Austin FC look to parlay one of their best performances of the season into a rare winning streak Saturday at the Houston Dynamo in the Copa Tejas clash between the Lone Star State rivals.
The Verde (4-7-5, 17 points) head south after a rousing 3-1 win over the Seattle Sounders on Wednesday in their return from the two-month World Cup break. Austin FC snapped a four-match winless streak (0-3-1) and will be looking to capture back-to-back wins for just the second time this year.
Ilie Sanchez, Myrto Uzuni and Christian Ramirez found the net as Austin matched its season-high for goals. Eighteen-year-old Ervin Torres entered as a substitute in the 84th minute and assisted on the final two tallies.
Torres, the first player in Austin FC history to ascend from the team’s academy to its MLS Next Pro team and onto the top unit, provided a glimpse of the future for the Verde. His performance was as eye-opening for interim head coach Davy Arnaud as it was to the rest of the league.
“We’ve seen stuff like this from Ervin at training, so it wasn’t — I don’t want to say it wasn’t a surprise,” Arnaud said about Torres. “It always is when you see it for the first time (in a game). But he has that ability.”
Uzuni leads the Verde in goals (six) and goal contributions (11) in 14 games.
Austin remains the only MLS team without a road victory and has dropped three of its last four visits to Shell Energy Stadium.
The Dynamo (7-6-2, 23 points) were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw with D.C. United on Wednesday in their return from break. Hector Herrera had Houston’s goal in the 40th minute as the Dynamo extended their home unbeaten streak to four (3-0-1).
“We played well enough to win the game, and we felt like we should have gotten the three points,” Houston head coach Ben Olsen said. “But that’s on us — you’ve got to go get that second goal, go score that third goal. We just have to be better — it’s up to us to put the game away.
“We have to shake it off because we have a quick one (Saturday) against a good Austin team.”
Guilherme paces the Dynamo with eight goals and five assists. Houston is 3-1-2 since a 2-0 loss at Austin on April 25.
The teams have split four of their past five matches, with each winning twice along with one draw.
–Field Level Media
