'Un poco de amor': Highlights from Nico Estévez and Osman Bukari's comments after a decisive win

We all need a little love and support from time to time.

That's true for all of us just trying to get by in this crazy world, and as Austin FC head coach Nico Estévez shared in Spanish following Saturday night's emphatic 4-2 win over D.C. United, that's true for Myrto Uzuni — who had a rough entry into MLS for an initial few months that included being a continent away for the birth of his child, but is now looking more settled with a goal in each of his last two league matches.

"I simply gave him a little love that we all need from time to time," Estévez said in Spanish. "Things don't always go the way we want, and I believe he just needed someone to believe in him ... we need someone to believe in us to fulfill our dreams, improve, and do things right. I believed that at that moment he needed support—above all, someone who would stand by him—because he deserves it for all the work he does and everything he accomplishes."

Uzuni's goal, on a throughball from Brendan Hines-Ike, was not only the most highlight reel-worthy play of the match, it also was a superb illustration goals added (G+), the American Soccer Analysis superstat looking at six key contributing factors in a player's game and how they contribute to the most important stat of all — the one on the scoreboard that determines wins, draws, and losses.

However

You'll notice something else on that G+ chart, which sets a mean at 50, with the worst players usually settling in at the low 30s or even the high 20s. Oleksandr Svatok — embarrassed on the first goal by skating past goalscorer João Peglow and flagged for wrestling with Christian Benteke, giving up the PK Benteke converted for the second and final goal — finished with a 19, the lowest an Austin FC player has attained in G+ all year.

(Incidentally, Svatok was also lowest on the team in the previous match, getting a 30 in Austin's 2-1 win against the Galaxy in Carson – a game he left with a concussion that he's perhaps not quite fully recovered from, given this performance. Honestly, looking at the numbers over the whole season — how I spent part of my Sunday morning; you're welcome — G+ dislikes Svatok as much as it likes Julio Cascante, who has been among the best G+ players for Austin FC over its history.)

I asked Estévez about the continued concern about defensive lapses leading to goals — contributing to the 26 goals allowed which still registers as one of the league's best two-thirds of the way in — and he attributed it more to the talent of MLS offenses than any particular failing of his players.

"I think it is very difficult," Estévez explained, noting that all Verde opponents will mount attacks requiring defense. "If it's something this league has, all the teams have good attackers, and then it could be individual quality, it could be collective quality and combinations. If we expect that we are not going to concede chances, or we're not going to concede to the opponent ... we don't really understand the difficulty of this league.

"When you go to DC, this is a team that can score a ton of goals," he added. "Analyze their game since last year, and it's a team that has scored a lot of goals, and concede a lot of goals. But why is that? Because they have quality players ... in the second half, they changed a little bit. They put more players inside, they put their fullbacks high, and at the end of the day, they have the quality to create. We adjusted really well, we put on an extra central midfielder with [Besard] Šabović, that gave us more stability, we closed those gaps that we were conceding, and we controlled the game again.

"Then, I think we had really good reaction to their initial start in the second half, but also in the first half, we could score more goals and have the game more in control ... Besides that, I'm very pleased from the effort. It was really, really humid. It was difficult in the end, but the guys put in an amazing performance."

To be fair, the amazing performance came against a team in quite a bit of a rut — as the Washington Post's excellent Steven Goff wrote in his final article in his 40 years as a staff writer, disgruntled fans chanted, "Sell the team!" during the second half, with new Swiss coach René Weiler sidelined overseas waiting for a work visa, and interim coach Kevin Flanagan presiding over a team that's now winless in their last nine matches in all competitions — eight league matches plus the 5-2 capitulation to Nashville in the Open Cup (after leading 2-0), which ended up being the last match Troy Lesesne coached.

'He made the right decision'

Osman Bukari had another excellent game, not playing as high up as he normally does (he's RW on the chart, with LW Owen Wolff playing more advanced on average), but still connected to the action — best exemplifed by the incredible team goal he finished by nutmegging D.C. goalkeeper Luis Barraza. (It starts at 3:05 on this highlight video; be prepared to watch it several times to appreciate it fully.)

"Always this situation is always like this, when it's either he shoots or he gives me the pass," Bukari said of the pivotal moment in which Dani Pereira — who took the initial pass from Stuver, played it upfield to Owen Wolff, and then got on his horse to enter the box to receive Wolff's return pass — laid it off to Bukari, who rewarded the unselfish choice by scoring.

"He has to decide, because the position he is in, he can shoot and he can give me the pass," Bukari explained. "He made the right decision to give me the pass, because I'm always there waiting for the ball. If he decided to shoot, it's good; if he decided to give [it to] me, I think is the perfect way. It's either he scores or I score. So I think is mature ... his decision-making is very, very well at this moment, because the way he decided to fake to shoot and give it to me because all the defenders, they didn't notice he's going to give me the pass, and at the end, he give me the pass ... he did a great job on this assist."

(Incidentally, Goff, to give you the D.C. perspective on the goal, characterized it as "allowing Austin to go end-to-end with no resistance."

He reassured the media that, although they are thinking about the looming Open Cup match against Minnesota in September and the chance to make history by hosting a tournament final, they're also very boringly one game at a time in their approach.

"We have to keep on playing and believing ourselves and just doing whatever we have to do to be in the playoffs," he said, noting that the next two games are derby games (against their Copa Tejas in-state rivals) and therefore carrying increased weight.

He did say, however, given the confidence they're playing with, "I think we will be the favorite in the Minnesota game when we go there," which is a bold prediction.

What's next

Thanks to the start of Leagues Cup, which Austin FC will not take part in, the next game comes Aug. 9 at home against the Dynamo, followed by a home game against FC Dallas on Aug. 16, an away trip to Montréal, and hosting San Jose (to continue what we've dubbed The Series with No Chill) to round out the month.

Can Verde get at least 10 points from those next 12? It's possible. But also, it's MLS.

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