My underachieving team: A conversation between our Austin FC and LA Galaxy writers

You could put both Austin FC and LA Galaxy in the “underacheiving” category this season. Many pundits — us included — picked both teams to host home playoff matches; currently, both teams are outside the playoff places and are among the highest-profile strugglers in MLS. 

The good news for those teams is we’re not quite at the quarter-mark of the season, and when they meet on Saturday at Dignity Health Sports Park in the first Striker Derby of 2023 between them, they’ll each have a chance at what could be a season-changing win while they’re both doing their part to end plastic waste. 

(While we’re loath to use “must-win” this early in the season, each of these teams could use a win right now – Austin hasn’t registered a win in league play since March 11 against RSL, whereas the Galaxy are still looking for their first win of the season.) 

And, as we discovered, they have some worrying things in common. Phil West and Alex Ruiz dig into what’s ailing their respective teams. 

A star under scrutiny

Alex Ruiz: Riqui Puig’s first assist for the Galaxy last season, coming in his first-ever MLS start against the Revs, was a glimpse of what he can bring to the side. To end the season, Puig accumulated three goals and five assists to jump-start Vanney’s side to finish fourth in the Western Conference. With the Spaniard on the field, LA was playing to its potential and the midfield was a well-oiled machine that could go toe-to-toe with any club in MLS.

In 2023, Puig was elevated from a TAM player to a Designated Player due in large part to his excellent play to end 2022. Through the Galaxy’s first seven games of the season, Puig has yet to record a single goal contribution despite leading the team in shots and chance creation. He sums up this Galaxy team: Good but not good enough to lead to wins.

In the recent loss to LAFC, Puig played his best game of the season as the catalyst of the Galaxy’s offense. More performances like that make the rest of the Galaxy better. But he’s going to have to put up assists and goals if the Galaxy are going to climb up from the bottom of the Western Conference. 

Phil West: So, quick question … is it that he’s not doing enough or is it the players around him not turning his excellent passes into goals? 

AR: The rest of the team just isn’t taking advantage of what he provides. He plays as deep-lying midfielder to put passes in the right spot for players — specifically the wingers. Once the ball gets to the feet of either Memo Rodriguez or Tyler Boyd, the attack gets stagnant as neither player can create on the dribble often and are inconsistent in their service into the box. What used to be a threat and outlet for Puig last year is now blunt and lacking dynamism.

In the last game against LAFC, Puig played an excellent through ball for Chicharito to create a one-v-one chance. He failed to put that chance away. He’ll continue to make those type of passes, but others have to find the finish to make them assists. 

PW: Last season, Sebastian Driussi was one of three credible cases for league MVP, with 22 goals and seven assists in 2,882 MLS minutes. He was the principal reason Austin FC finished second in the West and got to the Western Conference final. This year, the numbers are a lot different: He’s got just one goal and one assist in 630 MLS minutes, and though he positively affected the one Concacaf Champions League match he was in, he was only in one of the two (skipping out on the away leg on turf in the Dominican Republic for put-your-star-in-bubble-wrap reasons) … and there were only two CCL matches, which is one of the early disappointing storylines of 2023 for Verde. 

A lot of the focus from head coach Josh Wolff, and really, us, has been on what’s been around Driussi and looking at his comparatively anemic numbers as indicative of the whole offensive system — tweaked some and featuring a few new faces. But Driussi only had two goals total in the last six regular-season matches of 2022 before getting a combined three in the first two playoff matches before everyone was shut out against LAFC. Verde fans can now feel free to be concerned. 

AR: You mention new faces in the lineup for Austin. Which player’s addition or removal has hurt Driussi’s production? 

PW: In theory, Gyasi Zardes was supposed to help, but there’s been all kinds of scuttlebutt about how they haven’t been complementing each other. As Joe Lowery and I discussed a few weeks back, 2022 worked so well because Maxi Urruti’s runs allowed space for Diego Fagundez to operate and assist Driussi. Also, we expected Full Preseason Emiliano Rigoni to do more, and he did assist Driussi in the CCL match in Austin against a defensive-minded Violette team. In the revamped system, it’s just not happening as often as we expected or hoped. 

More goals are needed

AR: The Galaxy’s two goals from defenders currently outpace the single goal from any forward through seven games — and that lone attacking goal was from Dejan Joveljić on Matchday Two against FC Dallas.

The metrics show Vanney’s side is underperforming; it's currently the league’s third-worst team in G-xG with -5.1. Strikers Joveljić and Preston Judd are in the top 10 xG underperformers through eight matches despite playing in six games this season.

