Team ended the rough first season better than they started. Hopefully, a full offseason and not starting the season on the road for like 8-10 matches will help us make some big steps this year.

I still maintain hiring Wolff who had no head manager experience to lead a brand new club was mistake.

But fingers crossed.

Home opener was announced - Feb 26 vs Cincinnati

No angry face…hopefully that doesn't affect the season

The next month or two should be really interesting with player signings. I'm intrigued to see who they keep from the existing core of the team, sounds like Reyna is willing to make some changes. Have some big needs at centerback and central midfield, would also be nice to bring in an attacker or two.

One good move so far, now need to re-sign Ring and buy down Poche's contract out of DP status:

Here to stay. 🙌

📰 | Austin FC exercise permanent transfer option for @zankolmanic.

— Austin FC (@AustinFC) November 19, 2021

Any idea on when the new home kit drops? With the season starting early, I figured that would be available by now. At the very least to get the Christmas sales

Excellent question....I was wondering the same. Seems really weird they wouldn't have them announced and selling before the holidays

While it's possible, looking at when other clubs have announced I wouldn't necessarily expect it soon. I think last year may have been a bit of a unique case with the inaugural season, some teams haven't been announcing their new kits till much closer to the new season.

I looked more into the jersey question and someone on Reddit happened to post the same question. Looks like we'll get a new secondary kit, but not home. Seems like standard procedure to keep the same shirt design two seasons in a row.

I'm ok with that, I really like the home kit. It's a distinct look that's easy to pick out on the field.

Some recent discussion has been about the upcoming expansion draft, we can protect 12 players and the rest will be eligible to be selected by Charlotte (and once one player has been selected the rest of the group is exempt from selection). Chris Bils from The Striker guesses that we'll protect the DPs, Djitte, ***undez, Ring, Stuver, Kolmanic, Cascante, Redes, Romana, and Lima. (Periera and Wolff are exempt as Generation adidas and homegrown signings).

IN!

Announced this morning that Alex Ring was re-signed as were Freddy Kleemann and Will Pulisic.

Jared Stroud, Kekuta Manneh, Aaron Schoenfeld, Brady Scott, Aedan Stanley, Ben Sweat, Sebastian Berhalter and Manny Perez not returning for 2022. Kind of surprised about Scott as he's a solid keeper and could probably start somewhere but we also still have Tarbell on the roster (who would be an attractive expansion draft pick).

Is Djitte protected as a U22 Initiative signing?

From what I understand no. Pereira is protected as a Generation adidas player and Owen Wolff as a Homegrown player, but Djitte, Kolmanic, and Redes have to be protected.

That would be a legit signing

AUSTIN FC 2021 MLS EXPANSION DRAFT PROTECTED LIST

PROTECTED PLAYERS (12): Julio Cascante, Moussa Djitt, Cecilio Domnguez, Sebastin Driussi, Diego ***undez, an Kolmani, Nick Lima, Toms Pochettino, Rodney Redes, Alex Ring, Jhohan Romaña, Brad Stuver

AUTOMATICALLY PROTECTED PLAYERS (2): Daniel Pereira, Owen Wolff

AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION (14): McKinze Gaines, Jon Gallagher, Danny Hoesen, Hector Jimenez, Freddy Kleemann, Kekuta Manneh, Will Pulisic, Aaron Schoenfeld, Brady Scott, Ulises Segura, Aedan Stanley, Jared Stroud, Ben Sweat, Andrew Tarbell

https://www.austinfc.com/news/austin-fc-announce-list-of-protected-players-ahead-of-2021-mls-expansion-draft

If I'm Charlotte I probably look at Tarbell, Gallagher, Gaines, or Jimenez. Of those I really hope to keep Gaines and I'd love to see us seriously look more at Gallagher at left back.

I see what you did there and I don't know whether to high five or boo. But I'll give a blue star either way.

So I hate being right on this one, but Charlotte picked up Gaines in the expansion draft. If he blows up as a winger/striker for them I'm gonna be pissed.

