'We have to wake up': Preparing for an attitude-adjusting Leagues Cup
Myrto Uzuni sees Leagues Cup as an opportunity to show how Austin FC can play. Interim head coach Davy Arnaud looks for his team to further master a new style of play.
Following Austin FC's latest disappointing outing, veteran defender Brendan Hines-Ike noted that the 2026 Leagues Cup — starting Thursday night for the club as it hosts Tijuana at Q2 Stadium (8 pm CT) — gives the team "a perfect chance for us to attack a completely different element of our season."
On Wednesday, in an early morning media availability ahead of the match, leading goal scorer Myrto Uzuni indicated it gives the team a chance to show a better version of itself.
"We can't wait to play," Uzuni insisted. "First of all, we have to respect ourselves, our city, our jersey, what we are wearing ... this year is not good enough."
Noting that Verde fans deserve better, he added, "I believe truly in this locker room, in every player, the quality we have. But sometimes, the quality is not enough if we don't have the desire to win every ball and to fight for each other. So we have to wake up ... because we have to turn things around. Because I think this city doesn't deserve this. This team doesn't deserve to be in this place ... so we're going to try and we're going to give everything."
Leagues Cup has an unforgiving format this year: 36 teams enter, with 18 from MLS joining all 18 Liga MX teams, with just four from each league advancing to knockout rounds following this week-plus glut of matches. Already, just two days in, teams including Vancouver, Nashville, Monterrey, Pumas, and Seattle have been dealt losses putting them on the brink of elimination.
Unlike some other teams in the tournament — namely FC Dallas, which opened its tournament last night in North Texas SC's remote home stadium in Mansfield preceding road matches in San Jose and Toluca — Verde get all three Leagues Cup matches at Q2 Stadium, even though the final one might be as away as a home match can get. Verde is technically is the away team (per Leagues Cup designation) next Thursday against the immensely popular Club América.
"If we were playing away, we [wouldn't] have like so many chances," Uzuni assessed. "But the moment we play [at] home with our fans, I think everything is possible to win these three games."
In three matches following the midseason break — a home win against Seattle followed by a pair of road losses to Houston and Colorado — media and fans have been energized (or, perhaps more aptly, agitated) by interim head coach Davy Arnaud's decision to implement a 5-2-3 formation with inverted wingbacks, accompanied by philosophical shifts that Arnaud appears emboldened by and determined to make succeed.
For those looking to blame Arnaud for the continuation of the team's sub-playoff pace, Uzuni suggests that blaming the coach deflects from who is ultimately accountable.
"The problem is we are playing," Uzuni said. "Davy's putting the players on the pitch, so we are the guys who are executing," adding that while Arnaud is setting the plan up, it's up for the players to follow through.
"It's a good system," he added, assessing the blueprint activated eight weeks ago. "I have more space, I can see more balls. I can go inside, so I like it. But, also, everyone is adapting with a new system, and I think we have to improve. We have a lot of things to improve."
'We gauge success by different things'
Assessing how the new system is working, Arnaud confirmed the team is combining at least some level of data analysis with old-fashioned eye-test evaluations as it moves through the second half of the season.
"It's what we see, specifically with the ball," he said. "It's how many times we're breaking the last line. It's how many numbers we're arriving in the red zone with. It's how many balls we're getting into the box, and we have good arrival in the red zone. It's where we're controlling transition and how we're doing that. It's how many corners we're generating, how many deep free kicks we're generating.
"So we gauge success by different things, and we've been working on it the last couple days, about what defines success for us against teams that are different like this," he said, nodding to Tijuana and its tendency to sit in low blocks and defend. "What defines success for us is having balls in the box and having arrival in the box and generating all those things that we talked about. So there are ways that we measure that and ways that we look for that, and that's not going to change."
I let Arnaud know, following that answer, that he gave me the assignment for my next article. This weekend, ahead of Sunday's match with Puebla, look for me to dig into an array of stats measuring those facets of Verde's offense. A preliminary look helps me understand why Arnaud considers the 3-0 loss to Houston better than the 1-0 loss to Colorado — at least, in how he envisions the new system improving play — even though the latter match was tantalizingly close to a hard-fought road point while the former was decided within the first half hour.
