AUSTIN (KXAN) — With one victory over a Copa Tejas rival this season, Austin FC is looking for another one Saturday in Houston.
Verde and Black take on the Houston Dynamo at 7:30 p.m. from Shell Energy Park in downtown Houston, and not only do they want to add to its Texas rivalry win total, but also the first win this season away from home. They are one of six Western Conference teams that are winless on the road, but head coach Josh Wolff sees an opportunity to get three points and vault back above the playoff line.
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“They do a good job in front of both goals and they’re an efficient group,” Wolff said. “We’ve played them a number of times and we’re pretty familiar with what they’ve done. The results have been mixed, but performances have been quite strong for us.”
The Dynamo have won four of their last five matches and they could get a key player back in midfielder Hector Herrera who hasn’t played this season due to injury. Dynamo head coach Ben Olsen said he’ll be on a minutes restriction, but having him available is “really, really exciting.”
Wolff said there’s a fine line his team will have to walk between minimizing risk and giving them a chance to score, especially on the road. Houston is currently third in the Western Conference with 13 points and with a win could jump into the top spot, but then again, it’s a Texas Derby and the match could become unhinged in a hurry.
“You don’t want to go down on the road, you’re going to have to live and die by defending at times,” he said. “We just need to score more goals on the road. Getting (Sebastian Driussi) involved in more of these games obviously helps us, but you got to do your job both with and without the ball.”
Jon Gallagher, Austin FC’s Swiss Army knife who can both defend and attack, said he’s not getting forward as much this season due to the team’s formation. He clarified by saying it was fine that he wasn’t as involved in the attack thus far, and the team is more than capable of putting the ball in the net without him pushing up. They have to be better at it away from home, he said.
“We scored six goals in two games at home, so we’re capable of it. We just haven’t shown it on the road,” he said. “It’s something we’ve addressed and spoken about as a group. We got some stuff out on the table and now we’re trying to fix it.”
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Capitalizing on chances is the key to winning on the road, Gallagher said, which is another reason why it’s so tough to win in Major League Soccer away from home. Away teams simply don’t have the ball that much, so when they do, there’s sometimes a tendency to press and try a little too hard to get a goal when at home a team would typically have a more natural flow to their game.
“I could maybe count on one hand where I’ve gone on the road and dominated the game,” he said. “Even thinking back to games where we’ve won 4-1 or something, you still don’t have the ball that much, you just took your chances.”
The nature of MLS teams being spread across the United States is a different factor for some players, especially those who previously played abroad. Gallagher said when he played in Scotland, most of the away matches were an hour’s bus ride. In MLS, you’re getting on a plane, changing time zones and getting fatigued by that alone.
Austin is hungry to get back on the right end of a match, especially since it’s a rivalry. Gallagher said it’s easy to get motivated for a Copa Tejas tilt and with Žan Kolamnič coming back off a hamstring injury, the back line will receive a boost. He played 12 minutes in last week’s 1-0 loss to St. Louis but should be available for more Saturday.