For the second straight weekend, Copa Tejas continues in the state of Texas when FC Dallas visit Austin FC on Saturday night. A win for the visitors will put Dallas in a position to win its third in-state trophy in five seasons.
FC Dallas (7-11-7, 28 points) are coming off an impressive 2-0 win last weekend over the Portland Timbers. The victory included a 13th goal on the season by Petar Musa and the first regular-season start with the captain’s armband for versatile Brazilian Ramiro Benetti.
“It’s just it’s in his DNA,” said head coach Eric Quill. “He cares deeply. He’s a competitor, but he cares about the guys, and he’s a footballer. I mean, you can put him as a 9, 8, 7, 6, whatever position you want to put him in. He’s going to perform at a high level.”
The win kept Dallas within four points of the final playoff spot with a game in hand over ninth-place San Jose. A victory Saturday would not only keep FC Dallas in contention for the postseason but move the side one win closer to a Copa Tejas title.
If Dallas wins its last two matches of the in-season tournament, both against Austin FC (9-8-7, 34 points), it earns bragging rights in Texas and silverware for Quill’s inaugural season in charge of the club.
However, Austin is on a tear with a four-match unbeaten run in MLS play. The club welcomes Dallas following a 2-2 draw against the Houston Dynamo, where Austin gave up a two-goal lead in the final 20 minutes.
“That is (a) special game,” Austin coach Nico Estevez said of the Copa Tejas draw. “No team give(s) up, and they keep going, and they try to do everything that they can to win the game, as we did for 70 minutes. But I think what we have to learn is when you are doing that well in those 70 minutes, you need to make the difference longer in the result.”
In the last three matches, Austin has eight goals by six different players. Owen Wolff and Myrto Uzuni each had two tallies in the recent run of form as the Texas side continues to score despite the season-ending injury to striker Brandon Vazquez on July 8.
Mathematically, Austin cannot win the Copa Tejas, with Houston holding the tiebreaker. However, the club sits in seventh place in the Western Conference.
–Field Level Media
