Austin FC is out to show that its successful campaign last season was no fluke when it opens the 2023 campaign against expansion St. Louis City on Saturday in Austin, Texas.
Saturday’s match is the first in regular-season history for St. Louis City, while Austin begins its third campaign in MLS after debuting in 2021.
Austin produced 16 wins and 56 points in 2022, when it finished second in the West and rolled to a berth in the Western Conference finals. It recorded a 25-point improvement over its 2021 performance, which is tied for the league record by a second-year expansion team but will have to prove that its free-wheeling, attacking style can translate to long-term success.
Austin FC added experience to a squad that scored the third most goals in the league last year by signing veteran strikers Will Bruin and Gyasi Zardes. That duo will join Sebastian Driussi (who was runner-up for last year’s league MVP), Diego Fagundez, Emiliano Rigoni, Maxi Urruti and in the potent attack.
Finnish defender Leo Vaisanen is Austin’s key offseason addition to the back line.
“You have to be pushing yourself every day to be as good or better (than) you were last year,” Austin goalkeeper Brad Stuver said. “And I think that’s what’s so great about our group is that everyone is so focused on getting better than what they were last year.”
St. Louis has made some waves in advance of its franchise opener, signing longtime Borussia Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Burki to start in goal and naming him its inaugural captain.
Joao Klauss also was imported from Germany, with veteran defender Tim Parker obtained in the expansion draft from Houston to bolster the back line, along with South African Njabulo Blom and Eduard Lowen, who also established himself in the Bundesliga.
Unlike many expansion teams, St. Louis has had coach Bradley Carnell in the fold for a year before the inaugural season, allowing him to ingrain the team’s model to almost half of the current roster.
“I prefer a structure and the long term,” Carnell said. “When I was presented this opportunity to build this team from the ground up, that speaks so closely to me as a person and coach. To me, it was a no-brainer.”
–Field Level Media