LA is in the top five in multiple statistical categories among MLS teams in key passes, passes into the final third, passes into the penalty area and progressive passes. The team moves the ball into dangerous spots but the clinical finish is lacking. Having Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez, back from injury is a major boost to a squad lacking a goal-scoring touch — he’s the club’s top goal scorer from last season with 18. 

PW: At this point, does playing in a 3-5-2 afford them the best chance at scoring goals? I know that wasn’t necessarily the secret sauce they needed last year, but a single-striker system doesn’t seem to be working either. 

AR: Yes, it gets the Galaxy's best players on the field, whether that’s Joveljić or the hard-working Judd next to Chicharito. LA can keep its strong midfield trio intact and can push numbers forward, knowing there is a back three to keep defensive shape if the side is caught in transition.

Though the wingers are holding this team back and are not efficient on the pitch, LA has two new wingbacks in Calegari and Julian Aude. Those two can contribute to the attack and also provide much-needed width to open up the field for the rest of the team. It’s just up to Vanney to implement this at the start of matches rather than when LA is already down by a couple of goals. 

PW: Austin has six goals in seven matches, which continues them on a course to score less than a 2021 team who once started Manny Perez at striker. Fullback Jon Gallagher has half of those goals. It feels like we wrote some of this a few weeks ago, but with no goals in the last 265 minutes of league play, the storyline’s only growing more concerning. Ethan Finlay addressed it after Saturday’s match, essentially saying that they’re crushing it in practice, but need to be converting that to match action. 

Finlay, Rigoni and Zardes — especially Zardes — should have at least one goal at this stage of the season. Some wonder if Rodney Redes will ever get a goal in an MLS match — it’s his third season now — but the way he looked last Saturday, he could be more likely candidates to what Wolff terms “breaking the seal.” 

There’s a belief Wolff and players are expressing: A single goal scored will bring forth a torrent of goals. 

AR: Rigoni was acquired last year as Austin was near the top of the Western Conference, but he hasn’t elevated the club with his play. Are there some positive signs that Rigoni will work out in Austin?

PW: To add to what I said above, Josh Wolff’s been positive about Rigoni and what he can do, but at this stage, it could more be projecting hope than an actual belief. He’s shown flashes of being a good playmaker and complementing the offense, but there’s also a growing concern that he’s Just A Guy and not a multi-million-dollar designated player.

Off-the-field distractions

AR: Since the start of the calendar year, the Galaxy supporters’ groups have made their stance known — they no longer want team president Chris Klein to remain with the club. The combination of the poor start to the season and supporters boycotting matches and not showing up for home games has given the team a lot of negative attention from local and national media. All that recently sparked Vanney to go on a tirade about “the noise” surrounding the club that didn’t help the optics. 

During El Trafico, the 3252 made the Digs sound  like BMO Stadium at the start of the game and Galaxy supporters made their feelings known via plane. 

It also doesn’t help that Klein recently issued an open letter tying his future to the performance of the team. He said he would step down as Galaxy president if the club “fall short of our goals this year” in that letter to season ticket holders. The supporters’ groups remain firm; they won’t return to Dignity Health Sports Park until Klein is gone — which now might not happen until season’s end. 

PW: I know in our recent podcast, we talked about Will Kuntz coming to the Galaxy to handle sporting decisions and if that would make fans feel better about the situation. It doesn’t seem to be working … would Kuntz making a good signing over the next few days move the needle with supporters? 

AR: It would be a good step in the right direction, but supporters are still locked into getting Klein out of the organization. It was made clear in the latest meeting between the front office and supporters’ groups that Klein is primarily focused on getting Vanney the resources he needs to help implement Vanney’s vision.

Kuntz should be a positive addition for Galaxy fans. But judging from the supporters I’ve talked to, they’re not coming back until Klein is removed.

PW: Austin’s also weathered a controversy with a C-level executive to start the season. Claudio Reyna, Verde’s first-ever sporting director, got in a public spat with Gregg Berhalter over the U.S. men’s national team and Claudio’s son Gio that got very ugly. In the aftermath, Reyna was relieved of his duties at Austin FC and shifted to what was billed as a technical advisor role, which we all read as a waystation to him being out entirely. 

There are new rumors now — still unconfirmed by the club — that Reyna’s out entirely, based on testimony of someone who called into a We Are Austin TV Twitter Spaces, combined with the folks at Capital City Soccer seeing Reyna removed from the Austin FC website and getting out their Jump to Conclusions Mat. 

