The Thursday Three: We hear from a coach, a player, and a referee on the Galaxy road win
You might not like the explanation we got from the referee about Wednesday night, but we did get an explanation.
Following Austin FC's 2-1 win over LA Galaxy in Carson on Wednesday – completing the season sweep over the current MLS champs, as the Verde comms team helpfully pointed out — we were doing the customary wait for head coach Nico Estévez and a player to do the post-match interview, but I was waiting for another quote.
Namely, through Galaxy pool reporter Josh Guesman, I'd put in a question to referee Ricardo Fierro about a non-call that raised my eyebrows, and to PRO's credit. I did get an answer. But in the words of fellow referee Filip Dujic, "HOWEVER."
Let's get to Myrto Uzuni first, though, as we got some spice from Estévez on that topic as well as the refereeing. (Estévez was in a spicy mood following the match, and come to think of it, given the yellow card he was shown, spicy during the match as well.)
Maybe we just don't know soccer
I asked about what appeared to be a perceptible difference in Uzuni's play and if something had been said or imparted in training that gave him that extra confidence. After all, though he did react to some of the missed opportunities and saved shots during the match, it didn't register as the same level of angst as even as recently as Saturday's Revs match, where he observed one miss by hiding his face in his jersey.
Weaving through three defenders (albeit Galaxy defenders, but still) and connecting on a shot from distance to open a match's scoring does wonders for a striker's confidence, it would seem. But to Estévez, the Uzuni of Wednesday was as good as the Uzuni who couldn't score three days prior.
"He had a similar game that he had the other day against New England," the coach said. "I think against New England, he played amazing. And today, he played also amazing. The difference is, the other day, he didn't score. Today, he has a score and because people just look at that, what it looks like for you guys, is a little bit different. For me, it's the same.
"I think he's playing really well, and I have total confidence on him and total belief on him since day one," he added. "It's just about time that he started scoring goals, because he has the quality, it has been proven ... Every other thing, every other noise, every other criticism is bullshit, and it's [from] people that know very little about soccer."
Diego Rubio, who got the assist on the game-changing and potentially Uzuni-season-changing goal, indicated that a happy Uzuni makes for a happy team.
"It's good," he said. "I mean, we all know what happened last week with Brandon ... it's a sad, I'll say, moment for us, especially in the middle of the season, but we know that we have Myrto. Last game, he had many chances, and today, he has that chance, and he scored."
He added, "This is huge for everybody," and after emphasizing that more scoring still needs to happen throughout the team, he posited, "It's good confidence for the rest of the season and for the next game that is going to be in 10 days."
Let's talk about some calls
I couldn't even get out my entire question to Estévez about the refereeing before he jumped right in energetically.
"Really bad! Terribly bad!" Estévez exclaimed, and then followed up with my note about his yellow card by saying, "I didn't even know what is coming. I wasn't even warned or anything. I mean, a team that should have a red card already," seemingly referring to Edwin Cerrillo's two yellow-card-level fouls after earning an early yellow, "and the PK, he's not even [making] contact there," pointing out the call that Fierro made on Mikkel Desler, whistled after appearing to be within his rights posting up against Joseph Paintsil on the endline.
"It's crazy, but it's what it is," Estévez said. "We know always that we play against teams like LA Galaxy, [that] has that history around the league. It's always difficult, and we have to play against them and against anything else that is in the game.
"They overcomplicate the games," he added. "For the games that we've seen between Galaxy and Austin. It was a very easy game to call, and I think he missed some of the big calls," before promising he would "try to help" by taking some concerns to the league and to PRO.
Here's my question to PRO about a foul I thought was worthy of a yellow card — though it didn't get a replay from the Apple TV crew that showed two different substitute cards up close and made other baffling production choices throughout the match, start around 42:26 if you're watching the replay. (Contact's not made until 42:37, but you get to hear the announcer say "Guilherme Beer" if you start the stream there.)
In the 43rd minute, it appeared Cerrillo (#6), already on a yellow, sucker-punched Uzuni (#10) in the ribs. Why was there no stoppage of play or review given that a possible ejection was in the balance?
In the 43rd minute #6 Edwin Cerrillo of LA Galaxy made negligible contact in the back of Austin's #10 Myrto Uzuni. The incident was checked by the VAR, who did not feel there was a clear error with the on-field decision, feeling the incident did not rise to the level of violent conduct.
I respect the sticking to guns and calling it "negligible contact," which implies a bit of selling it on Uzuni's part. But I also, from the ocular evidence before me, find it a little more than negligible.
On believing when no one does
Estévez once again developed a narrative, late in his press conference, that media is perhaps turning on the team – or at least we're not consistently true believers —and he's a rock in the face of that.
"The message was clear," he said regarding what he's told the team. "I believe in you; believe in your teammates. When results are not coming, you know people abandon you ... you know, it could be you guys. It could be some fans ... and then in the difficult moments, they can feel that it's my job to show them that we believe in them, and I think they show that they're a good team. They show that they can play really well, as they did in the second half and the first half, and they can grind in and hold our soul and have the resiliency that is important to hold results.
"Sometimes, things are not going your way. Sometimes, you are not scoring the goals that you want, but you're having the chances ... it's very easy to abandon the players and coaches and everyone when things are going the wrong way, but the difficulty is to stick together and believe in the place that we have, believe in everyone that is around the team, that we're a good team, and that we can make good things as a team. And I think they showed up to them."
