Austin, Texas, will always hold a special place in the hearts, and history, of ºüÀêÊÓƵ City SC.
It was there, in Q2 Stadium, about 10 miles north of the state capitol, that just over a year ago, on Feb. 25, 2023, City SC played its first game, and to the surprise of a lot of people, got its first win. There was a goal on a corner kick headed in by Tim Parker that put City SC ahead in the 24th minute, and then after it fell behind 2-1, a goal out of the blue when a ºüÀêÊÓƵan playing for Austin, Kipp Keller, inexplicably played a ball straight to City SC’s Jared Stroud, who tied the game, and then eight minutes later, Klauss made it 3-2 with a dazzling game-winning goal.
All of that not only set the tone for the season that followed, but in many ways made it possible. It’s one thing to believe you can compete with the rest of the league; it’s another to do it.
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“I think it justified a lot of the hard work we had put in in preseason and then it gave us the belief,†Parker said this week. “A lot of guys hadn’t played an MLS match before, so it gave us the belief of what we do in our system and if we play for one another it gives us a belief that we can have success.â€
“It set us off on the right note,†said midfielder Indiana Vassilev.
City SC returns to Q2 Stadium on Saturday to face Austin in its first road game of the MLS season. (Though its second trip to Texas in 2024, having played at Houston, about a 2½-hour drive east, in the CONCACAF Champions Cup last week.) City SC won’t match last season’s 5-0 start in league play, but it has yet to lose in its first two games, with a win and a tie.
“It’s a nice feeling to go back there,†City SC coach Bradley Carnell said, “because it was an emotional start for all of us on this journey of a new franchise, new team. What is the internal expectation, what does the outside world perceive us to be? But I think we’ve developed. We’re further along than where we were, and so now it’s business. Now, we just go in there to get three points.â€
And if the Austin win a year ago set a tone, City SC’s win last week over New York City FC at CityPark last Saturday might be the same. The loss to Houston not only knocked City SC out of the Champions Cup, it stung on more general principles: the team just didn’t play well. With a short week to get ready for NYCFC, it bounced back as well as anyone could have hoped in a game City SC controlled. It was the best game of the young season for City SC and one it can use as a reference point to what its game should look like.
“I think it was definitely a great win,†said midfielder Eduard Lowen, “but it’s not only the win. It’s the way we won. It’s the way we played. It’s the way we approached the game, and I think we took the right conclusions out of the game in Houston. And I think you saw all of that, what we analyzed, you saw that on the pitch versus New York City. I think it was overall a very good game.
“Sometimes it’s about remembering the easy things, remembering simple things that we always do, like pressing together collectively, the intensity of how we are pressing. Easy things that got us huge results and a great season last year. And that’s, in the end of the day, what we did, reminding ourselves of who we are and how we want to play. And I think you saw that right away when we came out of the locker room. The intensity on the pitch was just way different than the intensity and approach of the game before.â€
A year ago, it wasn’t just the win that helped City SC, but the way it did it, getting a lead, losing it, then coming from behind to win.
“Going ahead early,†Parker said, “and then, honestly, falling behind gave us a little bit of that edge. We like to play with a little bit of our backs against the wall and when we go down 2-1, it gives us a little bit of something to fight for. Obviously, the way we scored the second goal isn’t the prettiest of ways but it did give us that edge to get back in the game. … Klauss’ finish, obviously a lot of us will remember that for a while, he did really well and then the full body cramp on the field was the icing on the cake.â€
It was also a big thing for Parker, starting what turned out to be a career year for him.
“It gave me momentum that carried throughout the whole year and proved not only to have a good year for myself but for the team too,†he said.
“The way we came back,†Carnell said, “the way we showed character, the way we showed resolve, we go up, we go down, we fight way back up and we get the game winner at the end. So, those emotions carried us through for the next couple of weeks and then we go 5-0. But that’s history.â€
In the present, Carnell said City SC expects to have midfielder Rasmus Alm, who hasn’t played since last September as he recovers from offseason sports hernia surgery, available on Saturday, most likely coming off the bench. Josh Yaro (hamstring) and Njabulo Blom (knee) are out but could be rejoining practice next week and the team hadn’t settled by Thursday on whether Kyle Hiebert was fit enough to play after missing three games with a knee injury suffered in practice. He practiced with the team this week.
Austin is a case study of the fragility of life in MLS. In 2021, Austin had 31 points and finished 24th overall in the league, but in 2022, the team jumped up to fourth overall with 56 points. Because of that, big things were expected of Austin in 2023, which made City SC’s opening night win even more impressive. But the loss to City SC was the start of a frustrating season for Austin, which finished 25th overall with 39 points and missed the playoffs. This season it has a loss and a tie. That tie, 0-0, came last week against Seattle with Austin managing just two shots in the whole game (while Seattle had 23) with no corner kicks and a 0.1 expected goals.