It was over almost as soon as it began.
After 180 minutes at Q2 Stadium, and after getting some key players back but losing other key players, Austin FC's two-match journey into Leagues Cup comes to an end.
Of course, they're not alone in that. It's a tournament in which 15 teams fail to make the knockout rounds, and their company includes sole MLS CCL winners Seattle Sounders FC, current West leaders St. Louis City SC, five-time MLS Cup winners LA Galaxy, and former MLS Cup winners and CCL finalists Toronto FC, though those last two are really stretching the bounds of company to be in based on just their 2023 track records.
But Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff did indicate in the press conference in Saturday's match that they do want to learn lessons, and regard Leagues Cup not in isolation, but as part of larger, three-season body of work that will hinge significantly on whether they can return to the MLS playoffs for a second year in a row.
"We take the lessons from it," Wolff said. "We know we have to improve, we know we have to improve our roster ... In our two years of existence, we earned the right to play in the Champions League, which I think we've also got to look at that, and understand just what we did in Year Two, in two years what we've been able to accomplish. We're in fifth place in the West and we've performed extremely well over the latter two months. So while it's disappointing, I understand that we also have to keep moving forward and keep wanting and needing to get better, which I think everyone in the organization's gonna do."
So, with that in mind, let's explore three takeaways from the Leagues Cup.
It can all turn on one match
You could make the case — as cynically as you might feel about Austin FC right now — that Mazatlán's five points in the group were a bit fluky. That's not just making the case for Austin to have fared better than they actually did; FC Juarez's Sebastian Saucedo thought that they should have taken care of their Liga MX opponents before last Tuesday's contest even got to PKs.
As soon as that match ended, with Maza locking up the group, Austin and Juarez were relegated to what I'm now referring to as the "spanking machine" half of the bracket. Get past LAFC in the Round of 32 where Juarez eventually landed, and you're facing the winner of León-RSL, picking the poison of the reigning CCL champs or a red-hot team that just got took down a peg by Monterrey.
Then, should you get past that winner, you're likely looking at the winner of the Clasico Regio in the quarterfinals. Could be Rayados, could be Tigres. Either way, it's a handful. From there, you're on to a semifinal that could be against America, the Crew, Nashville or Cincinnati.
The alternate reality that group winner Austin would have experienced? Facing FC Dallas in the Round of 32. Get past that, and it's likely hosting Lionel Messi and Inter Miami in an all-time Q2 memory. Get past that, and it's very possibly Pachuca to get to the final four, which could be the Union or Pumas. That's tough, to be clear, but not nearly as tough as the other side of the bracket.
It's a good lesson for Austin to take into it. Every league match from Aug. 20 on, be it one that Austin plays, is a peg in a giant celestial game of Plinko. Verde's in 5th right now. There's a gulf of playoff positioning between 4th (you get a home match) and 9th (you're on the road the whole time).
Josh Wolff has a new way to utilize Driussi
Toward the end of Saturday night's press conference with Wolff, we asked about slotting Driussi into the false nine position. Will Bruin was the only of the three rostered strikers available for selection Saturday. Yet, Bruin went only about 20 minutes, which has been his ceiling since last starting an MLS match 10 months ago when he was still with the Sounders.
So, we learned two things instantly from the starting lineup and substitution pattern: We're not likely to see Bruin ever be more than a late-game sub, and next man up in these situations is Sebastián Driussi, with Diego Fagundez nominally behind him as a 10, though the duo also played up top together at times in something that appeared more 4-4-2 like.
Wolff remarked, "I thought it worked very well. Seba's a very talented player. He found the ball, he had probably four or five shots on the night, areas that we'd like to see him get, he came underneath, he went out wide, and I think it's certainly something we'll revisit, having a couple of strikers out, for sure. But it's something that we've talked about with him in the past. We wanted to do it; we want to see what it looks like and obviously, we can build off of it. Having your most talented player in and around the box is a good thing."
The implication there is that Driussi might have to do it again out of necessity in 19 days against St. Louis, depending on how Zardes and Urruti's recoveries go. As a reminder, we're about two-thirds of the way through the season. Last year, Druissi got 22 goals and seven assists in 2882 MLS minutes.
WIth injuries, he's on almost exactly half those minutes in league play for 2023, with 1443 minutes, and six goals and three assists to show for it. Certainly, any formation that allows him to get to double-digit goals is one that will help Austin.
Expect 'discipline' to be a new buzzword
Asked specifically about lessons the team learned from the two wayward matches, Wolff said, "The discipline. Discipline, and then the impact from us ... we need to be reminded of in and around the goal at both ends is quite critical. You can do a lot of things good. You have to find ways to capitalize on your opportunities. Mazatlán, with their few opportunities, took advantage of it; tonight. I'd say the same with FC Juarez.
"We could have been [up] 3-0 in the first half," he lamented. "What we're doing, ripping them apart, getting in front of goal —we had misses blatantly in front of goal and goals will ultimately dictate the game. They had very little; the goals sucked the air out of the game for us, and we've got to respond to that much better. That's one of the big takeaways."
Wolff bypassed a question about Hedges' performance specifically — it was wedged into a question submitted over Zoom having to do with whether Austin was playing with a higher line, which led to Wolff calling the defense on the third goal "undiscplined." (See, there's that word again.)
But certainly, the presence of a veteran leader like Hedges has the potential to bring discipline to a backline that's been something of a patchwork this season, and there's even the chance that when Leo Väisänen does return, the three center back formation that Verde's deployed at points this season could be an option, with Julio Cascante able to more fully unlock his ball progression abilities. Hedges said in his debut before Austin media last week that he's got a defense-first style that complements the more "aggressive" (as Hedges puts it) style Cascante plays with.
But, save for a closed-door scrimmage between now and the resumption of the MLS season in about three weeks' time — and a possible return to Verde Hill for fans looking to catch glimpses of the team at St. David's Performance Center — we won't be able to see if that discipline is being instilled until they run it back out in league play.
We also don't know if the rumored Diego Fagundez for Memo Rodriguez trade — reported shortly after we initially published this story — ties into this discipline theme in any way, or if Wolff was trying to somehow hint about this move with the statement.
Where, again, every game will matter in determining Austin's playoff path — and, indeed, if it has one.
