After a first round playoff exit in 2025 there's some interesting upgrades for 2026, fingers crossed.

Big news is Bukari moving on to a Euro club (sounds like part of the reason was his wife and baby coming to the US, which I totally understand right now) and the signing of Facundo Torres late last week as a replacement DP. Torres was in MLS two seasons ago with Orlando and had 20 goals and 6 assists in all competitions before leaving for Palmeiras in Brazil for a year. He's a left footed winger who likes to play inverted on the right, should be a big upgrade for the attack.




Other additions

Joseph Rosales - defender/midfielder signed from Minnesota for 1.5 million with the new MLS cashfer option, Honduran international, likely slots in at left back or left wing/wingback but can also play centrally

Jayden Nelson - winger and Canadian international signed from Vancouver for our first round 2026 pick and 1.25 million in GAM split across 2025 and 2026, absolute burner who's the likely starter at left wing

Jon Bell - center back who's got a couple appearances for the Jamaican national team, free agent signing that last played in Seattle, likely depth at center back


Outgoing

Jader Obrian - contract termination exercised by club just today, that move brings us into roster compliance at 25 spots

Julio Cascante - contract option declined by club

Diego Rubio - contract option declined by club

Stefan Cleveland - backup keeper traded to Kansas City for 50k GAM


Other notes

- Owen Wolff underwent surgery for a sports hernia a few weeks ago and is expected to be active for the season opener. Curious to see if we play him as more of a 10/forward pressing 8 after a lot of time on the wing last season.

- Brandon Vazquez is still rehabbing after ACL surgery and expected back in May.

- Damian Las is back from his loan with Louisville City and will backup Stuver at goalkeeper, only two keepers on the roster.


We've definitely got more firepower than we did last season, big question for me is what we do with Uzuni once BV is back. They didn't seem to mesh well together last season, we tried Uzuni some on the left wing but he's not a true winger and we've got better options there now. Not sure if we try some kind of 4-4-2/3-5-2 or look to move Uzuni on in the summer window.

Verde Listos!

Thanks for getting the thread started!

This year's roster seems better than last's, but I still imagine our forwards all crowding each other and no one getting them the ball anyway. Hope I'm wrong.

Either way, Listos!

This team has drawn the two best teams in MLS the last two games, and last night scored the first goal in Miami's new (also Nu) stadium.

Biro heads it in to get us started in Miami! pic.twitter.com/vGTpvmjVUF

— Austin FC (@AustinFC) April 5, 2026

We were also denied a pen inside the first two minutes that even the neutrals on Reddit said was obvious. Messi scored a few minutes later but we played a solid first half, then in the second half we had this gorgeous counter:

Instant impact. @JaydenNelson__'s first in the VERDE & Black! pic.twitter.com/jiGQokNwCq

— Austin FC (@AustinFC) April 5, 2026

And Stuver stood on his head as always:

🗣️STUUUU!@brad_stuver denies Messi in stoppage time to preserve the point! pic.twitter.com/YdtlhwyBhM

— Austin FC (@AustinFC) April 5, 2026

They unfortunately equalized late, it can happen when the other team has two Barcelona legends (Suarez with the equalizer). But Rosales also had a great game and Uzuni looks like a man possessed these past two games. He had a rocket of a freekick off the post and missed by inches on another, also had some fantastic possession and looked dangerous all night.

Considering we've still got Vazquez and Wolff out and Desler is just getting back to fitness this team's best games are ahead, could be a really fun season. April run of games is a mix of teams along with our first US Open Cup match against USL side Louisville City.


Full highlights:

Man, , Stuver is playing like a man possessed!!!

Well I was gonna post about how it's been a rough couple weeks but bigger news just came down the pipe:

Austin FC Parts Ways with Sporting Director Rodolfo Borrell and Head Coach Nico Estvez

One more match before the World Cup break, looks like it could be an interesting summer.

Every FC Dallas fan would've told you this was going to happen when Austin announced the hire!

I don't think many Austin fans thought it would end any differently, he was a very underwhelming choice from the jump.

He was exactly what he has been, seems like a lovely guy but his teams don't get it done.

Surprised we let go of Rodo. Other than the coach hire, I think he's done well building a team. Not sure I trust Precourt to replace him with anyone more qualified.

I've generally thought the same, although I feel like some of our signings have been odd. Like I don't know why we spent on Uzuni after signing Vazquez to play the same position, and we're weirdly deep at places like left back while needing other spots.

