3-1 loss to St. Louis<\/a> on Oct. 4 being a particularly subpar showing, the Verde & Black need to build some positive momentum going into the postseason.\u00a0<\/p>\nHere are four things to watch as Austin FC (12-12-8, 44 points) faces the hottest team in MLS.\u00a0<\/p>\n
LAFC is missing its best players<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s a club the Verde & Black would have chosen not to face in a situation where they\u2019re trying to bounce back from a tough stretch, it\u2019s LAFC. The West Coast club has won six straight and is going after the top seed in the playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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But Austin FC catches a huge break personnel-wise.\u00a0<\/p>\n
LAFC forwards and star players Son\u00a0Heung-Min (South Korea) and Denis Bouanga (Gabon) are on international duty and will miss the match. And while the rest of LAFC\u2019s roster is still solid, it drops the club from having one of the best attacks in\u00a0MLS to being rather pedestrian on offense.<\/p>\n
Bouanga is second in the league \u2014 trailing only Lionel Messi \u2014 with 24 goals and Heung-Min has tallied eight goals since joining the club in early August. (LAFC is 7-1-2 since Heung-Min arrived.)<\/p>\n
MLS veteran Jeremy Ebobisse will likely be LAFC\u2019s main option up top and is an exceptional third option for a club, but he\u2019s not the scoring threat that Bouanga and Heung-Min are.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Who plays forward for Austin FC?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Austin FC\u00a0is dealing with its own roster issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Myrto Uzuni (Albania) is on international duty and Diego Rubio is questionable with a hamstring issue, meaning the Verde & Black might be down to their fourth and fifth options if Austin FC coach Nico Est\u00e9vez uses his traditional two-forward lineup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With Austin FC\u2019s playoff status solidified, there\u2019s no reason to push the 32-year-old Rubio, so expect to see J\u00e1der Obrian or CJ Fodrey up top for extended periods of time, even if only one of them starts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The Verde & Black are thin on the backline<\/p>\n
Julio Cascante (Costa Rica) and Oleksandr Svatok (Ukraine) are also with their national teams, leaving Brendan Hines-Ike and Mateja Djordjevic as the team\u2019s only center backs available.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Est\u00e9vez could go with a five-man backline as he has at times the past six weeks, but with Heung-Min and Bouanga not playing, there\u2019s no need to do so. Guilherme Biro, who missed the St. Louis match due to yellow-card accumulation, could slide over from his spot at left back to play center back if needed, and Ilie S\u00e1nchez would also be an option there in an emergency.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Austin\u00a0FC predicted lineup<\/p>\n
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Midfield: Jon Gallagher, Owen Wolff, Ilie S\u00e1nchez, Dani Pereira, Osman Bukari<\/p>\n
Defense: Guilherme Biro, Brendan Hines-Ike, Mateja Djordjevic, Mikkel Desler<\/p>\n
Austin FC vs LAFC prediction<\/p>\n
Austin FC 1, LAFC 1: LAFC will probably play conservatively with a five-man backline and try to hit Ebobisse on counterattacks, so look for Austin\u00a0FC to be the aggressor. But with Uzuni out, the Verde & Back lack punch up top. Expect a draw with Austin FC going into its final match Saturday at San Jose with a chance to finish sixth in the West.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Where to watch Austin FC vs LAFC<\/p>\n
The MLS match will be broadcast on Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass and Apple TV+.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, TEXAS – OCTOBER 4: Brendan Hines-Ike #4 of Austin FC passes the ball during a match against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,135,134,133,137,136,806],"class_list":{"0":"post-426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-fc","10":"tag-austin-headlines","11":"tag-austin-news","12":"tag-lafc","13":"tag-mls","14":"tag-mls-playoffs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426","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=426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}