With Diego Fagundez sidelined, Austin FC will call on some younger players

Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff confirmed Thursday that Diego Fagundez has a groin injury that will sideline him for "about a month." While he expressed hope that "rehab will go smoothly," and confirmed the Grade 2 injury wasn't as severe as the Julio Cascante injury that's likely to extend past the eight-week mark, it's still a setback for a team that needs more goals and lost one of last season's most productive goal contributors. 

So how will the team weather this latest in a series of unfortunate injuries? Luckily, they've got players for Austin's new soccer team — Austin FC II — who are making a mark. And while roster standouts David Rodriguez and Valentin Noel may not see the level of usage that Fagundez and fellow wingers Ethan Finlay and Emiliano Rigoni are expected to get in the coming weeks, they're now part of the mix, stepping up from VerDos to Verde in the next busy stretch of the season beginning Saturday in Carson against the LA Galaxy. 

"We brought up David and Val to help give us some numbers and different looks for that position, now with Diego being out," Wolff said about the Austin FC II duo. Noel, a SuperDraft pick taken late in the first round from the University of Pittsburgh, leads all FCito players with four goals, while Rodriguez, formerly of North Texas SC, has added an MLS Next Pro goal to his excellent preseason goal-scoring form with the first team.

And while you shouldn't expect them to line up next to Driussi at kickoff at the Digs on Saturday night, they're involved in preparations for this suddenly-crucial road match. 

Working on finishing

"Emi and Ethan and Rodney [Redes] will obviously get the lion's share of minutes," Wolff said of the team's planning around Fagundez's absence. "It's about performances to go out there and try to get our offense moving in a good way, but or more or less just to score on those but again, I think it's about taking the the opportunity and maximizing — that's what I say to these guys all the time. You've got to validate some of these good performances with goals, whether it's individually or collectively. It'll give the group confidence, and right now, that's just been lacking. So we try to bring things into play, where it's a little bit more lighthearted and enjoyable, but obviously, it's about how we create goals and score goals."

Indeed, media members attending Thursday's practice got to see players engaged in crossing and finishing drills, with many getting point-blank open looks at goal and scoring on Brad Stuver and Matt Bersano. 

Wolff said regarding recent practices, "What we've worked on the last week and over the last few weeks, again, it has a lot to do with final actions, finishing in the final third, a big emphasis on running behind the lines and how we arrive in and around the box. Again, a lot of those things I thought were pretty good in the game against Vancouver. Where is that validation with the goal? That's what's eluded us."  

‘It's always tough to go to LA’

It certainly won't be as easy to score on the Galaxy on Saturday, even though Wolff expressed confidence in what his squad can do. While the Galaxy are in a similar goal drought and even more severe win drought than Austin, Wolff's not about to let himself get put on a bulletin board by discounting how the five-time MLS champs can play. 

"We know it's gonna be a grind," he said. "It's always tough to go to LA, regardless of their record or where they sit right now. They're a good team. they're really good with the ball. They ask a lot of questions and they've got really talented strikers." 

When pressed further, he added, "LA Galaxy is still one of the best teams. You look at the metrics with the ball, how many shots they create, how often they're arriving in the box. I'm watching these games against Houston and Seattle and they're doing plenty to score goals, just as we are doing plenty to score goals.

"Greg Vanney is an extremely good coach," Wolff went on to say. "I think they have talent all over their field just as we do. These games are won in the penalty box. These games are changed by scoring goals. It's a quote that will always live in our world, 'goals change games,' and if we can score goals, that will build momentum, that gives us more confidence, and we can build off of that." 

‘Just trying to stay positive’

Perhaps no one needs a goal more than Sebastián Driussi, last year's MVP candidate and All-Star representative, who has scored just three goals in his last 13 regular-season matches, compared to 20 goals in the previous 28 MLS games. 

"We know the way we practice is the way that we're going to play as well," Driussi said through a translator, emphasizing the work the team has been doing on shooting over the last few weeks. He said of the Galaxy match, "This game is very important for us to score, and we all definitely know that, so we're definitely going come into this game knowing that." 

"The team is definitely staying positive," he added. "We all know that this is not the start that we all planned to have. But we're all just trying to stay positive. We know that this is actually a very long season. And we just keep trying to work hard so that we can produce like what we practice here." 

Dani Pereira, who comes off a solid performance as the lone No. 6 against Vancouver, is cognizant of the defensive work he'll have to do against the likes of Riqui Puig and Chicharito, but also is feeling the collective itch among the Verde players to score. 

"We don't want to play to lose," he remarked. "And it's not easy when things aren't going our way ... it's something new to me and just got to stay positive when things aren't going our way and try to keep everyone encouraged to keep playing. Every weekend's an opportunity to get three points."