It’s ultimately moot whether Reyna’s all the way out now — it’s interim sporting director Sean Rubio’s show now (along with Wolff, of course), and if nothing else, Rubio’s put together a quite-good Austin FC II squad to bolster his growing reputation. There’s also an argument to be made that Reyna’s time building Austin FC was mixed at best, considering some of the bigger high-dollar misses like Tomas Pochettino, Cecilio Dominguez, Jhohan Romaña, plus the whole expansion draft debacle which included Danny Hoesen, the fleeting rights to an ultimately Houston-bound Joe Corona and 15 minutes of Kamal Miller. 

But it’s also the wrong kind of news to be making for a franchise that’s especially controversy-averse. 

AR: The Reyna-Berhalter controversy began at the start of the calendar year. Does it feel like that distraction played a role in the team's poor start to the year? It certainly doesn’t help that it occurred right before the preseason.

PW: It’s hard to say … though it was curious that Driussi replaced Alex Ring as captain at the start of the season — in somewhat of a surprise announcement — and it’s a reasonable assumption that Ring joined the club because of Ring and Reyna’s NYCFC connection. While I don’t think there are “Reyna guys” and “Wolff guys,” I do feel like Ruben Gabrielsen was the linchpin to last year’s team chemistry, and with him gone now, it doesn’t feel like they’re clicking in the same way they were. 

Mistakes were made

AR: The Galaxy’s lack of width has caused their fullbacks to push forward to add that dimension to the attack. Raheem Edwards and Calegari are being tasked to push forward, leaving the space in behind exposed. Teams have taken note of that and made it their game plan to expose that space when in transition.

Speaking of transition, the Galaxy are at their worst when they turn the ball over. Against LAFC, giveaways in the middle of the park by Gaston Brugman and Séga Coulibaly led to goals for the road team. Those types of mistakes need to be limited for Vanney’s team to get a win. 

Raheem Edwards, Efraín Álvarez and Martín Cáceres can also put their hands up for momentum-killing mistakes — the kind that separates the good and bad teams in MLS.

PW: Does that ultimately boil down to coaching? Is it on the players? Or is it some combination? It’s one thing to be playing high up and caught out in transition; it’s another to be Douglas Costa losing your mind and getting red-carded in stoppage time of a bad loss to Houston.

AR: It’s a bit of both for sure. Vanney has been playing the same style for two seasons and the team's weaknesses are easy to point out during games. Vanney’s got to take some blame for not being able to tweak his tactics or make changes quicker in games.

But he’s not to blame for a player touching the referee during a VAR review or players losing focus when they give the ball away. The team has to stay composed and not shoot themselves in the foot like they did last week. Still, if it doesn’t improve the question will focus on Vanney rather than the players.

PW: We don’t have to rehash Kipp Keller’s misadventures against St. Louis, and if you missed him talking about it to The Striker after the fact, know that he’s getting back to confidence via a great early-season stint with an in-form Austin FC II. But the St. Louis collapse did cost Austin at least two and really three points. Amro Tarek was even more blunderific against Violette AC in the first game of their CCL match. While that didn’t cost them directly in league play, there’s an argument to be made that Tarek’s defensive toxicity and Wolff’s reluctance to put him on a gameday roster since has had ripple effects. 

On offense, there have been a few shot selections that almost rise to the level of Will Ferrell yelling “I instantly regret this decision” as he jumps into the bear exhibit at the San Diego Zoo. Struck right, some of those could have changed games and added to Austin’s overall points total. 

AR: The elimination in the Concacaf Champions League was a major taking point around the league. How much did that affect the confidence within the team considering the Keller mistake to begin the season? Does it feel like Wolff needs to change his tactics to accommodate his current available roster? 

PW: As for getting knocked out of CCL, it’s possibly a blessing in disguise given the Cascante injury and the extra matches against Leon that would have happened this month … but it’s certainly not a good look to have such a history-making early exit. Austin also got bounced by SAFC in its first and only Open Cup match last year, so maybe there’s a tournament problem? As far as changing tactics, I think Wolff might be shifting a bit from what was supposed to be a innovation this year to what worked better last year, but not entirely. I also think there’s a bit of “this is going to work” hubris happening, and maybe it will. It’s going to be a crucial stretch coming up to answer those questions. 