Arnaud also continued to advance the narrative that this new style of play is decoupled from head-coach-in-waiting Jim Curtin's input, when I asked specifically about how what Arnaud is teaching and drilling aligns with the "non-negotiables" that Curtin expressed in his opening press conference in June.
"Everyone has different ways to go about it, or different language, or different ways that you say things," he said. "But I think there are principles that apply, no matter the team, right? You want compactness between lines defensively; certainly, you want to defend the box, defend the red zone really well with good numbers and have a clear way you want to do that and vice versa. You also want to arrive in the red zone, you want to get numbers in and around the box ... there are things are obviously going to align and there are things that are going to be slightly different once Jim's in here, but I think those key ones are pretty universal."
Arnaud insisted he hadn't discussed those universal principles with Curtin, despite using the "red zone" term Curtin coined to describe the portion of the penalty box outside the six-yard box, where the vast majority of MLS goals are scored. He then turned to how the players are adapting to the new style.
"I said before the Colorado game, I thought we were progressing really well, and I really feel it," he said, then depicting the Rapids as a "super high-pressing team. They make it very intense. They make it really tough on you. So, in a way that we're trying to play and developing that, you have to make decisions faster. Some of these tools that we're using to to give us the ball or stop their press, we didn't do a good job of that. And ... when teams high press you like that and make you make decisions faster, we didn't do a good job. We just didn't. But I think we're going to keep hammering the same things, and it was a good lesson for us. We understood it. It let us know some of the things that we need to continue to work on, some of the things that we need to keep emphasizing."
He credits the players for embracing the challenge of switching systems midseason.
"The thing that reinforces something that you're doing is always winning," he said. "Winning will always reinforce and give confidence ... I said that from the beginning. Our challenge is to continue to be brave, to try and do what we do, commit to it. Don't shy away from it if it doesn't go well. That's the key, and you have to keep sticking to it. You have to keep believing in it, and I believe when you're doing that and the process is right, it's going to lead to where you want to be. It's going to lead to results. It's going to lead to consistency in how you're trying to do things.
"And you have to be brave," he continued. "We have to be brave as a staff to stick to it, even when the result isn't what we wanted. And the players have to be brave to stick to it and believe it as well. And they do. You can see we've had good discussions about it. We've had really good moments in it."
Injury update
It's been harder to institute the new five-back system without center back Jon Bell and fullback Mikkel Desler available, and while you shouldn't expect them on the roster Thursday night, Arnaud did provide an update Wednesday that hinted Bell could make the roster by the final Leagues Cup Phase One match next Thursday.
"I think Jon Bell is getting closer," Arnaud said. "He started yesterday — it's the first time he's been back with the group in a training session. He'll train today with the second team to get a good session in."
Desler is making some progress from an Achilles tendon injury that the club has been vague about, but his return is likelier on the other side of the three Leagues Cup matches.
"No real timeline right now," Arnaud said regarding Desler's return to the roster. "He's back on the field. He's working out. I don't know the exact timeline. He'll be back, we're hoping in the next week or two. He's back on the field with the team, and then available after that."
There's still a level of crypticness about that answer; I'm reading "available" to mean available for full training participation given the context of what Arnaud was saying, so in a best-case scenario, Austin's home match on Philadelphia on Aug. 22 could be a match in which he's rostered, though the following Saturdays (at Portland on Aug. 29, hosting San Jose on Sept. 5) could be more likely.
Keep in mind that if he's to make a proof-of-life appearance ahead of a possible move — not impossible, given that the club's in a transitional time and he's been hampered by injury throughout his time at Austin — the current transfer window closes Wednesday, Sept. 2.
Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. For more coverage, check out Emergency Podcast! (an Austin FC Podcast) wherever you get your podcasts.
Austin FC has announced its official 2026 Leagues Cup roster. However, due to when roster submissions were due, expect at least one change to the initial 30 named.
Leagues Cup begins on Tuesday, and Austin FC's portion of it begins on Thursday. Here's a quick guide to how the newly streamlined tournament will work.
