Austin FC, Cecilio Dominguez Mutually Agree to Terminate Contract
https://www.austinfc.com/news/austin-fc-cecilio-dominguez-mutually-agree-to-terminate-contract

This opens up a DP spot and likely means we'll hear an announcement on the Rigoni signing in the near future.

Best of luck to Cecilio (in life and on the field).

This side is ALREADY at the top of the standings in goals scored as we look to become even more threatening as an offense.

W STU in goal and Gabrielsen & Cascante on the back end, the defense is solid.

So much fun - if you are in Central TX and haven't made it to Q2, get there!

Vamos!

That one reminded me that we need a Stuver appreciation thread.

Exactly!
Tarbell is better than that - took his eye off it & boom we are back on our heels.

On the plus side, I really liked what I saw from Corozo. Him on one side and Diego on the other and things could get interesting.

Even though Tarbell didn't help himself by any means, it was the ridiculous turnovers on our end that cost us the match!

Tough L. Glad Dominguez is gone, though. Was never a fan of his style/antics.

Not a great performance all around and we definitely missed Stuver, but damn if that wasn't one of the most fun losses I've seen in person. Really thought we were going to pull out the draw at the end.

Really promising from Corozo too, while this was probably supposed to be a shot it was still seriously impressive. He had a quick impact on the match and look forward to seeing more of him.

What a goal from #AustinFC and Ethan Finlay and it's a one-goal game!

Driussi with the cross, Washington Corozo with the bicycle kick assist. 🚲 🧨 pic.twitter.com/0KJYF3KsG3

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 25, 2022

And as I saw it beautifully put on Reddit, Driussi is a cheat code. Just give him the MVP now.

A gorgeous golazo from distance by Sebastian Driussi!

Probably just a consolation for a porous #AustinFC though.
pic.twitter.com/ijGQ88jcdY

— The Striker (@TheStrikerNews) July 25, 2022

Rigoni signing is official.

More details on Emiliano's arrival. ⬇️https://t.co/IKs6kNboDX

— Austin FC (@AustinFC) July 29, 2022

Great signing. Love seeing the front office make these moves to show they're serious about winning silverware, not just being acceptable.

Now defense

Yup, word…

Ya, do y'all see them making more moves though?

Gabrielsen and (a healthy) Cascante can lock down the back end. Gallagher has really blossomed at Fullback. But there isn't much depth.

I don't see another trade/signinghappening, and this window closes shortly. So it appears that we are going w a strategy that a more threatening offense is maybe the best defense. Teams like NYC are free to presss us like crazy knowing that we don't typically punish teams when we beat the press.

I bet we see a fullback signing. Add some depth so we aren't reliant on jimanez and Lima

We could use a right back but don't have a roster spot at the moment so we'd have to move someone else, not sure if we'll see it in this window.

The defense as a whole has been surprisingly solid though, Gabrielsen in particular has been outstanding and Cascante is much improved. We'd be second in the West in Goals Allowed had we not let 4 in last week (and two of those were giveaways in the midfield along with one keeper error).

Not beautiful, but 3 more points on the road!

0-2 clean sheet at SKC

cruising

So frustrating to watch AFC "road warrior" their way to great away outings, & then give up 7 goals in the last two home games, especially w Driusssi lighting up the scoreboard.

Driussi IS a cheat code (stolen from Twitter).

Substitution (personnel & timing) were bizarre last night.

Defense needs help (either schematically or personnel or both).

can we get one more move to shore up that d somehow.

Really frustrating result last night, Driussi had some magical moments but the team as a whole wasn't great and the late subs seemed kind of questionable. Wolff apparently doesn't fully trust Corozo's understanding of defensive assignments yet which mean we played Teen Wolff on the left wing (where he's never played) and brought in Redes on the right as well as taking Driussi off. We lost any semblance of attack and allowed a goal on poor marking all around.

That said, this was absolutely ridiculous:

Haters will say it’s photoshop.

