Whereas Austin FC fans saw one excruciatingly long and painful match on Wednesday night — a 5-1 loss to San Jose Earthquakes with 14 minutes of stoppage time lopped on at the end – head coach Nico Estévez saw it a bit differently.
"I think there was two games, one game until we concede [to make it] 2-1 and another game once we conceded 2-1," he observed, noting the team had opportunities to score to expand the 1-0 lead — yes, Verde had a lead in this match — before halftime. "You need to capitalize those moments in order that you know you can move forward."
Granting that the team needed to do better on the corner kick in which Jack Jasinski equalized, decrying the referees for not allowing what appeared to be an Austin go-ahead goal to stand (which Estévez declared "the most legal goal that I've seen in a long time"), and decrying the referees again for a dubious penalty call against Nicolás Dubersarsky allowing Timo Werner to seize the lead on the subsequent 78th-minute PK.
(Note that I am still waiting for some answers on some calls from PRO, and will have a whole separate article getting into either what I hear or, what I fear is more likely, what I don't.)
Estévez said those moments are where the match turned.
"I think when we need to do better is we cannot [lose] our mind and lose our shape and lose our things, because it's still minutes to go, and you always can have an opportunity to tie at the end of the game."
But in giving up three goals between the 83rd and 89th minute, hopes of getting a draw dimmed — leaving Verde with just seven points from nine matches in a season looking like it's already slipping away.
