'It looked like a playoff game today': Assessing Austin FC's first draw of 2025
Nico Estévez told the media, "Humans desire always what they don't have," in case you needed perspective on a frustrating draw that still progresses Verde toward a playoff place.
Nico Estévez was an assistant coach with Columbus Crew in 2015 when his club lost the MLS Cup it hosted to the Portland Timbers.
So it's no wonder that Austin FC's coach has a lot of respect for the team that came in and handed Verde their first draw of 2025 — a 0-0 slugfest leaving them third in the West on Saturday night after Vancouver and San Diego's wins.
"Sometimes I feel like you guys underestimate the opponents," he said to Austin media members after the match. "How many MLS Cups have they won? How many finals have they played, and then how many hosting?"[[1]] You know, I think sometimes we have to have respect the history. We have to have respect to the opponents, and we have it, and we know how hard it's going to be. It looked like a playoff game today — the style of play, the energy, the duels."
Estévez also got philosophical later in that answer, before returning to a becoming-familiar-refrain, noting, "I think it's important to to value what we are doing. Humans desire always what they don't have. And right now, we are really solid on defense and and we are having more issues to score goals, but we did enough today to score at least one or two goals."
Myrto Uzuni, in his post-match locker room comments, described his continuing Sisyphean journey in front of goal (12 shots, four on target, and just one goal so far) as "painful."
"This is my job, so I'm living for that," Uzuni said. "I came here to score goals, to win. So for me, it's painful when we are not winning [and] I'm not scoring."
However, he also put the result, which preserved what is now a four-match unbeaten streak, in perspective, noting, "I think we are in good way. Three wins, one draw. So I think we are doing a good job, but also we have a lot of things to be better. We know that. So we are working to be better."
'Like two boxers'
Jon Gallagher has his own analogy at the ready when media asked him to assess the match.
"It was probably a fair result. They had one or two looks at goal, just like we did," he observed. "It was a pretty even contest, and it just felt like two boxers taking jabs at each other. Neither team wanted to open up too much."
"It's not the end of the world," he noted. "It's a point. It's a long season. Maybe in another world, we're careless and we lose that game. We'll take the point and move on.
"Yeah, I think guys are disappointed, which is a good thing," he added. "It just shows the how far this group has come. We're in a good place. We've got to stay positive. The guys were frustrated at halftime, too, but a couple of us have been around the league. This is a tough Portland team. They're gritty, they make it difficult, they get numbers behind the ball ... it's not going to be, they come here and we win 3-0 or 4-0. It's difficult, but we made it difficult for them, too."
Austin's result, combined with Sporting Kansas City's 2-0 win over rivals St. Louis City SC, celebrated by their social media team with a devastatingly funny Instagram post, means Austin now has the best goals against number in the league, only having allowed three goals through seven matches.
Were the playoffs to start today, assuming the 2024 format is in operation in 2025, Austin would host the first and third (if necessary) matches in a three-match series against FC Dallas, which would clearly be rich with narrative. (It's still early, of course, but later this week, I'll delve into how a team's record after seven matches correlates to overall finishes.)[[2]]
What the data says
Overall, Austin's defense was more effective than Portland's, measuring by xG and the distribution of chances overall.
Per MLSAnalytics, it looked like this.
Per ASA's xG numbers, Austin got the better overall chances, and the defense limited the Timbers to only average or poor xG shots, though the Timbers did better to put those lower-chance shots on target.
Also, these numbers differ a bit from MLS's numbers, crediting the Timbers with seven shots on goal and six Stuver saves, which is easily a season high for him. Now at 19 saves on the season, Stuver's still off the pace of saves leader Kristijan Kahlina, who has 33, but he's tied with the Whitecaps' Yohei Takaoka with four clean sheets to lead the league in that category. (Perhaps that's an indicator of a better defense that's not so goalkeeper-reliant.)
FBref's chronicling of shots revealed that the Timbers' best chance of the night was Kamal Miller's stoppage-time corner kick header, with 0.09 xG per its numbers. (That site had Austin winning the xG battle 0.7 to 0.5, with four chances rating at least a 0.1.
The goals added chart shows just what a boxing contest it was, with individual players challenged to impact the match per that multi-faceted metric — only Dani Pereira, Osman Bukari, and David Da Costa reached a rating of 60 or higher.
What PRO said
With the new online system of sending Professional Referee Organization (PRO) questions, we get up to three. I asked my three and hit send without seeing if Drew Fischer would make another questionable call after the one in the 80th, but it turns out I was fine to hit send.
I've gotten pretty dismissive and often curt responses in the past to my PRO inquiries, so even though getting civil and measured answers that aim to make a case should be a low bar to reach, PRO did well tonight, even though I still don't agree that the Timbers were blameless in all three cases.