The injury bug

AR: The Galaxy started the season with two of their Designated Players injured; Chicharito dealt with a hamstring issue and Douglas Costa had calf issues that were keeping him off the pitch. Chicharito returned and played 90 minutes versus LAFC in his second game back with the club while Costa got an unnecessary red card in his second appearance of the year. 

Coulibaly was dealing with personal issues that caused him to fly back to France plus a groin injury halted him from making his first appearance of the year. Chris Mavinga came off injured due to an ankle problem last weekend but he’s been a depth piece rather than a cemented starter on the Galaxy.

LA have more recently added Aude and Calegari, with Aude making his first appearance with the club this past weekend. Heading into this matchup versus Austin, Vanney’s squad is as complete as it’s been this season.

PW: Clearly, Chicharito’s a difference maker, but are any of the other players you mentioned really key to the Galaxy’s success? You mentioned Mavinga being more of a depth piece, but Coulibaly subbing in for Mavinga against LAFC on Sunday seemed the turning point for the Galaxy.

AR: In the current way that Vanney sets up his team, the players besides Chicharito aren’t going to be difference makers.

Jalen Neal and Caceres are holding up well as the pairing in the back to make it difficult for Mavinga and Coulibaly to be in the starting lineup. Only one of them can make the starting XI if Vanney wants to play with a back three. Their lack of playing time and assignment on the bench isn’t the difference between the Galaxy winning or losing games this year.

PW: Seven minutes into the season's opening match, Julio Cascante went down with an adductor injury that he’s still recovering from. Last week, with Cascante working his way back to training and a likely return to play by May, Žan Kolmanič tore his ACL and will be out for the remainder of this season. In Saturday’s draw against Vancouver, Diego Fagundez went down with a non-contact injury that looked eerily similar to Cascante’s injury — although we’re still trying to get word on what exactly it is and how long it will keep him out. 

Austin stayed incredibly healthy last season. While the team's not completely falling apart, it's certainly wrestling with more than they did last season, and it took being bounced from the Concacaf Champions League to figure out that the only real Cascante replacement was an out-of-position Alex Ring. 

AR: A lot of teams struggle with getting the most from their depth players in MLS. Does it feel like Austin isn’t getting the most from its roster, such as in their U22 roster spots? Is the club going to have to weather the storm per se, or does it have flexibility to go out in the market in this current window or in the summer?

PW: Oh, the U22 Initiative players! Redes has been a disappointment, though he did show some flashes in the last match and could have a redemption arc in him. Moussa Djitté’s on loan and might not return. Kolmanic was the best of the three and now he’s out for the season. Austin definitely needs to do better in its next round of those signings, assuming they go the three U22 route again. 

I think Verde is done for this window, needing to shore up center back depth with Radovanovic when it was evident that Tarek is not going to work out … and I think the summer window’s contingent on making Djitté’s loan permanent (or otherwise offloading him). There’s also the possibility that Dani Pereira or Owen Wolff (or both) go to Europe in the summer to spread their wings and fly, but then you have to replace one or two really good players before you do anything else. 

Why there’s hope

AR: This Galaxy team is playing good soccer but is at the bottom of the table. Vanney’s side will get a majority of the possession, have methodical buildup play, and will keep up with the best teams in games. They know their identity.

Even if this current system doesn’t work, LA has the flexibility to switch to a 3-5-2 formation. It has the personnel to execute in that tactical setup, but it’s up to Vanney to make that decision. The Galaxy has played good soccer in this tactical setup in their last two home games but has only been utilized when the team is trying to get a tying goal. Starting a game in 3-5-2 could bear fruit for a team needing to see results rather than good soccer on display. 

Also, it only took a good run of form in the final 10 games for LA to host a home playoff team, so it helps that there are plenty of games left this season for Vanney to turn the ship around. 

PW: Similarly, Austin’s got the talent to put together a good run, and against a good Vancouver team last week, they pitched a shutout while engineering 17 shots on attack. Players and coaches have belief that one goal is all it would take. They have the transition moments in them to punish a Galaxy team that’s susceptible to that. 

And like you’re saying with the Galaxy, Alex, there’s plenty of time in the season to put some wins together and move up the table. Certainly, this isn’t a Supporters’ Shield-winning team in Austin, but it never really was, even before the Cascante injury upended the first part of the season. They might not even hit the top four in the West plateau that some projected back in February. But they can certainly get into the playoffs and go into “anything is possible” mode. They just need to break the seal. Albeit, a seal that’s holding really firm at present, but which has to, at some point, be breakable.