.J., on Wednesday, in the Leagues Cup quarterfinal match the team qualified for with two wins and a PK win in group stage play, that will beget more schedule congestion but also a chance at greater relevance.
A semifinal match against the León-Real Salt Lake winner would follow a win over Toluca on Sept. 1 or 2, and a win there would qualify Verde for Concacaf Champions Cup (the official name of the federation's annual club tournament) plus a trip to the Leagues Cup final — very possible staged at Q2 Stadium — on Sept. 6, supplanted the next scheduled home match Sept. 5 against San Jose.
Arnaud acknowledged that the Toluca match — and the match at Portland on Saturday — figured into Saturday night's rotation, which included Jorge Alastuey and Ervin Torres starting together (as they have in Austin FC II matches earlier this same season), with designated players Brandon Vázquez and Facundo Torres on the bench.
"We're trying to to plan for what's to come and what we've done and the travel and all that stuff," Arnaud said of rotating nearly the entire starting roster for the third time in a week. "So all those things go into [these] decisions."
That includes flying directly from the New York metro area to Portland for Saturday's match at Providence Park; he reiterated the point (now less mysteriously) that the team will fly five hours (clarifying it will happen on Thursday) and experience a three-hour time difference going from ET to PT.
Last Wednesday's win over Seattle brought a wholesale change of 10 players from the prior match against Dallas, and the Union brought about nearly a whole squad change from that. Over those last three matches, Arnaud has utilized 21 different players from the squad into the starting XI.
