the second-worst offense<\/a> in the MLS with 24 goals \u2014 protecting its home field is the other major element Austin FC has struggled with this season.\u00a0<\/p>\nArticle continues below this ad<\/p>\n
The Verde & Black fell to 4-2-7 at Q2 Stadium in league matches with an even goal differential. Its 19 points puts Austin FC 19th in the\u00a0MLS in home performance, and the only team below it\u00a0in that regard who is in a playoff position is Chicago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just a lot of points that we’ve left out there, and there\u2019s a lot more that we can do to win the games,\u201d Austin FC goalie Brad Stuver said. \u201cWe have to find a way to win these games, especially this late in the year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Perhaps most damning, the Verde & Black are failing to beat bad teams at home. Besides Dallas and Houston, Austin FC has home draws with New England, Atlanta and Real Salt Lake, all of whom are 10th or worse in their respective conferences.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If the Verde & Black miss the playoffs for a third straight season, their failure to get more points out of these five matches will be a major reason why.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Verde & Black attack was lacking\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was a blas\u00e9 performance from Austin FC in the first half that resulted in a wasted 45 minutes. Though they dominated possession with 70% \u2014 which was due to Dallas sitting back and letting them have the ball \u2014 the Verde & Black didn\u2019t produce a significant scoring chance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ball was stuck in the first half,\u201d Austin FC coach Nico Est\u00e9vez said. \u201cWe were too slow in circulating it. \u2026 Dallas is a tricky team who likes to counter. This is why I think we were so cautious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Austin FC was far more energetic and constructive with its passing in the second half, yet aside from Wolff\u2019s goal, it still created only a few opportunities to score.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe have very good combination attackers, and I think getting them closer to goal would be my main (observation),\u201d Stuver said of the club\u2019s attack. \u201cWhen we play some of these teams, a lot of their attackers are in between the width of the posts. I think for us, we\u2019re so far wide because we want to create overloads and do all these things that we need to bring the other side in (closer to goal).\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0Austin FC man of the match: Owen Wolff<\/p>\n
Wolff\u2019s goal came on a perfectly timed run to the back post off an exceptional cross from Mikkel Desler.\u00a0
As he has been multiple times this season, Wolff was Austin FC\u2019s best player. Though he\u2019s always been a solid performer, he seems to be playing this season with a confidence that hasn\u2019t been seen before. His play has risen to a new level, and he or Stuver would be the club\u2019s player of the year if the season ended today.
Still 20 years old, it\u2019s becoming more and more probable that he won\u2019t be around for the 2027 season. European teams will surely have noticed his quality, so expect him to be sold at some point in the next 18 months.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Myrto Uzuni a nonfactor\u00a0<\/p>\n
Forward Myrto Uzuni played the entire match. But you\u2019d be hard-pressed to think of any combination of passes he was involved in. (He also strangely let a ball go by him just outside the box early in the second half that he should have taken a shot on.)<\/p>\n
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Est\u00e9vez mostly credited this to Dallas playing a five-man backline. But after seeming to find a rhythm in late July with a few goals and assists and overall solid play, Uzuni\u2019s production reverted to his early season form.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bottom line<\/p>\n
It was another missed chance for Austin FC.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Verde & Black were mostly the better side and again settled for one point.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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As Stuver noted, if the club had won its last two contests, it would be in a position where it could dream about<\/a> home-field advantage in the playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\nInstead, it enters the Montreal match fighting to get out of a play-in game spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, TX – AUGUST 16: Defender Lalas Abubakar #5 of FC Dallas and Forward Myrto Uzuni #10 of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":152599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,44466,1596,15519,6656,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-152598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-austin-fc","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-fc-dallas","12":"tag-mls","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115043001019205196","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}