Austin, Texas – Wednesday night sees Colorado Rapids take on Austin FC at Q2 Stadium. It was a bad weekend for the Burgundy Boys. They lost 3-0 to Columbus Crew. The new signings are still waiting on their visas. Colorado did beat Austin 1-0 at home about a month ago. We got caught up on all things Verde with our friend Phil West, from Verde All Day.
Check out our chat with him on the Rapids here.
From a far, it feels like 2026 is just a gap year for Austin. Waiting for the front office turnover and Jim Curtin to arrive. “Weirdest club in MLS” to quote SoccerWise. What is this season for Austin fans? Am I being harsh?
Not at all … and let me just start by pointing out that part of what made us “weirdest club in MLS” is (in their words) having some of the best coverage in the league! Let me take you through a fateful 10-day stretch in May: Lose 5-0 at San Diego, lose at home to a historically bad SKC, and after I declare it “feeling like an inflection point” in that post-match press conference (which head coach Nico Estévez reacts to by effectively saying “you were mostly bad before I got here; this isn’t all on me”), both Estévez and sporting director Rodolfo Borrell were fired, replaced with Davy Arnaud (who is officially in his second stint as interim head coach, and has been on the coaching staff for the team’s entire history) who went out and lost 3-0 at St. Louis before the midseason break.
Then, he implemented a new three center back, two inverted wingback style which was confounding at first, but they seem to be buying in and displaying more fight.
That said, the team had some good games in Leagues Cup. A win over Portland and a draw to San Jose isn’t bad. Is there any hope of making the playoffs? Or is the goal just to finish about Sporting?
There’s certainly hope of making the playoffs, but only managing a late equalizer to draw against San Jose last Saturday hurt. They have 11 games left to gather let’s say 20 points and leapfrog five teams. They may not have the time or the PPG average to get there. If they don’t get a win tonight, I think the door just about shuts.
Brandon Vazquez is back from his ACL injury last year. Myrto Uzuni is out. Przemysław Płacheta is the one attacking signing from this summer. What are you expecting from this Austin attack?
We don’t know how long Leagues Cup Golden Boot winner Myrto Uzuni will be out for, and Vázquez has yet to score a goal this season. Facundo Torres started the season slow, but is looking a bit better of late (and would have had a goal on Saturday if not for a very suspect VAR-assisted reversal testing the credulity of the league’s handball rule). Christian Ramírez may be the team’s most effective healthy attacker at present … and he was a waiver-wire find that actually started the season with the Galaxy. Weird year, man.
With Owen Wolff gone, give us a young player to watch. Any U22 player who’s exciting or a draft pick that might get minutes?
He’s not officially a U22 yet, but I feel like he’ll be the club’s next one: Ervin Torres, a do-all midfielder who started the year on the second team, has gotten a chance to play and even start in Arnaud’s new system and he’s looked very lively. He’s going to be, in addition to a rising young star, an interesting dual national candidate (with Mexico scouting him during Leagues Cup, despite making USYNT appearances).
Lastly, got a prediction for us?
Between what you’re saying about Colorado’s depth and Austin’s absolute need for a win to stay in the playoff race — and to make up for Saturday’s disappointment — this feels like a 2-1 win for the hosts. But this year, especially coming out of the World Cup break, has been game after game of me going into it less sure of what’s going to happen than I have in past seasons. We really are MLS’ weirdest team!
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Spencer Baldwin 
Eamon Shaw 