Austin FC Falters Late, Again, Falls to Seattle

For the second match in a row, Austin FC yielded a late goal to lose.  This week it was Albert Rusnak who collected a poorly cleared ball to score in the 90th minute and give the Seattle Sounder FC a 2-to-1 victory. 

The same occurred four day earlier when Dallas collected a goal in the last 10 seconds of stoppage time to earn a 1-to-0 win. 

Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff was visibly nervous as he faced a friendly post-match media group, unable quiet his hands and often shifting his body position. 

“It’s a cruel game and we’re on the wrong side of it,” said Wolff.    “Right now, we’re losing the battle in the boxes.  We aren’t doing enough, we’re not clean enough, we’re not efficient, and we’re not ruthless in the box.” 

Jordan Morris opened the scoring in the 48th minute, tapping Nico Lodeiro’s free kick pass goalkeeper Brad Stuver.  

Emilian Rigoni appeared to tie the contest in the 56th minute, but play was not stopped and the video assistant referee never instructed head referee Drew Fischer to review the play. 

The decision not to review the play was questionable because from some replay angles the ball appeared to cross the goal line, while others weren’t as clear.  Post-match the officiating crew said it was “not a clear and obvious error to not award a goal.”

Austin found the equalizing goal in the 72th minute off the foot of Sebastian Driussi, assisted by Gyasi Zardes and Memo Rodriguez. 

Match momentum clearly swung in the Sounders’ favor, resulting in Rusnack’s unassisted goal.