Photo Credit: Austin FC
Los Angeles, CA | April 17 | Kelly Landaverde – @kel_una
This match was Austin’s first ever this season with seven straight away games before making their home debut at their Q2 stadium.
Austin, is the 10th team to join MLS in the last decade, expanding the league to 27 teams. This away game didn’t prevent the legion of supporters to make their presence felt. A watch party was held at the Long Center in Austin. Where many of the club’s fans showed up to offer their team support, many brought their drums. 4,900 fans where in attendance at the banc, including 600 fans in the North End supporters’ section. Dozens of green Austin FC jerseys were seen through the crowd. This was an anticipated team, that already had four supporters’ groups before its first match. A message of support was also seen above the Banc in the skies, urging on the players as they prepared to take the field for the first time. The club’s season ticket waitlist stands at 15,000, and just like the Black & Gold have Will Farell, and Jaime Camil, ‘los verdes’ have co-owner and minister of culture Matthew Mc Conaughey in their corner. Their first away game was against a fellow expansion franchise along with Atlanta United FC, who both exemplify much of what ‘los verdes’ will try to build as well. Golden Boot winner has a minor left hamstring strain, and couldn’t play against them. Vela played some minutes but was pulled after 20 minutes, he was limping after sprinting for a pass and falling down. In the first half both teams created half chances, that weren’t capitalized. Neither was able to score their first 2021 season goal in the first half.
The Black & Gold open this season’s scoring sheet in the 61st minute through the Escondido native Corey Baird, who was assisted by Danny Musovski by a pass on the wing. He took his shot, and the ball took a deflection off right back Nick Lima, and past Brad Stuver. ‘Los Verdes’ had their best chances in the 72ndminute, after Josh Wolff made some substitutions. Left back Zan Kolmanic, was inserted for Ben Sweat, whipped in a cross that ended up finding John Gallagher’s head in the box, but his shot went wide. Gallagher had two great opportunities in the closing moments when a loose ball in the box fell to him. He unleashed a strong shot, but Pablo Sisniega sent it for a corner. His other chance was in the 97th minute, but Sisniega again made a key kick save to keep his clean sheet. An awkward clearance from Matt Besler ended up, giving the home side another goal, Opoku passing the ball to Cifuentes, who with a low right shot beat Stuver for the 2-0 that afternoon.
To be their first ever match, ‘los verdes’ looked very comfortable in ball possession, and where able to control 56% of the game. Austin scored 10 goals in their three preseason matches during La Copita. Towards the end, they could have scored to level the game. Andrew Tarbell, and Brad Stuver flighted for the starting role. Wolff ended up turning to Stuver on this one, and he made a couple of key saves. Wolff on the match: “…I think that once we settled in, we were able to do some things offensively and challenge them and push them a bit. It was fairly back-and-forth in the first half. I think this will help the guys. We have a lot of new players that aren’t familiar with the league, what the style of play is in our league, the tempo and the climate. This will go a long way in their adaptation.” Wolff on the emotions of the game: “It’s exciting. You can get caught up in a little bit of your own game mode, getting pretty dialed in on communicating to the players and staying focused on what’s at hand, so you don’t get caught up with the moment for what it really is, because it is an exciting moment. It’s the first time this team is playing a game in its existence. It’s on national TV… It was exciting for a lot of reasons and obviously the result didn’t go our way but hopefully there’s some quality in there that makes the fans excited. We’ll continue to get better. We’re young but we have big ambitions and we’re [looking] to improve. We will push that certainly this coming week and throughout the many weeks that lie ahead.” Austin travels to Colorado for a match with the Rapids next Saturday night. The CW Austin, KNVA, will be the television home for Austin FC soccer for both the 2021 and 2022 seasons. The channel will air a majority of Austin FC’s regional telecasts for the next two years. The inaugural Austin FC home game on June 19 will air on TUDN. The season opener on April 17 will air on FOX network television.