Rocky Mountain low: Austin FC falls to worst team in MLS as winless streak reaches 10
The misery continues for Austin FC.
El Tree lost to the worst team in Major League Soccer on Saturday when it fell 1-0 to the Colorado Rapids at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. It pushed Austin FC’s winless streak to 10 games over two competitions, and if there were any shreds of playoff hopes entering the match, those are now gone.
Here are some thoughts from the contest, which left El Tree (9-14-8, 35 points) tied for next-to-last in the Western Conference as it returns home for its final two games of the year at Q2 Stadium when it hosts D.C. United on Wednesday and LAFC on Saturday.
11 weeks since last win
Former Kansas City Royals baseball manager Buddy Bell became somewhat notorious for a quote during one of the team’s many 100-loss seasons in the mid-2000s when he said, “It can always get worse.”
That seems to be where Austin FC is at the moment from a results standpoint.
Playing without its captain and best player, Sebastián Driussi, who missed the game with an injury, El Tree lost to a club that had fired its coach within the past six weeks for the second time in four games.
Colorado entered the match with only four wins on the season and has been a dumpster fire all year. Its supporters recently published a letter on social media blasting ownership for not caring about the club, facilities, fans or pretty much anything else. Yet at the end of 90 minutes Saturday night, the Rapids were the ones celebrating.
Austin FC hasn’t won a match since beating Kansas City 2-1 on July 15, which in soccer time feels like the 1990s.
In the past three contests it has tallied two points against the two worst teams in the West and one of the worst teams in the East. The parity in MLS this season is real and unlike what you see almost anywhere else in sports, but there’s no sugarcoating how poor that is.
Play mostly good; Bruin's miss costly
Looking at the game from purely what happened on the field, El Tree was the far better side.
It dominated possession with 64% and outshot Colorado 13-6 but ultimately couldn’t put the ball past Colorado goalie Marko Ilić, who made two brilliant saves in the 71st minute on headers by Will Bruin and Emiliano Rigoni to preserve the Rapids’ lead.
However, Bruin arguably had the miss of the year in MLS when he sent the rebound off an Ilić block miles over an open goal. He was inside the 6-yard box with no defenders close to him, yet he didn’t even put the ball on target.
Bruin seems to be a positive presence in the locker room, but this was about as bad as it gets when it comes to blowing a scoring chance.
You could argue that the play sums up Austin FC’s season.
Poor defense on Colorado's goal
As good as outside back Jon Gallagher has been this season, his defense was poor on Andreas Maxsø’s goal off a corner kick in the 41st minute.
The two were tangled up in the box like a wide receiver with a defensive back on the line of scrimmage, but Gallagher didn’t appear to see the cross coming in. Maxsø simply struck the ball with his foot before it hit the ground for an easy goal.
One has to wonder why the 5-foot-7 Gallagher was marking the 6-1 Maxsø in the first place instead of center backs Julio Cascante or Leo Väisänen.
Time to look to offseason
There’s no question Austin FC has been unlucky this season in terms of injuries and certain results. A goal differential of minus-7 shouldn’t have a club tied for second-worst in the West — Portland, with the same goal differential, is in seventh place — but that’s where El Tree is.
With the season for all intents and purposes over, the club can start to ponder personnel decisions that will have to be made in what will be an extremely interesting offseason.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Win still elusive for El Tree as it falls 1-0 to Colorado Rapids