Austin FC was less than four minutes away from escaping Colorado with a scoreless draw. Yet interim head coach Davy Arnaud compared this unfavorably to a 3-0 loss the week before.
Austin FC appeared to be headed for a scoreless draw that would have at least kept them in the playoff mix. A late penalty instead gifted all three points to the Rapids.
Following Austin FC's latest disappointing outing, veteran defender Brendan Hines-Ike noted that the 2026 Leagues Cup — starting Thursday night for the club as it hosts Tijuana at Q2 Stadium (8 pm CT) — gives the team "a perfect chance for us to attack a completely different element of our season."
On Wednesday, in an early morning media availability ahead of the match, leading goal scorer Myrto Uzuni indicated it gives the team a chance to show a better version of itself.
"We can't wait to play," Uzuni insisted. "First of all, we have to respect ourselves, our city, our jersey, what we are wearing ... this year is not good enough."
Noting that Verde fans deserve better, he added, "I believe truly in this locker room, in every player, the quality we have. But sometimes, the quality is not enough if we don't have the desire to win every ball and to fight for each other. So we have to wake up ... because we have to turn things around. Because I think this city doesn't deserve this. This team doesn't deserve to be in this place ... so we're going to try and we're going to give everything."
Leagues Cup has an unforgiving format this year: 36 teams enter, with 18 from MLS joining all 18 Liga MX teams, with just four from each league advancing to knockout rounds following this week-plus glut of matches. Already, just two days in, teams including Vancouver, Nashville, Monterrey, Pumas, and Seattle have been dealt losses putting them on the brink of elimination.
Unlike some other teams in the tournament — namely FC Dallas, which opened its tournament last night in North Texas SC's remote home stadium in Mansfield preceding road matches in San Jose and Toluca — Verde get all three Leagues Cup matches at Q2 Stadium, even though the final one might be as away as a home match can get. Verde is technically is the away team (per Leagues Cup designation) next Thursday against the immensely popular Club América.
"If we were playing away, we [wouldn't] have like so many chances," Uzuni assessed. "But the moment we play [at] home with our fans, I think everything is possible to win these three games."
In three matches following the midseason break — a home win against Seattle followed by a pair of road losses to Houston and Colorado — media and fans have been energized (or, perhaps more aptly, agitated) by interim head coach Davy Arnaud's decision to implement a 5-2-3 formation with inverted wingbacks, accompanied by philosophical shifts that Arnaud appears emboldened by and determined to make succeed.
For those looking to blame Arnaud for the continuation of the team's sub-playoff pace, Uzuni suggests that blaming the coach deflects from who is ultimately accountable.
"The problem is we are playing," Uzuni said. "Davy's putting the players on the pitch, so we are the guys who are executing," adding that while Arnaud is setting the plan up, it's up for the players to follow through.
"It's a good system," he added, assessing the blueprint activated eight weeks ago. "I have more space, I can see more balls. I can go inside, so I like it. But, also, everyone is adapting with a new system, and I think we have to improve. We have a lot of things to improve."
'We gauge success by different things'
Assessing how the new system is working, Arnaud confirmed the team is combining at least some level of data analysis with old-fashioned eye-test evaluations as it moves through the second half of the season.
"It's what we see, specifically with the ball," he said. "It's how many times we're breaking the last line. It's how many numbers we're arriving in the red zone with. It's how many balls we're getting into the box, and we have good arrival in the red zone. It's where we're controlling transition and how we're doing that. It's how many corners we're generating, how many deep free kicks we're generating.
"So we gauge success by different things, and we've been working on it the last couple days, about what defines success for us against teams that are different like this," he said, nodding to Tijuana and its tendency to sit in low blocks and defend. "What defines success for us is having balls in the box and having arrival in the box and generating all those things that we talked about. So there are ways that we measure that and ways that we look for that, and that's not going to change."