Driussi makes it 3-2 @AustinFC in another wild one vs. the ‘Quakes.
pic.twitter.com/G46RfX5TRs

— The Striker (@TheStrikerNews) August 7, 2022

One of the worst teams in the league, but will take the W nonetheless.

have to figure it all out at some point, but they are exciting

Not sure if it's a matter of just playing down to the level of competition, but they will not be able to get down like that against LAFC in a couple of weeks! They will get smoked!

Any chance Hector is back? Really need to tighten up the defense. Cascante has got to stop making long passes up the middle to the opposition.

On attack, someone on the wing to pressure the left touch line opens things up considerably and actually could make it harder to counter. Currently when we swing the ball wide left, it is always going immediately back inside and everyone has to know that by now.

JT88 said:

---

Any chance Hector is back?

---

Read an article last month saying that the best case scenario was he could be back by LAFC match.

That match was insane, one of the most fun games of any sport I've ever been to.

The ref was genuinely bad, not even for particular calls but his consistency of what was or wasn't a foul throughout the course of the match. Stuver was solid and was not helped out by his back line, on that second goal especially Lima was trailing the play and should have been in position to clear that. Driussi was fantastic in the second half, but my god that strike from Hoesen to equalize was a technical masterclass (also made Wolff look brilliant as he and Felipe with the assist had been subbed on moments before).

Oh DANNY, what a finish! 🤌 pic.twitter.com/eFNqQjnAp0

— Austin FC (@AustinFC) August 14, 2022

Other random thoughts:

- Corozo didn't have the instant impact like in his first match but I love how he plays. Unlike a lot of players in this squad he's very decisive, just makes a decision and goes. Hope to see more of him moving forward.

- I'm starting to wonder if our best choice fullbacks going forward might be Kolmanic on the left and Gallagher on the right.

- Finlay is playing some of the best soccer of his career and I'm here for it.

- Wolff gets all the credit in the world for second half game management last night, his subs were perfection. I liked bringing Corozo on and shifting Diego (his name always gets stupidly censored on here) central, didn't like seeing Pereira come off at the time but it ended up being a great call. Felipe and Hoesen coming on also worked out quite well.

- Super excited to see what Rigoni brings, hopefully his visa is worked out and we see him in training very soon. He may start off as a supersub on either wing (or even striker) and I can't wait to see a truly creative attacker with pace in this lineup.

- Have to wonder if Djitte might be moving on after this season, we're not seeing much of him and don't think he even made the 18 this week.

- Gabrielsen is a beast, I would not f with this guy.

Securrritttttyyy 😎 Don’t mess w Driussi! @galu1003 #thatslove #team pic.twitter.com/sKpFDu9BFD

— Sam Huezo (@huezo_12) August 14, 2022

Great post. Thanks for the rundown.

Next Friday is going to be nuts when LAFC comes into town!

Really nice summary. Gabrielsen (Norway) and Ring (Finland) are both from areas w significant Norse heritage. If history has taught us anything, it is this: Do NOT f w the Vikings.

Also, could not agree more on Gallagher to the right. He looks so much more natural there. He even seemed to have an additional pep in his step. He can defend equally well, but he is clearly not comfortable attacking up the left side. And defenses know this so they cheat the pass back to the middle or straight back all day long….

But from the right side he has his head up and seems eager to put a threatening pass in when the opportunity arises.

Lastly, Driussi is something really special. Go watch the 5 minutes after he scored the winning goal. He had already played a full match and given full effort, but it was like he took it to another level. Running around like crazy on defense. Still threatening on offense and ultimately cleared the last freee kick w his head.

Incredible.

LISTO VERDE!

I'm so pumped for tonight.

I started following soccer during the 2010 Wold Cup and my first EPL & Champions League season followed.
I landed on Tottenham as my preferred team as Bale torched Inter. Very excited to get to see him tonight. I hope he scores but the green win by 10

COYS!

It's insane that Gareth Bale is playing soccer in Austin. I hope he realizes he should stick to golf after tonight.