Austin FC scores an important road win in win over CF Montreal, readies for FC Dallas next

In what was a bizarre game where Austin FC played much better down a man in the second half than it did with a full squad in the first half, El Tree came away with a massive 1-0 road win over Montreal on Saturday at Saputo Stadium.

Austin FC’s chance at getting points seemed bleak when Dani Pereira was sent off after receiving his second yellow card shortly before halftime, but El Tree came out and played a brilliant final 45 minutes and received a goal from forward Maxi Urruti to pull off an improbable win.

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Here are some thoughts from the game as Austin FC returns home next Saturday for a rivalry match with FC Dallas that has huge implications for positioning in the Western Conference and Copa Tejas.

Best win yet?

This is arguably El Tree’s biggest win in club history, doing so on the road against the third-place team in the Eastern Conference while playing a man down for half the match.

Following a ho-hum performance in the first half, Austin FC played mostly quality soccer in the second half, looking like the team that was playing with a man advantage instead of being down a player.

Urruti’s goal in the 67th minute came off an absolutely brilliant cross by left back Jon Gallagher into the box. It came after a strong stretch of play by Austin FC, which dominated early in the second half.

El Tree could have had more goals after halftime as well, as Diego Fagúndez hit the post and Sebastián Driussi had a point-blank header blocked.

Stuver keeps on shining

You may get tired of reading this, but goalkeeper Brad Stuver continues to show he’s the best value player in the MLS.

Making a salary less than $200,000 — which is severely underpaid for a starting goalie — Stuver again made several clutch saves to keep Austin FC in the match.

Don’t be surprised if Stuver gets some attention from smaller European clubs when the transfer window opens July 1.

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Pereira's costly mistake

There’s no sugar-coating Pereira’s foul that led to his second yellow card of the game — it was a horrendous decision and showed a strong lack of game awareness.

With already being on a yellow — granted, one that was questionable — from the game’s early moments, Pereira needed to play conservatively on challenges the rest of the game.

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Instead, he made an aggressive and needless foul deep in Montreal’s half of play and was sent off.

Pereira is young and still learning the professional game, but that’s something that can’t happen, especially in a road match against one of the best teams in the East.

What makes the play even worse is that before the game fellow defensive midfielder Jhojan Valencia was declared out for six weeks due to a torn lateral meniscus in his right knee, so the team was already thin at the position.

Pereira will miss the Dallas game, so it will be interesting to see what head coach Josh Wolff does for the lineup.

El Tree dodged some bullets

Austin FC got lucky a couple of times on bad misses by Montreal forward Kei Kamara.

The first came on a corner kick in the first half when the ball slid through a crowd and bounced off Kamara’s shins straight to Stuver.

The second was after a whiff on a clear by Julio Cascante, who slipped, that led to Kamara having a point-blank shot early in the second half, that for El Tree’s benefit went straight at Stuver.

Good fortune is a part of any soccer match, but a conversion on either would have drastically changed things.

Showing rust, for sure

The first half wasn’t horrible by either side, but you could tell both teams were coming off long breaks as neither was particularly crisp.

It was a bit of a mirror game for the first 45 minutes, as both teams like to high-press, have long stretches of possession and seek key moments to play a long pass over the top of the defense.

A missed MVP moment

Driussi failed to put away a header in the 71st minute for what would have given El Tree a 2-0 lead. It's hard to be displeased with Driussi as he’s arguably the best player in the league, but that’s a goal someone in the MVP conversation needs to finish.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin FC versus CF Montreal: Score and highlights from match