In just two minutes and 32 seconds of interviews that Austin FC sent out to media from Coachella, head coach Nico Estévez and midfielder Dani Pereira confirmed what Saturday's eye test told us. Following a 1-0 loss to St. Louis City SC, with a largely lackluster offensive show and one key defensive breakdown leading to the match's only goal, this team will need to work between now and the season opener on Feb. 21 to get closer to what it wants to be.
"Still a lot of work to do," Estévez acknowledged. "We have to bring the group together. We have a lot of new players, other players that were key players last year that are still coming to the team, and then I think we we have to keep working in certain things. We saw some things that we worked [on] that were good, and other things that we still have to fix and we have to bring together now as a team."
Pereira, whose giveaway led to Simon Becher's 16th-minute goal, echoed Estévez's sentiments.
