If you weren’t worried about Sebastián Driussi’s production up until now, this is probably a good time to begin.
At seven matches without a goal — with his most recent one coming in the win over Sporting Kansas City on May 18 — Driussi’s tied for his longest-ever scoring drought in his four seasons at Austin FC, counting consecutive matches in which he’s been an active participant.
He also had seven scoreless matches from his goal in the 2023 opener — the chipped shot over Roman Burki in a loss ultimately remembered for other reasons — to his goal in a draw against the Earthquakes eight appearances later.
He’s still the all-time Austin FC goal leader with 43, though more than half of those came in Driussi’s breakout (or so we thought) 2022 season, when he scored 22 goals and added seven assists to make a run at the MVP award that Hany Mukhtar wrested away decisively in the final stage of the season.
But since then, Driussi’s played in 46 games, starting in 43, and has amassed 16 goals and seven assists in that season and a third. Last season, missing six matches with injuries, he followed up his MVP season with 11 goals and five assists. This season, already having missed five matches to start the season, he’s at five goals and two assists in 18 matches played, which extrapolates out to failing to make the double-digit goal mark for the first full season in his MLS career.
Without being in the locker room or regularly at training, it’s hard to know for sure what’s affecting Driussi. Some think the captain’s armband, given to him at the start of 2023 after it was taken from Alex Ring, is weighing heavily on him. Some wonder if two dramatic player exits have something to do with it. Some just want to blame Josh Wolff for everything.
Let’s dig in as to what it might be.
