After Wednesday night's match against Real Salt Lake — a 1-1 affair in which Austin FC needed nearly 93 minutes to score a goal and salvage the draw — head coach Nico Estévez was asked about the All-Star Game voting that just opened up. With Austin FC being the host team for the MLS vs. Liga MX contest, Estévez will get to select 12 of the 26 players himself, but fans do get a say, contributing to voting in another 12 of the 26 players (with Commissioner Don Garber getting to pick the remaining pair).
So, if Estévez wanted to reward Verde players (and that's not an unusual thing for MLS coaches to do), he could just do that himself. But he encouraged fans to show their love for Austin players in the balloting.
"I will tell everyone to vote our players, because they're really good players, and they can do a really good job on the MLS All-Star team," Estévez said. "And they they deserve to be there, and hopefully in the next games, they also can have good performances and then make the fans vote."
That would be great ... but can Verde players make enough of a leap in the next few matches to get from where they are now compared to other players at their respective positions to be the class of the league, using just 2025 metrics as a guide.
Even if you don't vote for Austin players, you should be part of the process.
Vote!
Let's look at how the competition stacks up and who might have a case.
What does the Dax say?
On the realtor site, Dax McCarty weighed in with his early nominations for All-Star picks, and after naming the obvious Lionel Messi, he ran through a number of candidates which didn't include Austin players (but also no other Miami players). Three of the players he singled out — Andres Dreyer, Hirving Lozano, and cut-and-paste first-teamer Jeppe Tverskov — will presumably feature in Saturday night's San Diego vs. Verde match.
His list also reveals a lot of good forwards and midfielders — meaning, as we discussed in the just-up latest edition of Emergency Podcast — that the league could stage a compelling East vs. West All-Star match at this stage of its development.
At center forward, for example, he lists the Union's Tai Baribo (leading the Golden Boot race with 13 goals), the Whitecaps' Brian White (at 10 goals, and emerging as a viable MVP candidate), and the Fire's Hugo Cuypers (eight goals for a Fire team that's still evolving), and acknowledges that it's hard to leave off Kévin Denkey (nine goals for a really good FC Cincinnati).
So far this season, 40 players have at least five goals. Brandon Vázquez is in a group of respectable names with four goals, but there are names beyond the four listed you'd pick in his position — like Sam Surridge (nine goals for Nashville), Cristian Arango (eight goals for the Quakes), and, as another cut-and-paste standout, Dejan Joveljić (seven goals for SKC).
When you look out to the wings, which ostensibly includes Messi, you also have the Quakes' Cristian Espinoza, LAFC's Denis Bouanga, Portland's Antony, and Orlando's Marco Pašalić from McCarty's list in addition to Dreyer, and you also have to consider the Crew's Diego Rossi and his seven goals. I can't see Estévez passing over this block to do a solid for either Mytro Uzuni or Osman Bukari, who optimistic fans thought might be in this conversation before the season started.
Owen Wolff's arguably been Austin's best player all season, but the All-Star midfield has to start with Evander, and Martín Ojeda has been stellar for Orlando as a No. 10. I could see Diego Luna getting a vote on the fun factor alone (but he's also got the numbers to back it up), and Pep Biel is having a strong season for Charlotte. McCarty also threw in Vancouver's Sebastian Berhalter as a possibility in the midfield, and of the two USMNT's coaches' sons, he's having the better season. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing to see him make it.
So, does anyone merit consideration?
Brad Stuver getting a lifetime achievement award as one of three goalkeepers wouldn't be as eyebrow-raising as Wayne Rooney giving Tyler Miller a spot in 2023. Stuver's got six clean sheets on the season, which is toward the top of the league, and though his underlying numbers have been a little off compared to past seasons where he had to stand on his head, he hasn't needed to stand on his head as much this season, and has registered some solid saves.
It also helps that there's no obvious goalkeeper candidate. Minnesota's Dayne St. Clair and Orlando's Pedro Gallese were the two of McCarty's three I could get behind; he also forwarded the Rapids' Zack Steffen, but I argue that Portland's James Pantemis or Vancouver's Yohei Takoaka have better 2025 resumes.
Is there a Verde field player who could crack the roster? Let me throw Brendan Hines-Ike name into the ring. He's currently seventh in clearances among all MLS players, and though there are a number of good center backs who might not draw votes in the way that known entities like Walker Zimmerman and Matt Miazga might, Hines-Ike is also a fantastic story in an event that likes to feature fantastic stories.
Of course, when Austin's defense only let in three goals in the first seven matches, the case for Hines-Ike was clearer — "centerpiece of the league's best defense."
He's still an anchor for a defense that has only allowed 18 goals in 16 matches, good enough for top-seven in the league using just the goals against metric.
Yet, the combined 10 goals allowed against Vancouver, Houston, and Minnesota in that dismal stretch of the season — albeit with Austin's most recent win thrown in that mix — tarnished the defense's reputation. That might be coming back some, with Verde only allowing three goals total in their last four league matches (all draws), but is that enough to elevate Hines-Ike?
It's hard to make a case for that, but it's harder to make a case for anyone else on this squad as things stand.