Let's take them one by one:
Why was there no PK awarded for Portland's Ayala (24) in-the-box takedown of Austin's Uzuni (10) in the 25th minute?
The Portland defender makes a fair challenge for the ball, plays the ball, and the contact is then incidental to this fair challenge.
I'm questioning whether a two-handed shove to knock down an opponent is incidental, but I at least see the rationale in operation.
Why was there no PK awarded for Portland's Fory (27) in-the-box takedown of Austin's Vázquez (9) in the 35th minute?
There is normal football contact between the Portland defender and the Austin attacker, and the Austin attacker subsequently loses his footing and goes to ground. This is therefore no foul.
"Normal football contact" has now entered my lexicon. Expect me to dip into that well over the next few weeks at least. (You've been warned, fellow press box denizens.)
Why was there no PK awarded for POR's Fory (27) in-the-box takedown of Austin's Vázquez (9) in the 80th minute?
Normal football contact occurs as a result of the Austin attacker slowing his run. This causes the defender, who is playing in a normal way and tracking the ball, to collide with the attacker. There is no foul.
I'm guessing Vázquez didn't see it that way, but then again, Vázquez did recover enough from the contact to get up, receive Jon Gallagher's pass, and again head in the best chance of the night (and Austin's only shot on goal).
I asked Estévez in the post-match press conference if he would have called any of the three PK calls that referee Drew Fischer passed on, if he were an objective referee.
"I haven't checked," he said. "It's difficult. What I thought it was very like ... too many yellow cards. I don't think the the game was that hard to show some some of the yellow cards for both teams."
And yet, given the combativeness of this contest, one might make a case that the yellow cards were warranted. But we only get to ask PRO three questions per the new system; it's something to monitor the next time Fischer refs an Austin match.
In the meantime, Austin's done with the Timbers for the season — unless they face each other in a playoff match. If that happens, we know what we're in for — a battle in which goals are precious and rare, largely dependent on defense.
Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. You can comment here if you’re a subscriber, or reach out via Bluesky.
[[1]]: I know this one! They've won the one in 2015, they were in two other finals, hosting against NYCFC in 2021 and traveling to Atlanta in 2018.
[[2]]: As a teaser, in the West in 2024, seven of the nine teams above the playoff line after seven matches remained there.
Brendan Hines-Ike said this loss would test Austin FC players "as men." Nico Estévez took the loss harder than a previous head coach did when losing by the exact same scoreline.
Nico Estévez was an assistant coach with Columbus Crew in 2015 when his club lost the MLS Cup it hosted to the Portland Timbers.
So it's no wonder that Austin FC's coach has a lot of respect for the team that came in and handed Verde their first draw of 2025 — a 0-0 slugfest leaving them third in the West on Saturday night after Vancouver and San Diego's wins.
"Sometimes I feel like you guys underestimate the opponents," he said to Austin media members after the match. "How many MLS Cups have they won? How many finals have they played, and then how many hosting?"[[1]] You know, I think sometimes we have to have respect the history. We have to have respect to the opponents, and we have it, and we know how hard it's going to be. It looked like a playoff game today — the style of play, the energy, the duels."
Estévez also got philosophical later in that answer, before returning to a becoming-familiar-refrain, noting, "I think it's important to to value what we are doing. Humans desire always what they don't have. And right now, we are really solid on defense and and we are having more issues to score goals, but we did enough today to score at least one or two goals."
Myrto Uzuni, in his post-match locker room comments, described his continuing Sisyphean journey in front of goal (12 shots, four on target, and just one goal so far) as "painful."
"This is my job, so I'm living for that," Uzuni said. "I came here to score goals, to win. So for me, it's painful when we are not winning [and] I'm not scoring."
However, he also put the result, which preserved what is now a four-match unbeaten streak, in perspective, noting, "I think we are in good way. Three wins, one draw. So I think we are doing a good job, but also we have a lot of things to be better. We know that. So we are working to be better."
'Like two boxers'
Jon Gallagher has his own analogy at the ready when media asked him to assess the match.
"It was probably a fair result. They had one or two looks at goal, just like we did," he observed. "It was a pretty even contest, and it just felt like two boxers taking jabs at each other. Neither team wanted to open up too much."
"It's not the end of the world," he noted. "It's a point. It's a long season. Maybe in another world, we're careless and we lose that game. We'll take the point and move on.
"Yeah, I think guys are disappointed, which is a good thing," he added. "It just shows the how far this group has come. We're in a good place. We've got to stay positive. The guys were frustrated at halftime, too, but a couple of us have been around the league. This is a tough Portland team. They're gritty, they make it difficult, they get numbers behind the ball ... it's not going to be, they come here and we win 3-0 or 4-0. It's difficult, but we made it difficult for them, too."
