Fit to be tied: Austin FC plays to draw against the lowly Colorado Rapids
Austin FC’s short-handed defense could only hold up for 84 minutes Saturday night at Q2 Stadium.
With center back Leo Väisänen on duty for the Finnish national team and El Tree coach Josh Wolff still not comfortable with playing Kipp Keller and Amro Tarek for long stretches, Austin FC was forced to play traditional outside back Nick Lima next to traditional midfielder Alex Ring in the center of the back line.
Along with right back Jon Gallagher and left back Zan Kolmanic, the back four played adequately for 84 minutes, but Colorado super sub, forward Michael Barrios, caused the defense problems in the final 10 minutes with his speed and fresh legs, and eventually created Kevin Cabral’s goal that tied the game.
Gallagher scored early for Austin FC off a brilliant pass from Sebastián Driussi, and the contest ended tied 1-1.
El Tree is now 2-2-1 with seven points and has a two-week break before heading on the road to play LAFC on April 8. Here are thoughts on Saturday's draw:
Man of the match: Brad Stuver
Along with Gallagher’s goal, Stuver was the main reason Austin FC came away with a point.
He was simply phenomenal all game long, making key stops on successive point-blank shots in the first half, then blocking Barrios on a one-on-one in the second half in addition to several other impressive saves. Simply put, without a world-class performance by Stuver, this would have easily been a loss.
Gyasi Zardes is still underwhelming
Striker Gyasi Zardes was the club’s marquee offseason acquisition, but he’s still scoreless on the year and generally hasn’t been all that impressive.
He missed a golden chance in the second half when Colorado gifted him a pass deep in its own territory, but he had a bad touch on it and failed to get off a shot.
More: Austin FC wins rematch, but still comes up short in CONCACAF Champions League play
At 31, Zardes’ best years are behind him, but he either has lost several steps off his speed or is still trying to grasp Austin FC’s offensive system. And his salary is undoubtedly high — maybe even above $1 million? — and he’s not doing remotely enough to warrant his paycheck or the 85 minutes he played Saturday.
Going forward, there needs to be strong consideration to giving Maxi Urruti the majority of the minutes at striker. It was a bit of a puzzle as to why he didn’t play Saturday.
Austin FC's attack is lacking
El Tree had the slight edge in possession, but outside of Gallagher’s goal, it didn’t produce many scoring chances.
Austin FC finished with seven shots, only three of which were on goal.
Driussi was good when he had the ball — and his assist was a moment of brilliance that showed his world-class vision on the field — but he’s not getting enough touches, and El Tree in general didn’t do much with the possession it did have.
Its best stretch of play came at the beginning of the second half, but Colorado dominated the last 30 minutes, while the first half wasn't entertaining from either side apart from Austin FC’s goal.
Help will return for El Tree's next match
Väisänen and midfielder Owen Wolff, who also missed the match due to being in Spain with the U.S. under-20 national team, will return for the LAFC match and give El Tree stronger lineup options.
A loss would have been a bit of a disaster considering the Rapids arguably field the worst roster in MLS, and Austin FC has now dropped points against two clubs that are generally considered weak in Colorado and Houston.
It’s been stated here before, but Julio Cascante’s injury in the season opener against St. Louis is something that’s dealt the club a blow for the first month of the year and will continue to cause it issues until he gets healthy or recently signed Aleksandar Radovanović is ready to play.
Ugly goalie kit still undefeated
Perhaps Stuver should always wear what might be the ugliest goalie kit in soccer.
Saturday marked the third time he dawned the cringeworthy uniform of purple shorts with long pink socks and a pink shirt featuring gold lettering — and Austin FC is 2-0-1 in those matches.
As noted in this space multiple times, Stuver isn’t a fan of the kit, and the MLS chooses goalie uniforms, but if the team is going to get a result each time he wears it, maybe El Tree should lobby the league to have it be his official kit until it fails to deliver a result.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin FC continues to struggle, end up in a 1-1 draw with the Rapids