📰 | McKinze Gaines selected by Charlotte FC in 2021 MLS Expansion Draft.

— Austin FC (@AustinFC) December 15, 2021

In more positive news we've apparently got some interest in a young promising centerback from Finland, though it doesn't look like we've got the financial terms to work yet:

I've gathered some info from a source on the report linking Finnish center back Leo Väisänen to #AustinFC. There's some smoke here.

The latest on our @TheStrikerTexas rumors page.https://t.co/XQrE9PRKMa

— Chris Bils (@ChrisBils) December 16, 2021

Vaisanen is 24 and plays in the Swedish first division where some media outlets named him to the league's Best XI this season. He also has some appearances for the Finland national team though they aren't exactly a powerhouse

Re-signed Stroud today

Couple small updates, we signed Ethan Finlay from Minnesota. A bit older player (31) who still has some pace, he's the kind of 1v1 winger we've been lacking. Has a handful of national team appearances and played under Wolff when he was an assistant in Columbus. Fans speak really highly of him as well which is a plus, could be a really nice signing.

An @MLS and #USMNT veteran, @EthanFinlay13 is #VERDE now.

Welcome to #AustinFC, Ethan!

— Austin FC (@AustinFC) December 20, 2021

Also a random rumor this afternoon that Maxi Urruti (who's out of contract with the Dynamo) is signing with Austin. He's been a pretty prolific scorer in MLS (five 7+ goal seasons since 2014 including 7 last year).

🚨Maximiliano Urruti llegó a un acuerdo de palabra para jugar en el Austin FC.
*️⃣Llega con el pase en su poder tras su paso con Houston Dynamo.
*️⃣Una vez superados los exámenes médicos, ✍️ por dos años con chances de extender por un tercero. #TratoHecho pic.twitter.com/HrnukHh5S0

— César Luis Merlo (@CLMerlo) December 21, 2021

Translation:
- Maximiliano Urruti reached a verbal agreement to play for Austin FC.
- He arrives with the pass in his possession after his time with the Houston Dynamo.
- Once the medical exams are passed, Writing hand for two years with chances to extend for a third. #Donedeal

Maxi Urruti official. Great signing as far as striker depth, he had 6 goals the first half of last season for Houston before dealing with COVID issues. Article in The Striker called him a "shoot first, ask questions later" kind of forward which we've definitely been lacking:

A proven winner. #AustinFC signs striker Maximiliano “Maxi” Urruti.

Welcome to Austin, Maxi!

— Austin FC (@AustinFC) December 28, 2021

Ready to light up @Q2Stadium, Maxi es #VERDE. 💪 pic.twitter.com/fCHSRabxGy

— Austin FC (@AustinFC) December 28, 2021

Other random interesting bit of news, reports that River Plate out of Argentina want to take Pochettino on loan (which would open up a DP spot):

🚨River avanzó fuerte por Tomás Pochettino y ya hizo una oferta formal al Austin para traerlo a préstamo.
*️⃣En el club son optimistas que la operación se termine concretando. pic.twitter.com/ucR4jgErNM

— César Luis Merlo (@CLMerlo) December 27, 2021

When is the soccer world going to deal with players who fake injuries? I see it more and more now. I saw this at several matches this season. Hell, Cecilio was guilty of it on a few occasions. I'm watching the Everton Brighton match now and a Brighton player clearly faked an injury (he wasn't touched) . He stayed down while Everton attacked. Eventually the ball went out and the player faking the injury finally got up (unscathed and right as rain). This has to start resulting in some bookings...

It often does, though more often for simulated fouls than injuries. Kinda hard to tell when an injury is or isn't authentic.

Alex Ring signed to multi-year DP contract:

The future is #VERDE.

Alex Ring re-signs for multi-year agreement. 🌳

— Austin FC (@AustinFC) January 3, 2022

This probably means Poche will be going out on loan as rumored, though they could also buy down his contact with allocation money.

