When Jim Curtin did his opening press conference in June — nearly six months before his official Austin FC tenure starts in December — he talked about the importance of what he termed the "red zone."
He explained: "It's the area of the field where, if you connect the six-yard box to the top of the 18, that's where 87% of goals are scored in MLS. We are going to defend that with our lives. You'll see it painted on all our training grounds now on the field, where that red zone is something that we protect and defend with our lives."
Following Austin's 4-1 loss to LA Galaxy on Saturday — bringing the team to a desultory 1W 5L 2D run over its past eight matches, with seven of those played in official pursuit of the postseason — Curtin will likely have notes for the team he's acquiring about its red zone defense.
The outcome didn't flatter goalkeeper Damian Las, who started his third straight match over stalwart starter Brad Stuver, and it didn't flatter a defense anchored by central center back Ilie Sánchez, placed in that role for a third match in eight days. Interim head coach Davy Arnaud, who made those decisions and others leading to the loss being an unsurprising one, shared thoughts about how his defense fared against a Galaxy team now not only on the precipice of making the playoffs, but currently the No. 7 seed and avoiding the play-in match altogether.
"You don't ever want to concede four goals," Arnaud said. "It's hard to win games when you concede four goals, especially on the road. That's clear. You have to defend the box. You have to clear balls well. You have to duel well when you get the ball in areas you want to win it. You have to duel and you have to recover balls.
"We didn't do that today," he continued. "Our defending in the box was not what it needs to be. We just had probably two or three, four missed clearances, and on poor clearances, when you give a team with that quality in and around the box another opportunity, you have to defend the box again. You put yourself in a difficult spot, and we saw that tonight. These things happen, They do, but it wasn't through lack of effort and competing from the guys."