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.
Nico Estévez asserted that if Saturday's match against the Revolution were played ten times, Austin would win nine of those. Here's some perspective on that apparent 10th game.
Following Austin FC's 2-1 win over LA Galaxy in Carson on Wednesday – completing the season sweep over the current MLS champs, as the Verde comms team helpfully pointed out — we were doing the customary wait for head coach Nico Estévez and a player to do the post-match interview, but I was waiting for another quote.
Namely, through Galaxy pool reporter Josh Guesman, I'd put in a question to referee Ricardo Fierro about a non-call that raised my eyebrows, and to PRO's credit. I did get an answer. But in the words of fellow referee Filip Dujic, "HOWEVER."
Let's get to Myrto Uzuni first, though, as we got some spice from Estévez on that topic as well as the refereeing. (Estévez was in a spicy mood following the match, and come to think of it, given the yellow card he was shown, spicy during the match as well.)
Maybe we just don't know soccer
I asked about what appeared to be a perceptible difference in Uzuni's play and if something had been said or imparted in training that gave him that extra confidence. After all, though he did react to some of the missed opportunities and saved shots during the match, it didn't register as the same level of angst as even as recently as Saturday's Revs match, where he observed one miss by hiding his face in his jersey.
Weaving through three defenders (albeit Galaxy defenders, but still) and connecting on a shot from distance to open a match's scoring does wonders for a striker's confidence, it would seem. But to Estévez, the Uzuni of Wednesday was as good as the Uzuni who couldn't score three days prior.
"He had a similar game that he had the other day against New England," the coach said. "I think against New England, he played amazing. And today, he played also amazing. The difference is, the other day, he didn't score. Today, he has a score and because people just look at that, what it looks like for you guys, is a little bit different. For me, it's the same.
"I think he's playing really well, and I have total confidence on him and total belief on him since day one," he added. "It's just about time that he started scoring goals, because he has the quality, it has been proven ... Every other thing, every other noise, every other criticism is bullshit, and it's [from] people that know very little about soccer."
Diego Rubio, who got the assist on the game-changing and potentially Uzuni-season-changing goal, indicated that a happy Uzuni makes for a happy team.
"It's good," he said. "I mean, we all know what happened last week with Brandon ... it's a sad, I'll say, moment for us, especially in the middle of the season, but we know that we have Myrto. Last game, he had many chances, and today, he has that chance, and he scored."
He added, "This is huge for everybody," and after emphasizing that more scoring still needs to happen throughout the team, he posited, "It's good confidence for the rest of the season and for the next game that is going to be in 10 days."
Let's talk about some calls
I couldn't even get out my entire question to Estévez about the refereeing before he jumped right in energetically.
"Really bad! Terribly bad!" Estévez exclaimed, and then followed up with my note about his yellow card by saying, "I didn't even know what is coming. I wasn't even warned or anything. I mean, a team that should have a red card already," seemingly referring to Edwin Cerrillo's two yellow-card-level fouls after earning an early yellow, "and the PK, he's not even [making] contact there," pointing out the call that Fierro made on Mikkel Desler, whistled after appearing to be within his rights posting up against Joseph Paintsil on the endline.
"It's crazy, but it's what it is," Estévez said. "We know always that we play against teams like LA Galaxy, [that] has that history around the league. It's always difficult, and we have to play against them and against anything else that is in the game.
"They overcomplicate the games," he added. "For the games that we've seen between Galaxy and Austin. It was a very easy game to call, and I think he missed some of the big calls," before promising he would "try to help" by taking some concerns to the league and to PRO.
Here's my question to PRO about a foul I thought was worthy of a yellow card — though it didn't get a replay from the Apple TV crew that showed two different substitute cards up close and made other baffling production choices throughout the match, start around 42:26 if you're watching the replay. (Contact's not made until 42:37, but you get to hear the announcer say "Guilherme Beer" if you start the stream there.)
In the 43rd minute, it appeared Cerrillo (#6), already on a yellow, sucker-punched Uzuni (#10) in the ribs. Why was there no stoppage of play or review given that a possible ejection was in the balance?
In the 43rd minute #6 Edwin Cerrillo of LA Galaxy made negligible contact in the back of Austin's #10 Myrto Uzuni. The incident was checked by the VAR, who did not feel there was a clear error with the on-field decision, feeling the incident did not rise to the level of violent conduct.
I respect the sticking to guns and calling it "negligible contact," which implies a bit of selling it on Uzuni's part. But I also, from the ocular evidence before me, find it a little more than negligible.
On believing when no one does
Estévez once again developed a narrative, late in his press conference, that media is perhaps turning on the team – or at least we're not consistently true believers —and he's a rock in the face of that.
"The message was clear," he said regarding what he's told the team. "I believe in you; believe in your teammates. When results are not coming, you know people abandon you ... you know, it could be you guys. It could be some fans ... and then in the difficult moments, they can feel that it's my job to show them that we believe in them, and I think they show that they're a good team. They show that they can play really well, as they did in the second half and the first half, and they can grind in and hold our soul and have the resiliency that is important to hold results.
"Sometimes, things are not going your way. Sometimes, you are not scoring the goals that you want, but you're having the chances ... it's very easy to abandon the players and coaches and everyone when things are going the wrong way, but the difficulty is to stick together and believe in the place that we have, believe in everyone that is around the team, that we're a good team, and that we can make good things as a team. And I think they showed up to them."
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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