Austin FC blasted 6-3 by St. Louis in wild first game back after three-week break

Austin FC’s first match back from a long break was nothing less than fascinating.

In a wild road game — well, at least the second half was — El Tree was hammered 6-3 by St. Louis City SC on Sunday night at City Park. Nicholas Gioacchini and Samuel Adeniran both scored twice and Tim Parker and Tomas Ostrak each found the net for the hosts, while Sebastián Driussi, Will Bruin and Emiliano Rigoni recorded El Tree’s goals.

Here are some thoughts from the match as Austin FC (9-10-5, 32 points) heads to Dallas on Saturday with a chance to defend its Copa Tejas title.

St. Louis is an offensive juggernaut

Whether St. Louis coach Bradley Carnell’s breakneck style of play will be effective in the postseason remains to be seen, but it’s highly immersing stuff. And those not entertained by the final 40 minutes of this contest, when six goals were scored, need to check their pulse.

For those unfamiliar with St. Louis, it’s basically the soccer equivalent of Texas Tech football under Kliff Kingsbury or Oklahoma basketball in the late 1980s under Billy Tubbs. Its entire focus is on offense and trying to outscore you — it leads MLS with 49 goals — while placing mild thought into playing defense.

St. Louis (14-8-2, 44 points) would just as soon let you take a shot from 20 yards out in hopes that you’ll miss or goalkeeper Roman Bürki will make a save so it will get the ball back.

It really doesn’t care if it gives up a goal or two, because it just assumes it will score five.

If teams don’t take advantage of St. Louis’ sieve-ish defending with quality finishing, it will make them pay on counterattacks.

That happened a couple of times to Austin FC, where Driussi, Gyasi Zardes and Alex Ring couldn’t put away scoring chances, and St. Louis went off to the races. El Tree easily could have had six goals.

However, St. Louis probably could have had nine.

If you don’t like soccer, then St. Louis is your team to follow.

A night to forget for the Austin FC defense

This was a nightmare of a performance by the Austin FC defense.

Center back Julio Cascante had his worst game of the season and was beaten on two goals, center back Matt Hedges offered nothing, outside back Adam Lundkvist was burned badly on an over-the-top ball and outside back Jon Gallagher looked average.

Nick Lima and Ring — more on them later — were OK coming off the bench, but they weren’t in the game long enough. Goalie Brad Stuver wasn’t given any help, but even he wasn’t very good. His throw across the field late in stoppage time was gathered by Adeniran and led to the sixth goal.

One criticism of El Tree coach Josh Wolff is it seemed obvious Hedges wasn’t having a good game, so why leave him in for 68 minutes?

Also, Ring, when healthy, has been solid at center back. Not starting him was puzzling. Same goes for Nick Lima. Why switch up a defense that has been good most of the year?

Outside of a game against LAFC on Oct. 7, El Tree won’t face a team with the offensive firepower of St. Louis the rest of the way, but it can’t have another defensive performance like this.

El Tree looked rusty in opening 45 minutes

The first half, it couldn’t have been more obvious Austin FC was coming off a long break. It lacked energy and wasn’t crisp, with even Driussi being off on a few passes. When it had the ball, it looked almost confused at times with how to attack St. Louis’ shape.

The hosts weren’t much better, but they converted a header off a cross on a set piece that Hedges was too slow to get. Then Gioacchini converted his first goal after a long through ball and nice move in the box for a 2-0 halftime lead.

El Tree didn’t wake up until it fell behind 3-0 early in the second half, then looked juiced on offense while still occasionally being carved up by a relentless St. Louis attack.

Playoff race getting tight

St. Louis leads the Western Conference, so a road loss to it isn’t reason to panic or start calling for Wolff’s head.

But Austin FC, which now sits in seventh in the West, is in the midst of a playoff race where six points separate fourth place from 10th. It can’t afford to go on a three-game stretch where it picks up no points and has any thoughts of hosting a playoff match.

Saturday's Dallas game isn’t a must-win, but considering its rival is in 10th, El Tree would be better off at least taking a draw.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: A game to forget: Austin FC ripped 6-3 in St. Louis