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.
After Wednesday night's match against Real Salt Lake — a 1-1 affair in which Austin FC needed nearly 93 minutes to score a goal and salvage the draw — head coach Nico Estévez was asked about the All-Star Game voting that just opened up. With Austin FC being the host team for the MLS vs. Liga MX contest, Estévez will get to select 12 of the 26 players himself, but fans do get a say, contributing to voting in another 12 of the 26 players (with Commissioner Don Garber getting to pick the remaining pair).
So, if Estévez wanted to reward Verde players (and that's not an unusual thing for MLS coaches to do), he could just do that himself. But he encouraged fans to show their love for Austin players in the balloting.
"I will tell everyone to vote our players, because they're really good players, and they can do a really good job on the MLS All-Star team," Estévez said. "And they they deserve to be there, and hopefully in the next games, they also can have good performances and then make the fans vote."
That would be great ... but can Verde players make enough of a leap in the next few matches to get from where they are now compared to other players at their respective positions to be the class of the league, using just 2025 metrics as a guide.
Even if you don't vote for Austin players, you should be part of the process.
Let's look at how the competition stacks up and who might have a case.
What does the Dax say?
On the realtor site, Dax McCarty weighed in with his early nominations for All-Star picks, and after naming the obvious Lionel Messi, he ran through a number of candidates which didn't include Austin players (but also no other Miami players). Three of the players he singled out — Andres Dreyer, Hirving Lozano, and cut-and-paste first-teamer Jeppe Tverskov — will presumably feature in Saturday night's San Diego vs. Verde match.
His list also reveals a lot of good forwards and midfielders — meaning, as we discussed in the just-up latest edition of Emergency Podcast — that the league could stage a compelling East vs. West All-Star match at this stage of its development.
At center forward, for example, he lists the Union's Tai Baribo (leading the Golden Boot race with 13 goals), the Whitecaps' Brian White (at 10 goals, and emerging as a viable MVP candidate), and the Fire's Hugo Cuypers (eight goals for a Fire team that's still evolving), and acknowledges that it's hard to leave off Kévin Denkey (nine goals for a really good FC Cincinnati).
So far this season, 40 players have at least five goals. Brandon Vázquez is in a group of respectable names with four goals, but there are names beyond the four listed you'd pick in his position — like Sam Surridge (nine goals for Nashville), Cristian Arango (eight goals for the Quakes), and, as another cut-and-paste standout, Dejan Joveljić (seven goals for SKC).
When you look out to the wings, which ostensibly includes Messi, you also have the Quakes' Cristian Espinoza, LAFC's Denis Bouanga, Portland's Antony, and Orlando's Marco Pašalić from McCarty's list in addition to Dreyer, and you also have to consider the Crew's Diego Rossi and his seven goals. I can't see Estévez passing over this block to do a solid for either Mytro Uzuni or Osman Bukari, who optimistic fans thought might be in this conversation before the season started.
Owen Wolff's arguably been Austin's best player all season, but the All-Star midfield has to start with Evander, and Martín Ojeda has been stellar for Orlando as a No. 10. I could see Diego Luna getting a vote on the fun factor alone (but he's also got the numbers to back it up), and Pep Biel is having a strong season for Charlotte. McCarty also threw in Vancouver's Sebastian Berhalter as a possibility in the midfield, and of the two USMNT's coaches' sons, he's having the better season. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing to see him make it.
So, does anyone merit consideration?
Brad Stuver getting a lifetime achievement award as one of three goalkeepers wouldn't be as eyebrow-raising as Wayne Rooney giving Tyler Miller a spot in 2023. Stuver's got six clean sheets on the season, which is toward the top of the league, and though his underlying numbers have been a little off compared to past seasons where he had to stand on his head, he hasn't needed to stand on his head as much this season, and has registered some solid saves.
It also helps that there's no obvious goalkeeper candidate. Minnesota's Dayne St. Clair and Orlando's Pedro Gallese were the two of McCarty's three I could get behind; he also forwarded the Rapids' Zack Steffen, but I argue that Portland's James Pantemis or Vancouver's Yohei Takoaka have better 2025 resumes.
Is there a Verde field player who could crack the roster? Let me throw Brendan Hines-Ike name into the ring. He's currently seventh in clearances among all MLS players, and though there are a number of good center backs who might not draw votes in the way that known entities like Walker Zimmerman and Matt Miazga might, Hines-Ike is also a fantastic story in an event that likes to feature fantastic stories.
Of course, when Austin's defense only let in three goals in the first seven matches, the case for Hines-Ike was clearer — "centerpiece of the league's best defense."
He's still an anchor for a defense that has only allowed 18 goals in 16 matches, good enough for top-seven in the league using just the goals against metric.
Yet, the combined 10 goals allowed against Vancouver, Houston, and Minnesota in that dismal stretch of the season — albeit with Austin's most recent win thrown in that mix — tarnished the defense's reputation. That might be coming back some, with Verde only allowing three goals total in their last four league matches (all draws), but is that enough to elevate Hines-Ike?
It's hard to make a case for that, but it's harder to make a case for anyone else on this squad as things stand.
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.
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