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AUSTIN, TEXAS – MARCH 21: Brendan Hines-Ike #4 of Austin FC and Son HeungMin #7 of Los Angeles FC fights for possession of the ball during the match between Los Angeles FC and Austin FC at Q2 Stadium on March 21, 2026 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Daniel Jefferson\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Daniel Jefferson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Even if it didn’t show in the result,\u00a0Austin FC<\/a> played its best match of the year Saturday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n And considering its roster has been hit with injuries to several key players<\/a> since the start of training camp, the club\u2019s scoreless draw<\/a> at Q2 Stadium against an undefeated LAFC team in some ways felt like a winning outcome.\u00a0While Austin FC\u2019s attack is still figuring things out \u2014 and still missing arguably its most important piece in midfielder Owen Wolff<\/a> \u2014 the defense turned in one of the better performances in the club\u2019s short history.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Nows Austin FC (1-2-2, 5 points) gets some much-needed rest with the international break next week.\u00a0Here are some key takeaways from the match:<\/p>\n Austin FC\u2019s defense was phenomenal<\/p>\n LAFC forwards Son Heung-min and Denis Bouanga are arguably the most potent duo in the Western Conference. And sure, they had a few chances Saturday, but Austin FC’s backline of Jon Bell, Brendan Hines-Ike, Oleksandr Svatok and Jon Gallagher was simply exceptional. Hines-Ike, in particular, might have had his best game as a professional, which was highlighted by chasing down Heung-min to prevent a late one-on-one with goalie Brad Stuver.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the defense\u2019s night tonight,\u201d said Stuver, who only faced one shot on goal. \u201cIt was amazing the entire game. \u2026 That\u2019s probably the best I\u2019ve ever seen (Hines-Ike) play.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Hines-Ike\u2019s performance is even more notable considering he\u2019s been a quality player for the club since he joined it weeks before the 2024 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis has got to be the standard we set for the rest of the season,\u201d Hines-Ike said. \u201cWorking hard and just showing a general grittiness is what we have to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n And considering Bell and Gallagher weren\u2019t slated to be the team\u2019s outside backs in the preseason \u2014 Guilherme Biro and Mikkel Desler started most of 2025 \u2014 Austin FC coach Nico Est\u00e9vez has a good problem on his hands with multiple options on defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Austin FC had lots of possession and few shots\u00a0<\/p>\n Austin FC finished with 62% possession and especially dominated the ball in the first half, when after 30 minutes it had 71% possession. It showed energy the entire match and was the stronger side more often than not, yet it only finished with one shot on goal. Est\u00e9vez attributed that to the team being cautious of LAFC\u2019s counterattacks with Bouanga and Heung-min, something which burned the Verde & Black when the teams met in the playoffs last fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem with being aggressive is you open yourself up to that,\u201d Est\u00e9vez said. \u201cWe had a lot of control of the game tonight. From there is where we have to grow and take more chances. \u2026 But having longer possessions also helps you defensively. And you can\u2019t be defending all the time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Considering Austin FC was missing Wolff and starting midfielders Dani Pereira and Jayden Nelson, the fact that it dictated play for long stretches of the game against a team that entered the match 7-0-1 across all competitions (LAFC is participating in CONCACAF Champions Cup) is a good sign for the club\u2019s attack going forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we have everyone healthy, we\u2019ll have a great roster,\u201d Est\u00e9vez said. \u201cAnd we\u2019ll need it, because as soon as April comes, we\u2019ll start having more games (than just once a week).\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Myrto Uzuni excels for Austin FC<\/p>\n Austin FC was unlucky when Uzuni\u2019s goal midway through the second half was called back after video review determined Ilie S\u00e1nchez was offside when the shot went through his legs. (It was the correct call, and S\u00e1nchez had to move his right leg to avoid the ball.)<\/p>\n It was an impressive strike of the ball by Uzuni near the top of the box on a corner kick, and he had another well-taken shot in stoppage time that was saved by a diving Hugo Lloris.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n If Uzuni keeps up his form from Saturday, he could reach double digits in goals this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bottom line<\/p>\n This was an impressive showing by Austin FC, but better ones should arrive in the future. And maybe as soon as late April. Wolff and Nelson could return after the international break, Pereira should be back before May and forward Brandon Vasquez might be available at some point in the next five weeks for the first time since his knee injury last July. \u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Austin FC didn\u2019t win Saturday, but its performance signaled a potential for a top five finish in the West.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s time to get healthy.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, TEXAS – MARCH 21: Brendan Hines-Ike #4 of Austin FC and Son HeungMin #7 of Los Angeles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,135,134,133,70697,137,20604,136,84320,340,58543],"class_list":["post-215880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-fc","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-brad-stuver","tag-lafc","tag-major-league-soccer","tag-mls","tag-nico-estevez","tag-owen-wolff","tag-q2-stadium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n