5-1 loss to San Jose<\/a> on April 22, Austin FC coach Nico Est\u00e9vez used a lineup of mostly backups, which wasn\u2019t surprising considering the quick turnaround and a looming home match Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\nBut while the Verde & Black hung around for 70 minutes against the Earthquakes, they gave up a goal in the eighth minute Wednesday and trailed 2-0 at halftime.\u00a0<\/p>\n
David Vazquez tallied a brace and Anders Dreyer, Pedro Soma and Marcus Ingvartsen all scored for San Diego.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Here are some key takeaways from the match as Austin FC (3-5-5, 14 points) hosts Kansas City on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Austin FC had a distinct approach to the match<\/p>\n
Austin FC coach Nico Est\u00e9vez was peppered with tough questions postgame and said mostly the right things following an embarrassing loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe feel ashamed about this result,\u201d Est\u00e9vez said. \u201cWe prepared everything to get a better result. We apologize to the fans and club \u2026 because this is not how you represent the club.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while there\u2019s nothing good about a 5-0 defeat, Est\u00e9vez\u2019s approach to the contest was the right move even with the lopsided scoreline because the Kansas City match is more important.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With a roster that is still plagued by injuries and has other players on minutes restrictions who recently returned from being hurt, Est\u00e9vez has to prioritize certain matches.<\/p>\n
Austin FC needs to beat the worst team in the Western Conference at home. And to do that, it will need its key players \u2014 at least those who are available \u2014 as fresh as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Starting outside backs Guilherme Biro and Mikkel Desler and key midfielders Ilie S\u00e1nchez and Dani Pereira didn\u2019t play Wednesday. Midfielder Owen Wolff and forward Christian Ram\u00edrez came off the bench in the second half, while little-used players CJ Fodrey, Nicolas Dubersarsky, Besard Sabovic and Zan Kolmanic all got starts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Verde & Black \u2014 who took out key players Myrto Uzuni, Joseph Rosales and Facundo Torres midway through the second half \u2014 ended the match with Ervin Torres and Micah Burton on the field, neither of whom is old enough to buy a beer. (Ervin Torres is the same age as some high school seniors and plays more for the second team.)<\/p>\n
A road match on 48 hours of rest with a home game three days later isn\u2019t the time to gamble on maybe getting a point, something which Est\u00e9vez hinted at.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to make sure we didn\u2019t lose more players this week and that we have enough players to play on Saturday,\u201d said Est\u00e9vez, who also noted he had a call with the league about playing two road matches in the span of 72 hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Austin FC should have a legitimate lineup Saturday<\/p>\n
Austin FC should field a substantially stronger lineup against Kansas City.<\/p>\n
Est\u00e9vez needs to hope that Pereira can start and play 45 minutes, or at least construct a lineup that keeps Sabovic off the field. (Sabovic was so poor Wednesday he may have given Verde & Black sporting director Rodolfo Borrell reason to buy out his contract during the summer.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Desler and Biro returning will help the backline, but the defense has issues without center back Brendan Hines-Ike, who injured a hamstring against Minnesota.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Oleksandr Svatok and Mateja Djordjevic were subpar, while Jon Bell was average. But those are the only three legitimate center backs currently available, and it\u2019s the biggest decision Est\u00e9vez faces entering Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bottom line<\/p>\n
If Austin FC wins Saturday and can manage a draw May 23 at St. Louis, Wednesday\u2019s performance will be long forgotten.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The World Cup break can\u2019t come soon enough for the Verde & Black after their injury issues this season. But Austin FC needs three points Saturday to take heat off itself for two rough trips to California in less than a month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unacceptable this has happened twice in the same season,\u201d Jon Gallagher said.<\/p>\n
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SAN DIEGO, CA – MAY 13: David Vazquez #19 of San Diego FC moves the ball during a game between Austin FC and San Diego FC at Snapdragon Stadium on May 13, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Dave Bernal\/ISI Photos\/ISI Photos via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Dave Bernal\/ISI Photos\/ISI Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – MAY 13: Christopher McVey #97 of San Diego FC heads the ball while defended…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":795436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,44466,1582,276,6656,3549,15520,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-795435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-austin-fc","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-mls","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-fc","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116572041290213808","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795435","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=795435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}