Austin FC shrugs off short turnaround in win over Sporting Kansas City

Austin FC should play on two days rest more often.

Showing no signs of the fact they played less than 72 hours earlier, the Verde & Black defeated Sporting Kansas City 3-2 Saturday at Q2 Stadium for their fifth straight home win.

Jáder Obrian scored twice and Sebastián Driussi headed in a brilliant cross from Gyasi Zardes less than 40 seconds into the second half for what turned out to be the winning goal for Austin FC.

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Here are some thoughts from the match as the Verde & Black (6-4-4, 22 points) now have 19 points in their last nine games and have moved up to third place in the Western Conference:

Hot streak continues under tough circumstances

While this may not have been the best win of season — that honor still belongs to the 2-0 win over the Los Angeles Galaxy April 27 — it’s not far behind.

Sure, Sporting Kansas City is in 13th place in the West, hasn’t won since March 30 and at times Saturday didn’t look like it knew what it wanted to do, but Austin FC just turned in a resoundingly impressive performance after only two off days and its third game in eight days.

Though they certainly had tired legs, the Verde & Black didn’t show it and played with more energy of the two clubs for the first 70 minutes.

Dani Pereira, Brendan Hines-Ike and Jon Gallagher played the entire 90 minutes for the second time in four days, with Driussi only coming off for the final four minutes.

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That’s noteworthy no matter how you look at it.

Gallagher might be the fittest player in the MLS after playing the entire match for the 12th time in 13 matches. In the only match he didn’t in that stretch, he was subbed out in the 89th minute.

Whatever Austin FC players are doing in their free time, it’s the correct course of action for professional athletes.

Man of the match: Jáder Obrian

On his 29th birthday, Obrian had his best match of the season, which is saying something as he’s been one of Austin FC’s top four players.

His speed is a constant threat, he’s above average with the ball and is extremely intelligent in his spacing and timing of runs.

I’m not sure what the issues were in Dallas, where he spent the last three seasons, but it was a massive mistake for that club not to re-sign him.

Youth serves

In newish positions, both Owen Wolff and Pereira — who are two of the youngest players on the club at 19 and 23 — thrived.

Wolff, whose natural position is defensive midfielder but has played outside back and winger this year, played well at left-side winger, while Pereira looked brilliant playing as more of an attacking midfielder.

Pereira said after the game that he’s more comfortable playing farther up the field, and it showed. He had both assists on Obrian’s goals and was wizard-like on the ball at times.

Keeping Pereira as an attacking midfielder is something that Austin FC coach Josh Wolff should strongly consider going forward.

Bottom line

Austin FC is ahead of where it probably should be.

In our season preview and in this space multiple times early in the year, it was noted how the first half of the season would likely be muddling along, with the second half being the best chance to make a run up the standings after summer roster additions.

That isn’t happening.

The Verde & Black are firmly in the top half of the West and on a stretch that is reminiscent of their glory days of 2022. Barring any major injuries, they seem likely to stay above the playoff cutoff line for the foreseeable future.

Austin FC gets a week off before another three-games-in-eight days stretch where it will have long trips west to San Jose and Salt Lake City sandwiched around a midweek home game vs. Portland.

If the Verde & Black can produce four or more points out of those games, they will enter the second half of the season in much better shape than anyone outside of the club ever anticipated.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin FC shrugs off short turnaround in win over Sporting Kansas City