against D.C. United<\/a>. He\u2019s also been a positive addition to the locker room.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cFrom day one \u2026 you never would have known that he was brand new to the team,\u201d Austin FC goalie Brad Stuver said, noting Ram\u00edrez, who wasn\u2019t in the locker room postgame, had to immediately head to the airport after the match. \u201cHe\u2019s a veteran of this league and been on a lot of teams and won some trophies. So he\u2019s been able to come in and use his experience and use his voice. He can speak to the entire locker room. Being bilingual, he helps bridge the gap between the guys that don\u2019t speak as much Spanish.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
Vazquez makes long-awaited return<\/p>\n
Though he only played five minutes, it was a big moment for Vazquez just to be on the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Entering the match in the 89th minute, he returned to action for the first time since his knee injury July 8 in a U.S. Open quarterfinal match at San Jose.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just grateful being able to be back with the team,\u201d said Vazquez, who is arguably the club\u2019s biggest signing in its short history. \u201cBeing able to step back onto the field and hearing the stadium go crazy, it was an amazing feeling.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
Vazquez returned about as quickly from an ACL tear as possible, though he said there were several tough moments in rehab.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of times I just had to stay positive and stay disciplined with my mindset,\u201d he said. \u201cSome days, it didn\u2019t just feel like you were progressing much. \u2026 It was a long process. \u2026 I\u2019ve been visualizing this moment for a long time and just grinding through every day to get here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Austin FC is finally getting (mostly) healthy<\/p>\n
The return of Vazquez, Wolff and Pereira gives Austin FC a lot of potential \u2014 assuming no other key players get injured. (Winger Jayden Nelson didn\u2019t play Sunday after re-aggravating a calf injury in warmups.)<\/p>\n
Though all three are probably at least two more weeks from playing more than 30 minutes, they give the Verde & Black significant depth all over the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see what it means to the locker room to have these guys back,\u201d Stuver said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Though no goals, Austin FC had a great first half<\/p>\n
From an attacking standpoint, the first half was Austin FC\u2019s best of the season in terms of quality of play.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Led by Ram\u00edrez, Uzuni, Joseph Rosales, Facundo Torres and Jon Gallagher, the Verde & Black were aggressive, entertaining and easily could have had three goals with better luck or finishing.<\/p>\n
St. Louis goalie Roman B\u00fcrki made some highlight-reel saves to keep the visitors in the match.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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If Austin FC can consistently play like it did the first 45 minutes, it’s going to produce a lot of results.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bottom line<\/p>\n
Austin FC has four matches left before the World Cup break, three of which, including another contest against St. Louis, are against teams from the bottom four of the Western Conference.<\/p>\n
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Road games at Minnesota and San Diego won\u2019t be easy, with the latter coming only on two days rest. But if Austin FC can manage at least five points from these four contests, it will set itself up to make a move up the standings with a strong second half of the year.<\/p>\n
![\"AUSTIN,]()
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AUSTIN, TEXAS – MAY 03: Brandon Vazquez #9 of Austin FC looks on during the MLS match between Austin FC and St. Louis CITY SC at Q2 Stadium on May 03, 2026 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Noah Goldberg\/MLS via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Noah Goldberg\/MLS via Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, TX – May 03: Austin FC forward Christian Ramirez (left) gets past St Louis City SC defender…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,135,134,133,136,102639],"class_list":["post-277744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-fc","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-mls","tag-st-louis-city-sc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277744","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=277744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}