Austin's result, combined with Sporting Kansas City's 2-0 win over rivals St. Louis City SC, celebrated by their social media team with a devastatingly funny Instagram post, means Austin now has the best goals against number in the league, only having allowed three goals through seven matches.
Were the playoffs to start today, assuming the 2024 format is in operation in 2025, Austin would host the first and third (if necessary) matches in a three-match series against FC Dallas, which would clearly be rich with narrative. (It's still early, of course, but later this week, I'll delve into how a team's record after seven matches correlates to overall finishes.)[[2]]
What the data says
Overall, Austin's defense was more effective than Portland's, measuring by xG and the distribution of chances overall.
Per MLSAnalytics, it looked like this.
Per ASA's xG numbers, Austin got the better overall chances, and the defense limited the Timbers to only average or poor xG shots, though the Timbers did better to put those lower-chance shots on target.
Also, these numbers differ a bit from MLS's numbers, crediting the Timbers with seven shots on goal and six Stuver saves, which is easily a season high for him. Now at 19 saves on the season, Stuver's still off the pace of saves leader Kristijan Kahlina, who has 33, but he's tied with the Whitecaps' Yohei Takaoka with four clean sheets to lead the league in that category. (Perhaps that's an indicator of a better defense that's not so goalkeeper-reliant.)
FBref's chronicling of shots revealed that the Timbers' best chance of the night was Kamal Miller's stoppage-time corner kick header, with 0.09 xG per its numbers. (That site had Austin winning the xG battle 0.7 to 0.5, with four chances rating at least a 0.1.
The goals added chart shows just what a boxing contest it was, with individual players challenged to impact the match per that multi-faceted metric — only Dani Pereira, Osman Bukari, and David Da Costa reached a rating of 60 or higher.
What PRO said
With the new online system of sending Professional Referee Organization (PRO) questions, we get up to three. I asked my three and hit send without seeing if Drew Fischer would make another questionable call after the one in the 80th, but it turns out I was fine to hit send.
I've gotten pretty dismissive and often curt responses in the past to my PRO inquiries, so even though getting civil and measured answers that aim to make a case should be a low bar to reach, PRO did well tonight, even though I still don't agree that the Timbers were blameless in all three cases.
Let's take them one by one:
Why was there no PK awarded for Portland's Ayala (24) in-the-box takedown of Austin's Uzuni (10) in the 25th minute?
The Portland defender makes a fair challenge for the ball, plays the ball, and the contact is then incidental to this fair challenge.
I'm questioning whether a two-handed shove to knock down an opponent is incidental, but I at least see the rationale in operation.
Why was there no PK awarded for Portland's Fory (27) in-the-box takedown of Austin's Vázquez (9) in the 35th minute?
There is normal football contact between the Portland defender and the Austin attacker, and the Austin attacker subsequently loses his footing and goes to ground. This is therefore no foul.
"Normal football contact" has now entered my lexicon. Expect me to dip into that well over the next few weeks at least. (You've been warned, fellow press box denizens.)
Why was there no PK awarded for POR's Fory (27) in-the-box takedown of Austin's Vázquez (9) in the 80th minute?
Normal football contact occurs as a result of the Austin attacker slowing his run. This causes the defender, who is playing in a normal way and tracking the ball, to collide with the attacker. There is no foul.
I'm guessing Vázquez didn't see it that way, but then again, Vázquez did recover enough from the contact to get up, receive Jon Gallagher's pass, and again head in the best chance of the night (and Austin's only shot on goal).
I asked Estévez in the post-match press conference if he would have called any of the three PK calls that referee Drew Fischer passed on, if he were an objective referee.
"I haven't checked," he said. "It's difficult. What I thought it was very like ... too many yellow cards. I don't think the the game was that hard to show some some of the yellow cards for both teams."
And yet, given the combativeness of this contest, one might make a case that the yellow cards were warranted. But we only get to ask PRO three questions per the new system; it's something to monitor the next time Fischer refs an Austin match.
In the meantime, Austin's done with the Timbers for the season — unless they face each other in a playoff match. If that happens, we know what we're in for — a battle in which goals are precious and rare, largely dependent on defense.
Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. You can comment here if you’re a subscriber, or reach out via Bluesky.
[[1]]: I know this one! They've won the one in 2015, they were in two other finals, hosting against NYCFC in 2021 and traveling to Atlanta in 2018.
[[2]]: As a teaser, in the West in 2024, seven of the nine teams above the playoff line after seven matches remained there.
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