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AUSTIN, TEXAS – OCTOBER 12: Guilherme Biro #29 of Austin FC celebrates with Mateja Djordjevi #35 of Austin FC as Austin FC scores a goal against the Los Angeles Football Club at Q2 Stadium on October 12, 2025 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Daniel Jefferson\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Daniel Jefferson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Though Austin FC<\/a> has nothing to play for Saturday on MLS Decision Day, it will be watching results around the Western Conference with great intrigue. The Verde & Black are locked into the No. 6 seed<\/a> in the West for the MLS playoffs and have a possibility of three opponents for the first round: LAFC, San Diego FC and Minnesota United FC.\u00a0<\/p>\n But who should Austin FC want to be matched up against in a best-of-three series?\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The Verde & Black swept LAFC in the regular season, split with San Diego FC and went 1-1-1 against Minnesota, with one of those contests being a U.S. Open Cup match. Yet results from the regular season rarely matter in the MLS playoffs. Miami and St. Louis had the best records in their respective conferences the last two years and lost in the first round.\u00a0<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a look at who Austin FC should hope it draws after the regular season finishes, going from least to most desirable.\u00a0<\/p>\n LAFC<\/p>\n This is the matchup no one in the Western Conference wants.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Sure, Austin FC just completed a season sweep of LAFC<\/a>. But neither of the West Coast club\u2019s star forwards, Son Heung-min and Denis Bouanga, played as both were with their national teams. And Heung-min was still suiting up for English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur in March when Austin FC won the first matchup.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bouanga is second in\u00a0MLS with 24 goals, trailing only Lionel\u00a0Messi, and Heung-min has eight goals since joining the club in early August. The duo, who are talented enough to play in the top leagues in Europe, give LAFC the best attack in the West.\u00a0<\/p>\n Austin FC coach Nico Est\u00e9vez correctly noted Saturday that his team did a good job defending Bouanga in March. But having to weather a three-game series against Bouanga, Heung-min and the rest of a decent LAFC roster would be a nightmare scenario.\u00a0<\/p>\n (LAFC is third in the West with 59 points. It plays at Colorado, which is still alive for a spot in the play-in game.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n San Diego FC<\/p>\n San Diego has had a brilliant \u2014 and unexpected \u2014 first season with 60 points and 60 goals scored entering Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mikey Varas should be a finalist for MLS coach of the year, and midfielder Andres Dreyer is one of the league\u2019s top players with 17 goals and 17 assists.<\/p>\n Yet apart from\u00a0Dreyer and maybe forward Hirving \u201cChucky\u201d Lozano, who is no longer under 30, the San Diego roster isn\u2019t intimidating. And while this further indicates the coaching job Varas has done, it\u2019s not a matchup in which Austin\u00a0FC would be a massive underdog. The Verde & Black defeated San Diego in March, and while that contest is irrelevant now, it shows two wins in three weeks is a possibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n (San Diego is second in the West with 60 points. It plays at Portland, which needs a draw or a Dallas draw or loss to avoid the play-in game.)<\/p>\n Minnesota United FC<\/p>\n This is the matchup Austin FC wants.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s not that Minnesota is a poor side, but it\u2019s roster isn\u2019t what it was two months ago. The Loons sold striker Tani Oluwaseyi to Spanish club Villarreal CF in late August, then forward Kelvin Yeboah suffered a hamstring injury against Austin FC in mid-September in the\u00a0U.S. Open Cup semifinals<\/a> and hasn\u2019t played since. Combined, that\u2019s a loss of 25 goals from the lineup.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Defender Carlos Harvey also hasn\u2019t played since Sept. 13, and it\u2019s unclear if he and Yeboah would be available for the playoffs. Even if they are, they wouldn\u2019t be match fit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Allianz Field isn\u2019t a daunting place to play, so stealing a game there is not out of the question, especially if the series goes three games.\u00a0<\/p>\n (The Loons are fourth in the West with 58 points. They play at the Los Angeles Galaxy, who is tied for last in the West.)<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, TEXAS – OCTOBER 12: Guilherme Biro #29 of Austin FC celebrates with Mateja Djordjevi #35 of Austin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,135,134,133,136,806],"class_list":{"0":"post-7157","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-mls","13":"tag-mls-playoffs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7157","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=7157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n