Foreign Exchange: Three Austin FC questions with Phil West of Verde All Day
Verde All Day's Phil West answers key questions about Austin FC as LA search for its first win of the season
The pressure is on for the LA Galaxy to get its first win of the 2025 MLS season. The SoCal club’s meeting with Austin FC on Saturday is another opportunity for Greg Vanney’s men to turn their moral victories from the last few weeks into a winning result.
The reigning champions sit at the bottom of the Western Conference standings and need a win to start to fight for playoff positioning. The Galaxy needs to prevent the gap between the playoff teams from getting bigger and allow themselves to get in the mix with the rest of the teams in the conference.
The match against Austin FC offers a unique experience, given that the match will be played at 10:55 a.m. local time. The LA Galaxy went winless in Texas last season, but a new season means a new chance to break narratives.
I asked Phil West of Verde All Day some questions about this Austin FC to gauge where the team is this season and about players who could cause the LA Galaxy some trouble in this game. His insights provide some details on what kind of game we can see at Q2 Stadium. I also answered some of Phil’s questions about this LA Galaxy team and why the team has had its struggles.
Ruiz: Last week’s 5-1 loss to the Whitecaps was the eye-catching result of the matchday. Was this result just a bad day at the office for Austin, or are the cracks in the backline easy to break through? Could the low-scoring LA Galaxy have a good chance to get multiple goals in this game?
West: I'm pretty sure it was just a bad day at the office, as you put it — center back and sometimes-captain Brendan Hines-Ike said that they get to show who they are in subsequent matches, starting with Saturday's match, "as men." (Hines-Ike has been solid most of the year, and given that one of White's goals went off his face as he was trying to make a goalline stand, he's definitely one willing to put himself on the line.)
The concern is that more teams can expose Verde the way Vancouver did. Before this match, they'd allowed the least goals against in the league, and have played 233 minutes so far this season successfully defending a one-goal lead, largely by absorbing a ton of pressure in their defensive third and then making clearances and winning tackles. Playing the Galaxy and Houston back-to-back is a chance to reset and reclaim that defensive prowess they've shown so far — assuming that it's not about to go off the rails. (New head coach and all, but we HAVE all experienced the last two seasons.)
Ruiz: Austin turned heads by acquiring Brandon Vazquez and Myrto Uzuni for huge money in the offseason. How have both players meshed in this young season, and where do they provide the most problems? What is the fear factor when going up against those two forwards?
West: It's, uh, a work in progress. Head coach Nico Estévez has been willing to deploy his two new forwards in a 4-4-2 as well as in the more customary 4-3-3, and both Vázquez and Uzuni have done enough work to score goals: Their season xGs so far are 2.8 and 2.1 respectively per FBref, and Osman Bukari, the other attacking DP (acquired last summer), has added 1.1 — together, that's 6 of the team's total 8.9 xG so far. Each of the three DPs each have one goal so far, and the team has six overall, which is equal with the Galaxy for one of the lowest goal totals in the lead. (The difference being, of course, that Verde's been able to win 1-0 matches and have only let in eight goals all season counting last Saturday's debacle, whereas the Galaxy has let in 15.)
In short: Austin still needs to work on ball progression through the midfield and take advantage of the counter opportunities they're generating. Uzuni in particular needs to better acclimate; he's had some brilliant, everything-but-the-finish moments this season but also some wow-you're-still-new-to-this-team moments. "When will the goal dam break?" is becoming one of the running, defining questions of the young season.
Ruiz: Austin FC has one of the lowest possession percentages in the league so far. The Galaxy has struggled for years against teams that absorb pressure and play on the counter - should LA expect that in Texas? Who is the most direct threat on the team and who pulls the strings to get this Austin side into dangerous positions?
West: Right now, Verde doesn't have a natural 10 — unless sporting director Rodolfo Borrell has something in the works, the plan seems to be to roll with nothing but 6s and 8s in the midfield, and the low-possession style appears to be more pragmatic and situational and not necessarily part of a grand philosophy. As for who's pulling the strings, right now it's Owen Wolff, who is making The Leap this year, which is great to see given he's endured four years of "coach's son" criticism from a number of fans whose Josh Wolff cynicism was palpable last year. While Wolff's struggled in a 10 role before, and all three of this team-leading assists have come off set pieces, he's clearly progressing as a 20-year-old, and he'll be really impressive in two to three years if he keeps progressing at this rate.
Still, though, Verde could use another creative player. Dani Pereira does some things well but he's primarly a ball progressor, and Besard Šabović is rounding out into a does-a-lot-of-things-moderately-well-but-nothing-great player, and his finishing has been atrocious. (Though, of course, he wasn't brought in for his finishing. Others were, though!)