Austin FC drops home game to NY Red Bulls: Team loses wild match that featured 7 goals

Austin FC couldn’t complete yet another comeback as it fell 4-3 to the New York Red Bulls on Sunday at Q2 Stadium.

The visitors built a 4-1 lead before Austin made things interesting late thanks to a brilliant individual performance from midfielder Sebastián Driussi.

Serge Ngoma, Dru Yearwood, Cameron Harper and Tom Barlow scored for New York while Driussi found the net twice and assisted on Ethan Finlay’s goal for Austin FC.

Driussi's wonder goals highlight Austin's scoring

Driussi single-handedly kept El Tree from being blown out and furthered his league MVP case with two wonder goals and an assist.

His one-touch volley on his first goal was simply brilliant, while his second score on a strike from 30 yards out into the bottom left corner was nearly as good.

We’ll likely see Driussi in a top European league soon, but he kept Austin FC from being embarrassed Sunday.

Lazy passing and ball chasing leads to goals

Austin FC seemed out of sync for long stretches of the game, which is somewhat understandable with how the Red Bulls operated.

Instead of its usual aggressive, pressing style of play — which the team likely prepared all week for — New York played a more conservative style, allowing Austin’s center backs to run the offense.

It worked extremely well, with Austin players being very poor in the first half, seeming a step slower than their counterparts and having some bad giveaways of the ball.

On Yearwood’s goal, Diego Fagúndez’s poor touch gave the ball to New York, while after Tarbell made a stop of the Red Bulls’ first shot, Felipe Martins had the ball taken from him.

Alex Ring made a lackadaisical pass that started the Red Bulls’ buildup on Harper’s score, while New York won a 50-50 ball that led to Barlow’s goal.

Overall, this was Austin FC’s worst performance as a team defensively on the season.

More:Austin FC has been a beast for the East, but bigger goals are in play

Martins' poor game leads to early exit

Martins has had a strong last six weeks, but he failed to keep up that form Sunday.

Frankly, his first half was bad with some giveaways and poor passing, and subbing Dani Pereira on for him early in the second half was a no-brainer.

Martins has been a good addition to the team, but he turns 32 in late September and is probably best used as a veteran coming off the bench going forward.

New signing Corozo has impact in first match

New acquisition Washington Corozo made his debut for the club as a sub late in the second half.

He fared well, showing good speed and had an assist on Finlay’s goal, doing a bicycle kick off a clinical cross from Driussi.

It’s hard to tell too much from 15 minutes of play, but at first glance, Corozo looks like he’ll make a solid impact once he’s fully integrated into the club.

More:Austin FC announce signing of Ecuadorian winger Washington Corozo

Sundays not so fun days

There’s an odd trend of Austin FC not playing all that great on Sundays in home matches.

The last three times the squad has played on a Sunday night it is 0-1-2, with all somewhat lackadaisical performances in a 1-0 loss to the Los Angeles Galaxy, a 2-2 tie with Orlando City and now the 4-3 loss to the Red Bulls.

Maybe there’s nothing to it, but it’s something to keep in mind come playoff time.

Austin FC has only one more Sunday home match remaining, which is the season finale Oct. 9 against Colorado.

More:As expected, Austin FC parts ways with Cecilio Domínguez

COVID issues for second match in a row; Tarbell poor

It’s the second game in a row El Tree has had a key figure miss a match with someone in the league’s COVID health and safety protocols. Head coach Josh Wolff was not able to attend last week’s match at Dallas.

The club announced before the game that starting goalkeeper Brad Stuver would miss the match due to being placed in the league’s COVID health and safety protocols.

It had a large impact, as the Austin FC defense had a rough game overall and never looked on the same page, while backup goalie Andrew Tarbell was subpar at best.

On Ngoma’s goal, Tarbell completely mishandled a basic shot right at him and the misplay ended up costing El Tree a point.

This was the fifth time Tarbell has seen significant action for the club, but this was easily his least-inspiring performance.

He played all 120 minutes of the team’s U.S. Open Cup match in mid-April, then played the majority of the match against Houston later that month when Stuver exited with a lacerated knee.

With Stuver recovering from the injury, Tarbell started the following two matches against the Los Angeles Galaxy and Real Salt Lake. It marked Tarbell’s 50th career start in the MLS, with the majority of those coming during his four-plus years with San Jose.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin FC vs New York Red Bulls: Scores, updates and observations