'We expect to progress': Josh Wolff says Austin FC isn't done with Leagues Cup yet

On its face, neither outcome for Saturday's league match is good for Austin FC. 

Should Verde win (either in the customary 90 minutes or with a match-ending penalty kick shootout), they'd secure second place in their group and travel to face a well-rested and reloaded LAFC on Wednesday night — with just three days' rest and without either of their first choice strikers. 

Lose in either of the same ways, and Austin will miss out on the knockout rounds, bowing out of a multinational tournament at the earliest exit point possible for the second time in just four months. 

But as Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff told it to media on Friday, there's no contingency plan for a second preseason should Verde bow out Saturday or Wednesday and suddenly find themselves with two weeks idle. 

"I think we expect to progress," Wolff noted, "so we'll plan on progressing, and then we'll figure out what's after that, but we don't plan too far ahead. But when we know we have to win this game, our expectation and the idea for us is we win this game and we go play LAFC and then we'll plan after that, beyond that." 

Wolff feels a little more prepared going into Saturday's contest against the attack-minded Bravos because he's got a new center back to set up against them. New arrival Matt Hedges, a 12-year veteran of the league, stood alongside Wolff at the press conference as Wolff said, "Matt was a target" regarding the team's summer reinforcement intentions. 

Hedges: Available Saturday

"He will be available Saturday," Wolff noted,  "I think, Matt is somebody [who] clearly brings leadership, brings experience ... he comes in fit, ready to play and we'll look to utilize him as quick as possible." 

Hedges, for his part, said that "getting used to the tendencies" of his new teammates will be the biggest part of adjusting, but having played 12 years in MLS and playing 11 of those in Frisco means the pace of the league or the harshness of the Texas sun won't be shocking to him. 

He also said, regarding his probable initial partner Julio Cascante, "I think he's an aggressive player. He likes to get up on his man. So I've got to cover ... and I do that pretty well. And he's great on the ball, so that's a plus."

Armando Isais, in town covering Juarez for his Zona Brava online network, notes that the team is offense-minded, and even "explosive," with fullbacks — including former El Tri and Tigres stalwart Luis "Chaka" Rodriguez moving up the wings and looking to feed the forwards, and Spanish player Aitor Garcia (No. 33) often the focal point of the attack. 

Wolff said, as far as what to watch from Juarez, "I think they have a lot of rotations. They ask a lot of questions. They spread out the field, they utilize central midfielders in their backline, they interchange positionally, so we have to be aware of that. You know, I think without the ball, they're very organized, compact, and not too far off from what Mazatlan is." 

He added, "They're quite strong and quite physical. They reduce space, so we had some access to areas against Mazatlan that we just did not do enough with, and we hope we can find some spaces against Juarez and ultimately punish them and exploit that, but we know it'll be a difficult exercise." 

Return of the Groin Demon

It could be something Austin attempts to do with Will Bruin as the first option at striker. Wolff confirmed that both Zardes and Urruti were out for a couple of weeks — essentially, the remaining span of Leagues Cup competition — with groin injuries, adding to the growing list of Verde players who have succumbed to that particular plight. 

That's led Wolff and the high performance team to investigate possible causes. "We'll continue to review it," Woff said about that. "We even talk about the field conditions, firmness, softness ... I think it's the cadence of when they're working out. We look at everything." 

Wolff also addressed the status of Sebastian Driussi, Alex Ring and Dani Pereira a little cryptically, though Driussi did peek into the media area Friday once press conferences were over, and Pereira was captured in Austin FC social media assets training this week. 

"We have a number of guys that are close to being available," Wolff said in response to a question about that trio specifically. "We hope ... we hope we have some new additions, but we'll just have to wait and see 'til tomorrow." 

Commenting specifically on losing players in the Mazatlán match, plus already being down all three DPs and a recently-activated All-Star in Jon Gallagher (who played 45 minutes against Arsenal two days before the Leagues Cup opener), he remarked, "When you lose key ingredients to the group, it becomes more challenging, there's no doubt about it. But we still believe in every single player on this team and now we have that opportunity to go correct things with a result."