At the Whistle is The Striker's initial post-match assessment, delivered exclusively to Striker subscribers (as the title suggests) at the match's final whistle. Expect a more in-depth article on Saturday night's match to come Sunday morning, including quotes from the post-match press conference.
The lead
Austin FC is officially out of Leagues Cup.
For the second time in eight days, Austin FC lost 3-1 to a Liga MX side, this time giving up a pair of second-half goals to Aitor Garcia to fully lose a lead captured via an Ethan Finlay goal in the 23rd minute.
With the result, in a testy match full of physicality and several different shades of ugly, the Bravos will travel to the Southland to visit LAFC for a Wednesday night, whereas Austin FC now finds itself with 22 days before its next scheduled match — against a St. Louis City SC team who also saw its Leagues Cup run coming to an end following two group stage losses.
Three things that caught our eye
So, it was a weird roster reveal and what was in it caught us a little by surprise. I figured Sebastián Driussi and Dani Pereira might be halftime subs given they're coming off injury and Wolff is usually apprehensive about starting players just getting back. But in a win-or-stay-home game, and time to recover on the other side of this if it doesn't work out, maybe it makes sense. Also, Wolff picked Kipp Keller over Matt Hedges, possibly a sign that more than a decade of MLS experience is still trumped by specific experience in Wolff's system.
But what about the decision to have Will Bruin on the bench, and listing Rodney Redes as striker? The first part of that is quite possibly an indication of Bruin's match fitness at this point in his career — he hasn't gone longer than 21 minutes all season, and that was in the Dominican Republic against Violette. But Redes? At striker?
As it turns out, it was more Driussi in the false nine role, with Redes firmly planted on the left wing. And there were delightfully dangerous moments of interchange once Austin got rolling, starting with Driussi nearly flicking in a long Nick Lima throw, Redes nearly finishing a Driussi pass but whacking his shot right into a defender, Driussi clanging a diving header off the post, and Diego Fagundez nearly scoring on an angry free kick after getting bodied by a Juarez defender — all in a little more than a five-minute sequence around the 15-minute mark.
Certainly, the 23rd-minute opener from Finlay, wonderfully assisted by Owen Wolff, was coming.
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The Sebastián Saucedo free kick goal to equalize, however, came out of nowhere, and it's one we'll be asking both Josh Wolff and Brad Stuver about. Whether it was the presence of a runner on the play or it took a skip that Stuver wasn't expecting, he made his move to the ball too late, uncharacteristically. It was the most disarming moment in a match that was extremely physical, maybe in a little-bit-off-the-rails way. It's remarkable that only three yellow cards were issued in the first half, and only one of them was against a Verde player. (Kipp Keller, after a crunching collision with Aitor Garcia, who picked up his own 10th-minute yellow.
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Seems like we've got one of these a match at least, don't we? The second Juarez goal was a case of Garcia getting a pocket of space that Austin wasn't defending and Chaka Rodriguez finding him — but not getting credit for the assist because it deflected off Gallagher on its way there.
Then, seven minutes later, Garcia found space out wide, and with no defender closing in when he got the pass, made his move toward goal. Nick Lima eventually tracked him, but he was too late and too slow to the play.
We knew it was decided when ...
Garcia scored a brace in the space of seven minutes.
What we might be asking in the press conference
Well, first of all, we have some questions about the lineup and what that meant regarding fitness and mindset.
Clearly, we have some questions about the defense. Hedges got in during the second half, and although his quality and presence are clear, the decisive goals were scored once he entered the match.
What are the plans for the team during what's now going to be a three-week hiatus? Wolff wouldn't talk about life after Leagues Cup on Friday; perhaps he'll give us some idea what that will look like now.
