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Normally, I’d have a piping hot, crafted-with-love match report for you to enjoy on this Thursday evening and distract me from the infinite bleakness of the FIFA international break. In fact, I’d have a pair, as our day out in Austin included two, 70-minute matches against the hosts. But if you were hoping for something a little more substantial than last week's breakdown of the Nashville friendly, well I’ve got bad news for you. As part of the terms of the preseason game, the club has agreed to keep the details of both matches under wraps. Fair enough. I'll just sit here instead, watching a mailman and vinter try to mark Raheem Sterling in England 5-0 San Marino. Grim.
However we’re not left entirely in the dark. We did get this incredibly windy 30-second confirmation from Coach Hackworth that soccer-related activities involving Louisville City did in fact take place this afternoon.
More substantially, this stranger from the internet whom I have no particular reason to distrust claims both matches finished 2-0 to Austin, with Aaron Schoenfeld and Rodney Redes scoring in the first leg and Danny Hoesen scoring a brace in the second. Whatever.
On our end, the club released another photo of what’s presumably one of the two XIs:
Not too much is new from the Nashville friendly other than a couple changes and Hubbard once again between the sticks. I’m certainly no Michels, and I’m probably better off leaving the USL tactics to people with more aptly-named Twitter handles like @USLTactics, but the inclusion of Napo, Ownby and Hoppenot is potentially interesting. If my memory and relaxed journalistic standards serve me, the trio hasn’t started together since July 18th’s 1-0 defeat to St. Louis (RIP). In that match, Antoine and Brian played the more advanced positions in a 4-3-3.
If all friendlies are a little odd, this/these one/s feel especially strange due to the format, lack of info, and just not knowing what to make of Austin FC as a club. On one hand: McConaughey and Reyna, a sleek badge, and a loose kinship between blue-ish, Southern cities in red states. On the other: coaches’ sons, a fratboyish YETI kit sponsor and monied MLS owners coming into town, dumping cash on a brand new stadium and plundering the existing USL club’s fanbase (although that might not be a totally accurate picture given the Bold’s pre-COVID attendance figures).
If you’re a native Austinian? Austinite? person from Austin or an adulterous, untrustworthy figure that also follows MLS teams, I’d be interested in hearing what you think of them. Personally, I’m just glad the boys got to go paddleboarding.
MLS COMMOTION
In more important news, this week's f*cking massive, unmissable goliath of a story is Soccer Holdings LLC’s decision to evaluate the feasibility of MLS expansion over the next 6-12 months. I've written about some of the potential implications and my initial thoughts here. Brad Estes has since understandably dialed back some of the hype, but my feeling is that the MLS Armageddon/Promised Land debate will stick around for the foreseeable future.
HOME OPENER
In the nearer term, the USL announced opening fixtures for all Championship teams, which includes ours against Atlanta United 2 on April 24. Previously we’d been expecting to hear about a start date on or around the first week of May, so the slightly earlier date is a pleasant surprise. It also should be a pleasant day for us, considering they finished bottom of their group in 2020 with just 12 points. While you always worry a little about our historically poor starts in the league, I’m hopeful this jam-packed and MLS-heavy preseason will have us ready to hit the ground running.
As for the rest of the fixture list, we shouldn’t have to wait too much longer. A draft league schedule has been released to clubs and teams are currently in the process of working through revision requests to accommodate for venue availability, a chilling reminder that we must play two matches in the fortress that is AutoZone Park this year.
REALIGNMENT
What is known about our schedule is that there will be big changes from previous years. City will be playing in the newly-minted Central Division, where they’ll face Birmingham, Indy, Memphis, SKC II, OKC and Tulsa four times each, with the remaining fixtures being made up of Eastern Conference opponents from the Atlantic Division.
I won’t delve too deep into what realignment means, as others have already detailed what realignment could spell for the club-- including this great piece by Benton over at Vamos Morados-- but I’m essentially of two minds.
On one hand, I’m a traditionalist, so I really liked the old, bread-and-butter league format with a home and away tie against each opponent. I think it’s the best measure of a team's quality over a season, although I do understand it may not always be feasible due to minor annoyances such as a viral pandemic or the geography of North America.
On the other hand, one would think this reshuffling would benefit us this year. We’ll face challenges from Birmingham and perhaps to a lesser extent Indy and Tulsa, but really we should be shooting for first in this group. I’m not sure if the league will be awarding a regular season title under the new format (and it’s always difficult to win being in the Eastern Conference), but if there was ever a year we’d have a decent shot of claiming the secondary but thus-far elusive prize, you’d think it’d be this one.
However you’d also expect to see some formational changes across matches against the same opponents, as what works in one or two matches might not hold up four. This could mean that managers’ tactical capabilities might really be in the spotlight under this year, and an unpredictable season could be in the cards.
Before any of that though, we still have a fair number of friendlies to chew through. Houston’s on Sunday, then Chattanooga FC next Saturday as we move into the business end of preseason (if that’s a thing that’s allowed to exist).
30 days.
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