MLS

MLS Footnotes: Austin FC still looking to find its groove heading into LAFC match

Updated Apr. 8, 2023 5:49 p.m. ET

Editor's Note: MLS Footnotes takes you inside the major talking points around the league and across American soccer.

Josh Wolff knows as well as anyone that Austin FC is being viewed in a vastly different light this season.

After battling eventual Supporters' Shield and MLS Cup winner LAFC at the top of the Western Conference for most of 2022, everyone around the U.S. and Canada's top league was eager to find out if what Los Verdes accomplished just a year on from their expansion season – eventually finishing second in the West and fourth overall and qualifying for the CONCACAF Champions League – could be repeated or even surpassed in 2023.

"The expectations this year are based on last year," Wolff, Austin's coach, told FOX Sports ahead of Saturday's trip to Southern California to face the champs (7:30 p.m. ET, FOX and the FOX Sports app). "We have to accept that our fans, our owner, wants more now. Our players do, too."

They have mostly been left wanting. Five games into the new campaign, Austin isn't all that far from where it sat 12 months ago. Wolff's team began 2022 with a 2W-2D-1L record; this year, they're 2W-1D-2L. Still, after an embarrassing elimination from the CONCACAF Champions League by undermanned, underfunded Haitian side Violette, there's a visceral sense that the club has fallen back to earth and might be in for a bumpier ride in the months to come.

While Austin's roster has remained largely intact, a groin injury has kept key center back Julio Cascante out since the opener. Its last match was a disappointing home draw with the Colorado Rapids on March 25. Being idle last week gave Wolff and his players a chance to recalibrate. "We've been able to use the bye to prepare our guys and work on some of the things we needed to," Wolff said.

Meantime, LAFC has played three games in two countries over the past two weeks, including Wednesday's 3-0 Champions League win at Vancouver. In MLS play, the titleholders are undefeated through five games.

"They're the best team in the league again," Wolff said. "I have no doubts in my mind about that."

They could be tired, though. LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo rode his starters both north of the border midweek and in last weekend's 1-1 draw in the thin air of Colorado. Some squad rotation is likely to be necessary.

Austin won both regular-season meetings last season; its mid-May victory in Los Angeles, one of just two games LAFC has dropped in its last 26 at home, provided a wave of confidence that Wolff's side rode to within one match of Austin's first MLS Cup appearance. The team that eliminated Austin? LAFC.

"They looked more ready for that moment in the conference finals than we did," Wolff said. Saturday's rematch will provide another measuring stick, even at this still-early stage of 2023.

"There's a reason they're competing for championships every year, but this is Game 6 of a 34-game regular season," Wolff said. "There's a long way to go. The biggest thing I've stressed to our guys is to just keep improving."

MLS FOOTNOTES

1. Will Union's lead stand up?

When LAFC and Vancouver were drawn against each other in the Champions League quarters, MLS was guaranteed at least one spot in the final four. A Philadelphia Union win over Mexico's Atlas would ensure that at least one reaches the final, and Philly did their part in the first leg with a 1-0 triumph Tuesday in Chester. Daniel Gazdag scored the only goal from the penalty spot in the second half:

It's a razor-thin advantage, to be sure. Jim Curtin's team won't have much margin for error in the rerun leg Wednesday, but scoring in Guadalajara would help. With the away goals rule in effect through the semis, keeping Atlas off the board in the opener was crucial. Should the Union find the net even once at Estadio Jalisco, the hosts would have to win by two goals to advance.

Philadelphia visits Eastern Conference leading Cincinnati on Saturday before flying south.

2. Seattle-St. Louis a worthy nightcap

No disrespect to Timbers-Whitecaps, but expansion St. Louis' visit to Seattle in one of Saturday's two late games is the easy pick for neutrals.

Despite suffering its first defeat last week to fall to 5-1, St. Louis still sits atop both the West and the Supporters Shield standings.

A loss to the Sounders would change that, though, vaulting Seattle – who were once ballyhooed newcomers themselves – into the conference lead.

3. Bouanga joins MVP chase

While João Klauss (St. Louis), Jordan Morris (Seattle) and World Cup-winner Thiago Almada (Atlanta United) emerged as the three clear MVP frontrunners in February and March, don't sleep on LAFC striker Denis Bouanga.

Bouanga has just three goals in MLS action, but he's been nearly unstoppable in the Champions League. His two strikes midweek against the Whitecaps upped his total in the tournament to five – more than twice as many as anyone else – and gave the Gabonese international eight goals in eight games in all competitions this season.

If the 28-year-old finds that sort of scoring touch in the league, look out.

4. Wolff weighs in

It couldn't have been easy for Wolff to watch the Gregg Berhalter/Claudio Reyna spat become a public spectacle earlier this year. The 46-year-old was U.S. teammates with both men at multiple World Cups. He was Berhalter's top assistant with the USMNT before taking the job in Austin, where he worked under Reyna until Reyna resigned as then sporting director in the wake of the scandal.

"I've known both guys for a long, long time. I know their wives and families," Wolff said. "There's lots of history there and those families have to deal with it. I think Claudio, as he stepped away from some of his responsibilities here, those responsibilities were shared inside our organization. We continue to work in a good way to keep building on the foundation that Claudio helped lay here.

"As for Gregg, I know his future is bright," Wolff continued. "He's one of, if not the best American coach there is. The World Cup and the four years before it speak for themselves.

"What he achieved with that [U.S.] group over time, with the amount of players he used and having a real philosophy about how to play — and then having that philosophy hold up in a World Cup — I thought was really impressive."

Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports. Before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and he has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.

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