'It was a really poor performance': Assessing a confounding loss in Frisco

Ninety seconds into the match on Saturday night, it was clear Austin FC didn't look like the team it had been in its last two matches. FC Dallas scored en route to a 2-0 win, registering the first eight shots of the match before Verde first threatened in the 30th minute.

After the match, Austin FC head coach Nico Estévez assessed it bluntly and took the blame.

"This is a really poor performance, and I take full responsibility [for] that," he said. "I didn't do a good job on probably showing, even though that I showed, but probably maybe in a different way, that it was a great opportunity for Dallas to get into the run, and then they were going to come [in] really, really hot and after us, because they needed that."

He then observed they've been challenged when meeting the on-its-face positive of securing back-to-back wins, as they did before Saturday night's contest.

"One of the the issues that we're having as a team is when we get two wins in a row that we've done a couple times this season, four times. ... like we get relaxed or something," he said. "Dallas was better than us on that energy, that willingness to go after [it], and we were just waiting, we just were more reactive, and it's something that we have to address. We did it already, but we'll continue during this week, because Wednesday, we have a very important game for the history of this club, and we cannot have a performance [like] the one that we had today."

Jon Gallagher, in his portion of the post-match press conference, assessed the performance starkly.

"They came out and they kicked us in the teeth those first few few minutes," he said. "And in high-level sports, if you're not ready to go, that's what happens. And we paid the price, and deservedly we went down a goal. So ... poor performance tonight, and guys are aware of that, but we don't want to dwell in it, because we realize what a big week we have. And this is MLS, and all these games are going to be like this the rest of the year. That's a team that was fighting to stay in the playoffs, and you saw it — they were just a little bit more hungry."

Though he learned in a follow-up question that Estévez took blame for the loss, he emphasized the players' role in it as well.

"I think it's admirable that he wants to be at the forefront and take the blame, but I don't think he is for tonight," he said. "Tonight was a mentality thing. It wasn't a playing [or] a tactic thing. It was just, 'Who wants it more?' And you saw from the first five minutes, we were slow to start, and they were a team that's hungry and fighting to stay in the playoffs ... we should have known that going in. We should have known that it's in their home, it's going to be hectic at the start, it's going to be a tough battle. We never got going, and the second goal, we just felt it really kind of flattened us.

"So, yes, super disappointing," he continued. "Hate these kind of nights, but as I said, not to keep going on about it, but the quicker we can learn and just move on and just pack it up, the better we'll be," he added, again nodding to Wednesday's U.S. Open Cup semifinal match against Minnesota.

'We prepared for that'

Breaking the match down further, Estévez said that FCD's two-wingback, three-center-back approach, with captain Ramiro and goal scorer Bernard Kamungo (who doubled the lead in the 49th minute) playing in those wingback roles, didn't come as a surprise.

"We expected exactly what we saw today, and we prepared for that," he said. "For us, it was more like in some of the the actions without the ball, defending, winning second balls, winning those actions, transitions ... And it's true that some of our crosses and some of our attacking plays didn't end in a good way, but we lacked a little bit of quality in those moments."

He also revealed that Mikkel Desler, who appeared on Friday's injury report as questionable with a "lower body" injury, was kept home to rest for Wednesday, contributing to a slightly unusual lineup in which Gallagher played right back, Jáder Obrian started at left wing, and Diego Rubio played striker, with Myrto Uzuni coming in as a sub following his international duty with Albania.

The momentum chart from the match, courtesy of Catalina Bush's match graphics, tells a good deal of the story, but the heat map and average position and passing map also show Verde pushed way out to the wings on attack, with FCD much more active attacking Verde's right side.

Looking ahead

Moisés Chiullán, on the scene in Frisco, got to check in with Brendan Hines-Ike after the match, who put perspective on this loss while looking ahead to the last five matches of the regular season.

"At this point of the year, we need to address each game as if it is the biggest game, because then when those big games come, you're prepared," he observed. "Tonight was a really good chance for us to prepare that way, and we failed this. We didn't address it as if it should be a must-win game. By the way, it's another derby loss for us this year, and we were aware of that, and so I think we have to be more cognizant of that going forward.

"Yes, we have a massive game on Wednesday, but what's going to come in five, six games when the playoff starts, if we don't start to address these issues now, of making these games as serious as possible," he said. "Treat them like they have to be must-win games, or come time for the playoffs, we're not going to have the readiness and experience. So it's about tuning things now, while you have a chance, because once October comes, you're not going to have those chances."

He also made observations akin to Estévez's about what the team does once it secures a pair of wins.

"We're a team that when we get comfortable, we're at our worst, and that's clear," he said. "We win two games in a row and then the third one or the fourth one, it's a dreadful performance ... So it's finding a way to be consistent at a higher level ... there's something about it that when we start to pick up points, that we just become very lackadaisical, very content."

How does the table look?

It was a weird night across MLS. Minnesota beat San Diego 3-1 despite significantly being outshot and out-xGed, Vancouver steamrolled the Union 7-0 (with Thomas Müller registering a hat trick), and the Galaxy drew Seattle. Real Salt Lake got a crucial 2-1 win over SKC, Colorado beat Houston 2-1, San Jose lost 4-2 to LAFC before a mammoth crowd at Levi's Stadium (with Son Heung-min scoring in the first minute and Denis Bouanga getting a hat trick), and Portland won a cross-conference match over the Red Bulls.

That all amounts to Austin slipping to 7th in the West. RSL and Dallas are now both just one point below the playoff line — RSL has two games in hand on 9th-place San Jose, while FCD has one — and Houston's still in it at just two points below the Quakes, having played an equal number of games to them.

Were the playoffs to start today, Austin would face Minnesota, but because the Whitecaps have two games in hand on both San Diego and the Loons, the West's top three — now all officially qualified for the postseason — could shift significantly before Decision Day.

Austin still has a match in hand and a two-point lead over 8th-place Colorado, insulating them somewhat from the play-in match involving the 8th and 9th-place teams. Of course, Verde also have the chance to leapfrog Portland next weekend to get back in 6th, as the Timbers travel to Houston on Saturday night, while Verde host Seattle on Sunday.

And they could do so as U.S. Open Cup finalists.

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