Football Season Guide

Ended a 2-year playoff drought but didn’t play pretty football. No team in the West scored fewer than Austin’s 37 goals during the regular season. Yet their great defending saw them lose just 8 times W13 D13 and this was enough for 6th place. Failed to make any noise in the post-season, unlike their run to the MLS Final in their only previous playoff appearance during their maiden campaign. The lack of goals can be contributed to the lack of accuracy with the crosses. This was the main focus of the transfer activity this offseason. Bukari and Obrian left. Replaced by Facundo Torres and Jayden Nelson. The former is seen as a major arrival and if his chance-creation numbers stay similar to what they were in Seria A in Brazil then Austin should be scoring lots more goals. Much better season can be expected also from the other winger Uzuni. He was the big signing of last summer. Had bad opening 5 months but late in the season was instrumental. After a year of adaptation to the MLS he should be much more involved going forward. No major departure from the pretty solid midfield line where the bright young talents Wolff (21) is surrounded by experienced and pretty solid teammates. The good defending should continue. Cascante left, injury risk all of last season, but Bell was added to replace him. The rest of the back line is the same. Further depth has been added at full-back with Rosales the 4th LB on the roster. If the defending stays solid and there is even a slight improvement to the scoring record Austin could be the dark horse of this year’s competition.