'We push ourselves on being ambitious': Nico Estévez brings his unfailing optimism back to Austin FC

At the first media availability of 2026 – after wishing the assembled media members a Happy New Year and offering a fond farewell to We Are Austin TV's Alex Sanabria (leaving Austin for an as-yet-unannounced European destination) — head coach Nico Estévez picked up where he left off in 2025, by being a beacon of positivity for the team he leads.

"It's always good to reflect about what you did the past season in order to set the goals and set the standards and how we want to approach this year, obviously, and we feel in a whole year, there were positives and negatives," he said. "We also felt like in two moments of the season, that are really positive for the club, playing a final and making the playoff, and we were all very happy about it. We felt sure.

"And then it's how we take that experience and we push ourselves on being ambitious, and, of course, to win," he added.

Talking about building on what the team did last year, he expanded on one of the themes from last year: That you can't win an elimination game in a tournament or a playoff series if you don't get there first.

"The first thing is put the team in a position," he said. "After, you can think about what you can do, but if you are not in the position to win something, you cannot talk about it."

Then, seemingly with an eye toward 2026, he added. "The first step is how we build this group, this team, in order that we put them in a good position for that something."

A healthy DP striker would help

Brandon Vázquez was out on the training ground for at least the first part of practice on Monday, making remarkable strides in the five and a half months since surgery on the knee he injured in San Jose on July 8 in Open Cup competition.

At MLS Media Day last week, Vázquez said he's targeting an April return, likely eyeing the April 4 match opening up Inter Miami's stadium and saying "I want to go to there."

But Estévez put a cautionary damper on such an optimistic timetable.

"Brandon is doing a really good job on the recovery side," Estévez said. "He's now five and a half months [in]. Usually it's nine months, the type of time that you need to recover, not to fully play 90-minute games, just to recover from the injury and be able to maybe train fully with a team and then start playing some minutes in some games.

"Obviously, when you come into from a long-period injury, and you didn't have a preseason, you didn't have friendlies to play, and you have to play competition, it's a little bit also more difficult to get those minutes. He's doing a really good job, but we have to go step by step, and then when he is in, we'll be ready for everything. And I think last year helped us to learn, with him, how we want to play, and when he wasn't on the field, how we adapted to that."

Absences and excuses

A few players were missing from this first practice on Monday, and Estévez had ready explanations. Let's go through those.

• Jayden Nelson: The new Austin winger is doing something related to a principal reason he moved in Austin in the first place: Training with the Canadian national team in hopes of making its World Cup squad. Estévez says he's due back the 18th, will report to camp the 20th, but was already taking care of transitional life matters before departing for Irvine, Calif. for the 11-day camp, culminating with a Jan. 17 match against Guatemala. Estévez noted, "He's super committed" and praised his mentality.
• Jáder Obrian: Despite rumors swirling about a deal to get him to Deportivo Cali in his native Colombia, Estévez said he's in Colombia now "with immigration things already planned." Perhaps he is; perhaps he remains in South America.
• Oleksandr Svatok: This absence is also immigration related, but a little more encouraging, with Estévez saying, he's "getting hopefully his green card during this week," whereas with Obrian, it's just a visa renewal. A green card for Svatok, of course, gives sporting director Rodolfo Borrell an additional international slot to utilize (even though there are no senior roster spots vacant at present).
• Myrto Uzuni: He has a "minor calf injury" keeping him out until later in the week.
• Owen Wolff: This one is a little worrisome; Estévez said he was at a doctor's appointment regarding "discomfort he had throughout the whole season last year," leading me to a few questions and a mental note to keep an eye on this.
  • He had that kind of season while dealing with a nagging something all season long?
  • How serious is this issue?
  • Was he not able to address this during the offseason?

'The best version of ourselves'

To close this out on more positivity, Estévez discussed some of the first-day tone setting he was looking to achieve.

"The energy is the most important thing," he said of what he looked for on Practice Day No. 1. "And then I think body language, energy, having that positive mentality is the first step now, is how we build a culture, how we want to behave on and off the field as a team, how we are, how we demand ourselves the best that we can ... and then this is the ABC has to be as a professional person ... individually, how they can be the best version of themselves, how we can be the best version of ourselves, how we can be the best how we can contribute to build and protect a great culture."

On this first day, he was full of belief.

"I always expect the best from the players, then I expect more from the players that were here last year, and I expect really good things from the players that just joined, and I think pushing our players and seeing them performing a better level than they did last year, and with the new [additions] in helping the team, I expect we can have more consistency on performing at the highest level."

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