Sebastián Driussi can't change MVP votes, but he's winning where it counts

AUSTIN, Texas — Sebastián Driussi can't change any minds now. Votes were due for Major League Soccer awards the Monday before the MLS Cup Playoffs began.

But he was still getting the question Sunday evening, after scoring twice and converting a penalty in the shootout that helped lift Austin FC past Real Salt Lake in the first round at Q2 Stadium. 

"I don't know what to say to that," he said, when asked if he's the real MVP of MLS. "There are people who vote, I hope they (did) it in the best way, but I try to keep focused on my team and keep doing things right."

He got one thing right that Hany Mukhtar, the Nashville SC star who seemed to be the consensus pick for MVP on Decision Day, couldn't. Driussi's team is still playing. Mukhtar's got shut out at LA Galaxy, ending a magnificent season.

Mukhtar won the Golden Boot, but Driussi has now scored one more goal (24) after his playoff brace than Mukhtar (23). It's a shame these important moments won't factor into the voting, because they show what makes Driussi so valuable to Verde.

When his team went down 2-0 early in the first half, Driussi pulled on his superhero cape and went to work.

"We did it during the season and today was a very important game where we got behind very quickly," he said. "Two goals conceded in 14 minutes and I think we had to give everything to the maximum. To the maximum until the 90 minutes, the 120 minutes, the duration of the match. I think we did that. That's why we are just winners."

For a club that finished 12th in the Western Conference last season, Driussi breathed a winning attitude into the group even on some of its worst days.

Factor in that he scored at least once in each of Austin FC's record-setting three regular-season victories from two-goal deficits, and in seven other matches where Verde needed to come back to win or draw, he scored a total of six goals. That doesn't even count his ridiculous brace that nearly brought ATX back against the New York Red Bulls despite conceding four goals.

"Yes, we seem to like to win by suffering," Driussi said. "Otherwise it's not us."

If you're counting, that's 13 of his 24 goals coming in matches where his team needed him most. He scored a total of 17 goals with ATX either trailing or tied. 

Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that he was fading at the end of the regular season, during matches that were inconsequential to playoff seeding.

"I'm a little biased I guess, but he's been doing this all year," Austin FC coach Josh Wolff said following the RSL win. "He maybe had a little bit of a lull here at the very end. He had an abdomen (injury) around the All-Star Game and a knee thing as well that we were monitoring. We'd clinched second place, so some of those things maybe worked against him, but he's been doing this all year. All year. You want your stars to show up when everything's on the line."

Driussi soared through the penalty area to cut the deficit in half in the 31st minute on a header from a Diego Fagúndez cross, and converted twice from the penalty spot — once in stoppage time where a miss would've sealed Austin's fate, and the other to set the tone in the shootout.

The RSL comeback was the perfect encapsulation of the Argentine's greatness, and it nearly reached its peak when he thought he'd secured the win with a goal to put Austin FC ahead 3-2 in the 114th minute. The vigor of his celebration showed what it meant to him.

"When I celebrated I scraped my knee," he said. "I hadn't seen the referee nor the linesman who had flagged offside."

So to future Austin FC playoff opponents, beware. Scoring first will only bring out the best in Verde's star, who's proving in the playoffs what his coaches, teammates and Austin FC fans have been screaming from the rooftops to anybody who would listen.

"That's why he's the MVP," Wolff said. "That's why he's been the MVP all year."