In the immediacy of Sunday's 2-0 win over St. Louis City SC, you might think it'd be hard for Austin FC head coach Nico Estévez to find any fault with how the team played.
But he was able to start with that first goal not coming until minute 69 — while still praising how they were playing.
"We started really well [in] the game," he said. "I think we should score a couple times in the first half, but it was very clear, that the chances that we created, I saw a lot of good connections. I think the game plan offensively worked very well. I think we moved them one side to the other side and from the right players to link and then accelerate the play. And in these moments ... if you capitalize [on] those moments and you score the goals, the game can go in a different way."
He also had praise for his opponents — who, depending on the numbers you look at, mounted either 3.16 or 1.9 xG without scoring a single goal. They certainly created threats at points, though, including a two-on-one break in the 56th minute, started when Mikkel Desler released a bad backpass that Marcel Hartel jumped on, that ended with Simon Becher fluffing side netting on a play that went absurdly wrong for the visitors.
"We knew that St Louis, and watching their game against San Jose, they play a really good game. Watching them against Chicago, they play a really good game," Estévez said. "They always create chances, they always score kind of goals, and we knew that we're going to have to defend, and then have moments where we give them the ball and have to stay together. And I saw a team that does a pretty good job on that. And I saw a team where, even though that that we didn't score, we never gave up, we always were on the game and and we just wait[ed for] our moment."