This, however, changed my opinion in a few ways, the Soccerwise podcast was live on air when the news was announced and they did not hold back on Rodo (Austin section starts at 26:33). He's also made a few recent comments about how it's his job to sign the players then the coach has to make it work, which seems like kind of a dysfunctional way to build a team.

Season after season, I feel like 2022 was a complete outlier and we might never sniff that type of "success" again.

Definitely feels like it at times, but to me this is feeling like an opportunity. Few clubs get a chance for a fresh restart from top to bottom, and there's a great stadium, top facilities, an engaged fanbase, and a solid roster to work with.

This team has hung with some of the best teams in the league this season, just need someone to balance the pieces and put a coherent philosophy in place. Fingers crossed.

Ok, as the World Cup winds down the MLS season gets back into gear today and tomorrow (no Austin match till next week) thought I'd post a quick update. Cause...it's a lot.

The big, insanely good news: Austin FC has hired Jim Curtin as it's next head coach.

This is probably the best possible outcome we could ask for, Curtin was dismissed from the Philadelphia Union in 2024 for failing to make the playoffs for the first time since 2017(!). In 10 years at Philly he went 176-111-133 with one MLS Cup appearance, three US Open Cup finals, and won a Supporters Shield during the shortened Covid season. He's rumored to have turned down jobs at Atlanta and New England before accepting the Austin job which I find really interesting. In any case Curtin is one of the most successful coaches in MLS history, and he will now be on the Austin sideline.

He unfortunately isn't going to take over until next season and Davy Arnaud will be in charge for the second half of the 2026 season, but it sounds like Curtin is involved in helping hire the new sporting director (and that has to be a now very appealing job with him coaching the team). He really emphasized culture in his introductory presser, the first few minutes are very worth a watch. As someone mentioned on Reddit, we learned more about his philosophy and approach in the first 10 minutes than we did about Wolff or Estevez in their entire tenures.




The other big piece of news, the club traded Dani Pereira to Vancouver:
Austin FC Trades Dani Pereira to CF Montral For Up to $2.35 Million in General Allocation Money

Some people are disappointed with this and I get it, but he was on a bigger contract and never quite took his game to that next level. I think the team is also in need of either a destroyer 6 and/or a playmaking 8/10, and he doesn't really fit into either of those buckets. We got great value for him so intrigued to see what we do with the windfall.


Couple more minor roster notes:

- The club exercised a buyout on Robert Taylor's contract which wasn't surprising. He's on a bigger contract, has been injured a good bit, and when healthy was generally average.

- One new signing that had been rumored for a while, the team signed Polish winger Przemysaw Placheta (he's gonna get a nickname real quick):
https://www.austinfc.com/news/austin-fc-signs-polish-winger-przemyslaw-placheta

He's a left footed attacker and from the brief highlights looks to have great pace and likes to go 1v1. He spent the last 6 years playing in England, mostly in the Championship with one season in the Premier League with Norwich. It'll be interesting to see how we use him with the other players on the roster. This was apparently a done deal back in March, we just had to wait for his contract with Oxford United to expire.

All that said, we do have one open roster spot after buying out Taylor and now have a lot of roster flexibility with 2+ million of GAM from the Pereira trade, but without a sporting director (at least not one announced) I don't know that we'll see any bigger moves till the offseason.

The rest of this season...who knows? We're kind of playing with house money at this point, we're near the bottom of the table with an interim coach so there's nowhere to go but up.

Well this one is a surprise. We've had a few transfers out and one incoming but wow.

Austin FC Receives Up to $7.6 Million from Sporting KC in Trade for Owen Wolff

He's a talented young player but that's some great value for him.

New Sporting Director announced:

Austin FC Names Khaled El-Ahmad Chief Soccer Officer and Sporting Director

He was born in Lebanon and raised in Sweden then came to the US to play college soccer. He's got experience as a lead scout for City Football Group (CONCACAF and Sweden) and supporting NYCFC as well as working as Barnsley's sporting director before coming back to MLS as Minnesota United's Sporting Director.

He seems like a data-driven type of guy, his signings for Minnesota were hit or miss but to be fair they've been pretty cheap and he didn't have much budget to work with.

Super intrigued to see what he and Curtin can do. We've also got several open roster spots with half a week or so left in the transfer window, so we'll see if anything interesting happens here in the next few days.