I really did not like Poch. So I would be happy with whatever they do with him. Resigning ring is good for his maturity

Pochettino loan to River Plate official.

¡Bienvenido a River, Tomás! 💪

Proveniente de @AustinFC, Tomás Pochettino se suma a River para la nueva temporada ⚪🔴⚪ pic.twitter.com/cWgP6cqAEh

— River Plate (@RiverPlate) January 10, 2022

Just came here to post this. Addition by subtraction. Maybe he played so poorly because he didn't want to be in the states

I like Ring and don't mind Pochettino going on loan, but can't help but feel like this is a lost opportunity to significantly improve the team by using the DP on a more impactful player. I see Ring as a well paid career MLS guy, not a DP guy.

It's really just an accounting move, not to say that the whole thing (or MLS accounting in general) isn't stupidly confusing.

Ring was already effectively a DP per his salary (around 1.1 million) and we used allocation money to get him down to the senior salary cap limit (613k last season). Pochettino was only making slightly above the salary cap hit but had a transfer fee of 2.5 million that's averaged out over his contract.

Closely related to this, in order to keep three all U22 initiative slots (which is basically a U22 DP) at least one of your DPs has to be under the 1.6 million limit. So by making Ring a DP we're freeing up 600k+ (depending on his new salary) in allocation money to spend across the roster and keeping that third U22 slot available. It's really a smart move as far as making the team as a whole better.

And that's not mentioning the fact that our squad fell apart last season with Ring out of the lineup, his role as a 6 isn't a glamorous one but it's key to making the team better. I also wouldn't be surprised to see us sign another destroyer type 6 that allows Ring to push up a bit more into the attack in a more box to box type role.

MLS Super Draft yesterday, we had pick 5 which is generally not especially eventful.

However, in a rather ideal turn of events the projected number 1 pick dropped to us at #5 because no one else was selecting defenders. And guess what we need?

Kipp Keller was widely considered one of the most pro ready center backs in the draft and was a screaming take at a huge position of need. In an interview after the draft Reyna said that we are still looking to add a more experienced center back, but this guy could be a star of the future.

With the 5th pick in the 2022 @MLS #SuperDraft, Austin FC selects Kipp Keller from St. Louis University. pic.twitter.com/5xvYoMfMfN

— Austin FC (@AustinFC) January 11, 2022

More detail on him and the other picks here:

We had a lot of fun yesterday, but now the real work begins. Up next: preseason. 🔜

— Austin FC (@AustinFC) January 12, 2022

And here's our presumed new starting center back:

Bringing club and international experience, veteran leadership and top-level ability, @galu1003 is #VERDE. Welcome to #AustinFC! 🌳

— Austin FC (@AustinFC) January 24, 2022

Also interesting, the club announced that 3 players have acquired green cards and one international slot has been traded for Miami for allocation money. With the signing of Gabrielsen that should mean we've got one available international slot (you start with 8).

📰 | Austin FC announce roster news, trade 2022 international roster slot to Inter Miami.

— Austin FC (@AustinFC) January 24, 2022

I guess the club was not happy with the turf coming up like it was a new home build. Just announced a new turf partner.

Not sure if this is a controversial take or not, but I just read the whole thread title and I want to take full advantage of the final weeks of the off season:

"The Oaks" is a dumb nickname (nothing personal against OP).

"Austin FC" is sufficient. At most, I've heard more people refer to the team as "the verde" or "the verde and black"

See, I think it is clunking and silly sounding to be saying, "Hey, I'm going to the Austin FC game tonight" or "I've got an extra ticket to see the Austin FC play on Sunday if you want it" or "It's right across the street from the Austin FC stadium".....to the point that I usually just refer to them as "the new soccer team".

To each their own.

So we took it to Houston on Saturday and looked like a completely different team. And Keller is a beast.

We held it down in H-Town. 😏 pic.twitter.com/vyY9mL4C2e

— Austin FC (@AustinFC) February 13, 2022

Friendly Wednesday night vs Liga MX champ Atlas FC, should be fun.