Texas two-card: A double-yellow card sendoff dooms Austin FC to late loss against FC Dallas nemesis

AUSTIN — Austin FC almost weathered being a man down for more than a half hour on Saturday night in a chippy, contentious match with FC Dallas that will almost certainly ratchet up the rivalry between the teams. 

But then, minutes from closing out a scoreless draw at Q2 Stadium, something familiar happened: Jesus Ferreira. 

An 89th-minute goal by the FCD and USMNT striker, following a late double sub that shook up Verde’s bending-but-not-breaking defensive unit, gave the visitors a 1-0 win and sent the hosts to their 8th straight league match with a win. It was Ferreria’s fifth goal in the series, with FCD extending its lifetime series lead to four wins, two draws and a loss over Austin in MLS contests. 

“Obviously, we’ve got to get wins,” Wolff said regarding the state of the season. “It's important that we stay attached to the playoff line and it's a long season, there's a lot of games but the urgency is always there. But obviously this one hurts; it’s at home.” 

Here’s a deeper dive into the second of two early-season losses against Austin’s Copa Tejas rivals, who were pesky, persistent, unafraid to get physical with Verde players, and ultimately found a way to win. 

If there’s any consolation for Austin fans, it’s that this match was the final one in what’s functionally Copa Tejas preseason, and the real quest for the trophy begins with next Saturday’s Texas Derby in Houston — though that doesn’t make the fingers of anti-Austin keyboard warriors reveling in a Verde defeat any less sprightly. 

This (not-so-)magic moment

The match turned on two second-half moments — really, three, if you consider Rodney Redes’ foul on Alan Velasco just after play resumed, resulting in a yellow card, and his second yellow less than 10 minutes later for an artless tackle on Sebastian Ibeagha, resulting in his ejection. 

That rounded out an eventful week for Redes, who got his first competitive goal for Austin FC on Wednesday in an open cup win, but still has things to learn about MLS play — especially how lightly one should tread when on a yellow card in a match in which multiple players are being shown them. 

Then, just after the clock passed the 75th-minute mark, Dani Pereira got onto the end of a Emiliano Rigoni pass in the box, moved toward goal, meeting Dallas d-mid Facundo Quignon who went shoulder-to-shoulder with Pereira before applying a push that may or may not have warranted a penalty. 

For the Austin faithful, it was unconscionable that the penalty wasn’t called. 

For Wolff, who has certainly had his issues with referee calls in the past, he shrugged, “We'll live with it. We’ve gotta live it,” indicating he didn’t think it was as obvious as some other notable non-calls in his time with Verde. 

I had a question for referee Ismail Elfath and his crew about why the non-call — in my role as Austin FC pool reporter, representing my colleagues, who wondered about the decision along with me. The crew answered it with a simple statement of fact that didn’t do much to clear up matters. 

Specifically, they wrote, responding to my handwritten question in the delightfully antiquated procedure that PRO uses to field reporter-to-referee questions — which on Saturday night gave me another soccer journalism story to tell over beers — “The contact between the two players was judged by the referee not to be a foul.” 

Pereira felt differently, explaining to media after the match, “The situation is I just try to play the game. Obviously, he doesn't touch the ball at all. So I just put my body around him and I think it's a foul, but refs are tough right now for us.” He then clarified, “I stabbed the ball and then I’m about to shoot, try to go with my left and then I just feel him, so I just put my body and then I feel the bump and go down.” 

My conclusion: Maybe it’s not a foul, but it’s also not not a foul. 

Oh, so close

And yet, both teams had chances to break through before the second half even got underwaey. On the Dallas side of the equation, Jader Obrian came close on a breakaway in the 29th minute, leaving him one-v-one on a helpless Brad Stuver, only for the goalkeeper’s immaculate built-up karma and the crossbar keeping the shutout going. 

On the Austin end, Adam Lundkvist engineered two great chances from the left wing, one a blistering shot in the 39th minute that FCD keeper Maarten Paes saved, and another a cross into Emiliano Rigoni during first-half stoppage time that he headed over the bar. 

Brad Stuver, pondering matters after the match, said, “I think the performances that we've been building have been good; we just haven't been able to turn those into results. I thought the first half tonight looked extremely solid. We didn't give away very much, we maybe gave them one chance in transition where they hit the crossbar but I thought we created two, three, four chances that we might have been able to capitalize on there in the first half.

“And then, obviously,” he added, “the red card changes the game and changed the way of how you go forward, the formation that you play and kind of just how you adjust to the game, I thought we did extremely well and they do what they do best. They didn't transition. We knew that about them coming in.” 

And then, Jesus Ferreira. 

“Yeah, I mean, he took his chance,” Stuver assessed. “I think that was his only shot of the game and he took it well, so good for him for taking that chance. But I think, for us, there are things that we could have obviously done to prevent that chance.” 

In all, Dallas outshot Austin 14 to 8, with three shots on goal to Austin’s one — meaning Stuver and Paes didn’t have as much to do on the night, nearly both getting shutouts. 

(Note: Despite what the MLS social media account said, Ferreira was most definitely not paying homage to the FCD fans more than 100 yards and three levels behind his left shoulder.) 

Is Open Cup the hopin’ cup? 

If there’s good news coming out of this week, it’s that Austin FC beat New Mexico United to get one win closer to playing for a U.S. Open Cup championship. It’s still very early in the proceedings, but taking care of business against the Albuquerque team plus drawing Chicago Fire FC at home in the next round sets Verde on a pathway to win two at home and get into the tournament’s final four. 

Stuver, who’s been on Open Cup runs before, gave the standard focused-on-the-next-match answer, but did grant there’s excitement in the locker room around the comparatively favorable draw Austin got as well as the economic structure of the tournament. 

“It's something that we've all talked about,” Stuver said. “It's probably the quote unquote easiest trophy to win because it's only five games. We've been drawn into a home game on the next one and then a home game as long as we beat Chicago. So that's very fortunate for us because, as we know, playing here at Q2 Stadium in front of our fans is a huge home field advantage. So I think guys are excited by the opportunity to get the trophy.” 

Wolff, similarly, wants to focus on the two MLS matches coming up in the next seven days, starting with a Sounders team with the talent and coaching to doom Verde to nine straight league matches without experiencing victory — and isn’t yet rotating with an eye toward having a stronger lineup handle Open Cup. 

“These games are important,” Wolff said. “Seattle's a big game, good team, obviously; we don't have to talk too much about them. They're good. So we'll go there, it’s a great place to play, it’ll be a great challenge. But every game is challenging. There are no easy games in this league and we'll have to obviously see where guys are at physically, some rotations, but not expecting lots of lots of changes just for the sake of changing.”