I let Arnaud know, following that answer, that he gave me the assignment for my next article. This weekend, ahead of Sunday's match with Puebla, look for me to dig into an array of stats measuring those facets of Verde's offense. A preliminary look helps me understand why Arnaud considers the 3-0 loss to Houston better than the 1-0 loss to Colorado — at least, in how he envisions the new system improving play — even though the latter match was tantalizingly close to a hard-fought road point while the former was decided within the first half hour.
Arnaud also continued to advance the narrative that this new style of play is decoupled from head-coach-in-waiting Jim Curtin's input, when I asked specifically about how what Arnaud is teaching and drilling aligns with the "non-negotiables" that Curtin expressed in his opening press conference in June.
"Everyone has different ways to go about it, or different language, or different ways that you say things," he said. "But I think there are principles that apply, no matter the team, right? You want compactness between lines defensively; certainly, you want to defend the box, defend the red zone really well with good numbers and have a clear way you want to do that and vice versa. You also want to arrive in the red zone, you want to get numbers in and around the box ... there are things are obviously going to align and there are things that are going to be slightly different once Jim's in here, but I think those key ones are pretty universal."
Arnaud insisted he hadn't discussed those universal principles with Curtin, despite using the "red zone" term Curtin coined to describe the portion of the penalty box outside the six-yard box, where the vast majority of MLS goals are scored. He then turned to how the players are adapting to the new style.
"I said before the Colorado game, I thought we were progressing really well, and I really feel it," he said, then depicting the Rapids as a "super high-pressing team. They make it very intense. They make it really tough on you. So, in a way that we're trying to play and developing that, you have to make decisions faster. Some of these tools that we're using to to give us the ball or stop their press, we didn't do a good job of that. And ... when teams high press you like that and make you make decisions faster, we didn't do a good job. We just didn't. But I think we're going to keep hammering the same things, and it was a good lesson for us. We understood it. It let us know some of the things that we need to continue to work on, some of the things that we need to keep emphasizing."
He credits the players for embracing the challenge of switching systems midseason.
"The thing that reinforces something that you're doing is always winning," he said. "Winning will always reinforce and give confidence ... I said that from the beginning. Our challenge is to continue to be brave, to try and do what we do, commit to it. Don't shy away from it if it doesn't go well. That's the key, and you have to keep sticking to it. You have to keep believing in it, and I believe when you're doing that and the process is right, it's going to lead to where you want to be. It's going to lead to results. It's going to lead to consistency in how you're trying to do things.
"And you have to be brave," he continued. "We have to be brave as a staff to stick to it, even when the result isn't what we wanted. And the players have to be brave to stick to it and believe it as well. And they do. You can see we've had good discussions about it. We've had really good moments in it."
Injury update
It's been harder to institute the new five-back system without center back Jon Bell and fullback Mikkel Desler available, and while you shouldn't expect them on the roster Thursday night, Arnaud did provide an update Wednesday that hinted Bell could make the roster by the final Leagues Cup Phase One match next Thursday.
"I think Jon Bell is getting closer," Arnaud said. "He started yesterday — it's the first time he's been back with the group in a training session. He'll train today with the second team to get a good session in."
Desler is making some progress from an Achilles tendon injury that the club has been vague about, but his return is likelier on the other side of the three Leagues Cup matches.
"No real timeline right now," Arnaud said regarding Desler's return to the roster. "He's back on the field. He's working out. I don't know the exact timeline. He'll be back, we're hoping in the next week or two. He's back on the field with the team, and then available after that."
There's still a level of crypticness about that answer; I'm reading "available" to mean available for full training participation given the context of what Arnaud was saying, so in a best-case scenario, Austin's home match on Philadelphia on Aug. 22 could be a match in which he's rostered, though the following Saturdays (at Portland on Aug. 29, hosting San Jose on Sept. 5) could be more likely.
Keep in mind that if he's to make a proof-of-life appearance ahead of a possible move — not impossible, given that the club's in a transitional time and he's been hampered by injury throughout his time at Austin — the current transfer window closes Wednesday, Sept. 2.
Verde All Day is a reader-supported online publication covering Austin FC. Additional support is provided by Austin Telco Federal Credit Union. For more coverage, check out Emergency Podcast! (an Austin FC Podcast) wherever you get your podcasts.
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