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AUSTIN, TEXAS – AUGUST 06: Oleksandr Svatok #5 of Austin FC controls the ball in the 1st half during the Leagues Cup Phase One match between Austin FC and Club Tijuana at Q2 Stadium on August 6, 2026 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Daniel Jefferson\/Getty Images) *<\/p>\n
Daniel Jefferson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Austin FC<\/a> seems to have an edge to itself the last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n Whether that can spur it to a run over the final stretch of the season to qualify for the MLS playoffs<\/a> will be fascinating to watch, but Saturday\u2019s performance at Portland continues the recent trend that the Verde and Black are on the upswing<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In a game the club probably wouldn\u2019t have won before the World Cup break, Austin FC overcame an 89th-minute equalizer by the Timbers and produced a 2-1 win at Providence Park on Oleksandr Svatok\u2019s stoppage-time goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur guys believe they can get results against any team in the league,\u201d Austin FC interim coach Davy Arnaud said. \u201cThat\u2019s a credit to our guys.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n After going 0-8-3 on the road across all eight competitions to start the year, Austin FC has now won two straight MLS road games.\u00a0<\/p>\n Here are four key takeaways from the match as the Verde and Black (6-10-6, 24 points, 14th West) return home Saturday to host San Jose.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Man of the match: Facundo Torres<\/p>\n Torres seems to be finding his stride over the past two weeks. As he was Aug. 19 in the win at Seattle, he was excellent Saturday. His goal midway through the first half was a nice, quick shot off a brilliant one-touch pass from Joseph Rosales. Austin FC needs Torres to continue this type of performance to give it a shot at making the playoffs. \u00a0<\/p>\n What Austin FC did well\u2026<\/p>\n Pretty much everything.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Austin FC was the far better side for most of the match, and it would have been a cruel result if the Verde and Black had only gotten one point from the contest. (Portland\u2019s goal came on a penalty that was awarded following a shot hitting Brendan Hines-Ike in the arm in the box, which was a stroke of bad luck for Austin FC.)<\/p>\n Austin FC played one of its better 45 minutes of the season in the first half, where it had more possession, dictated the run of play and allowed Portland no scoring chances. Though it wasn\u2019t as dominant in the second half, it was still the better team.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe were really good with the ball tonight and we did a good job of recognizing what we have game-planned for,\u201d Arnaud said. \u201cWe had such control of the game, which is a collective thing. That adds to the spirit of the group, and there\u2019s nothing more important than spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n The Verde and Black also didn\u2019t crumble mentally when the Timbers tied the game. They were aggressive in stoppage time, which resulted in Svatok\u2019s goal inside the six-yard box that came shortly after a corner kick.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cUnbelievable emotions,\u201d Svatok said. \u201cI know how important the win is for Austin. It\u2019s a great night. \u2026 Today we showed how determined we are.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n What Austin FC didn\u2019t do well\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n Any overall criticism of the team would be nitpicking, but it was another somewhat quiet performance by forward and designated player Brandon Vazquez.\u00a0<\/p>\n Moments before Svatok\u2019s goal, he missed a cross that would have been an easy tap-in to score. (Though one also has to give credit to Vazquez, as his aggressiveness on the corner kick and positioning on Svatok\u2019s shot probably helped throw off Portland goalie James Pantemis on the game-winning score.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Vazquez wasn\u2019t bad, but he still hasn\u2019t scored this season, and the club isn\u2019t paying him more than $3 million to simply be a solid contributor.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bottom line<\/p>\n It\u2019s another good performance and result for Austin FC, which is now five points out of the ninth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference with 12 games to play.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Winning at Seattle and Portland is difficult, and to do both in an 11-day span is impressive.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Verde and Black dug themselves a gigantic hole the first half of the season and have a very tough schedule the rest of the way, so if they actually do make a run up the standings, it will be well-earned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, TEXAS – AUGUST 06: Oleksandr Svatok #5 of Austin FC controls the ball in the 1st half…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,135,134,133,136],"class_list":["post-420887","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"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420887","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=420887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n