This is personal to Nico Estévez.
The new Austin Football Club coach has shown himself as a player coach for a brief period of leadership, but Cape Verde and Black’s lineup may have seen another side of him before Saturday’s game against Vancouver.
Six weeks ago, Austin Football Club was embarrassed with a 5-1 blowout loss, which was obviously not well with Estévez.
“When we lost 5-1, I was very injured, so maybe I had a different tone in this game,” said Estévez, who was blunt in his second consecutive post-match press conference than he usually did this year. “I told the players that we didn’t win a personal showdown last time, and this time they’d better win the game.”
Although the stadium result was only a 0-0 draw in the second quarter, Estévez's messaging work. Arguably, Austin Football Club has shown the best game of the season in the game, looking like a completely different team than the one who escaped completely in the first meeting.
Here are some key points from the game, with Austin Football Club (5-6-3, 18 points) ending three matches on Wednesday and playing Open Cup matches against rival Rival Houston:
Despite playing in similarly hot and humid conditions for 72 hours, Austin Football Club has more energy than Vancouver and creates more scoring opportunities.
Although Verde & Black will obviously win, and there is still a problem ending - they now have only nine goals in 14 games - they have put up a point against the MLS' best team in the first three months of the season and will do well in the finals of the COSCACAF Championships Cup Cup in two weeks.
There is no moral victory in professional sports, but this performance is different from what Austin Football Club feels. It was full of confidence and unity while surpassing the white team during the entire week of rest.
"It's a result we can be proud of," said goalkeeper Brad Stuver, who was never challenged in the game. “We talked about the more compact from the front and back (compared to the first game).
Although he did not specify any significant difference about Estévez's pre-match information to the team, Stuver did point out, emphasizing winning individual battles.
"Nico is still building relationships and trying to find something that inspires men," he said.
Bukari played the full 90 minutes in his fourth game of the season, constantly hurting Vancouver on the right and has been a threat in the box. He has hardly missed connecting two goals since joining the club last July and hosted one of his best performances.
"I know when the ball came because I used to play on the right," Bukari said, noting that the performance would not affect his confidence. "I'm a professional-I have to have confidence (regardless). I know what I can do."
Austin FC is ranked ninth in the Western Conference and will be favored only one in the next four league games - a home game against Real Salt Lake on May 28.
If Verde & Black can pass points without much damage, the rest of the season will be greatly reduced.
But if the club can consistently play Saturday's performance (but with goals) upcoming road games in Minnesota, San Diego and Colorado, it could be anyone's game.
“MLS is a crazy alliance,” Steffer said. “Anyone can beat anyone on any day.”
(The player's ratings are 1-10, with 10 of them the highest.)
forward: Brandon Vazquez 6.5, Myrto Uzuni 5, Osman Bukari 7.5
Midfielder: Owen Wolff 7, Besard Sabovic 6.5, Erie Sanchez 6.5
defense: Guilherme Brendan Gines-Inses 7, Jon Gallag
submarine: Jáder Giant 5, Nicolás Dubersarsky 5, CJ Fodrey