Austin FC looks to get back on track in Seattle, one of the toughest places to play in MLS

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin FC central defender Leo Väisänen will be out for at least a month following an injury in the season-opener, testing an already-thin roster early in the season.

Head coach Josh Wolff spoke Thursday about the upcoming match Saturday on the road against the Seattle Sounders, saying he’s hoping that last year’s injury woes at center back aren’t making another lap.

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“Every year is going to have some level of adversity, and losing Leo is not something we want to see,” Wolff said. “We have the ability to adapt.”

Wolff said Matt Hedges and Julio Cascante are both healthy and can take over while Väisänen is out, and once new signee Brandon Hines-Ike gets into match shape, he’ll be available. Cascante went down in the first match of the season last year, and he was out for nearly two months with a groin injury. Wolff said Väisänen could be out 6-8 weeks but the club would re-evaluate him after a month.

‘We wasted 45 minutes’: Austin FC’s slow start dooms season opener in 2-1 loss to Minnesota United

On the attacking end, Wolff doesn’t expect captain Sebastian Driussi to be sidelined much longer. His injury is “fairly minor,” Wolff said and he’s questionable for the match against Seattle.

“We don’t expect that it will extend into next week,” Wolff said. “He had a little bit of a workout with us today, and we’ll see about tomorrow and make a decision based on those things.”

His presence makes Austin FC better — there’s no doubt about that — and after the way Austin played in the first half against Minnesota in the season opener, his attacking prowess is certainly needed.

Austin’s history with the Sounders

Austin FC beat Seattle 2-1 on the road last season, and then the Sounders came to town and flipped the script. In six all-time meetings, Seattle leads the series at 3-2-1 and the home team has won once. So maybe the away match is something that Austin needs right now to get back on track, even in front of 32,000 screaming fans at Lumen Field.

“Seattle is not an easy place to go, and we know they’ve been playing the same way successfully there ever since I’ve been in MLS,” midfielder Alex Ring said. “We have to go there and compete our asses off. We’ve grabbed a couple of results in Seattle, so there shouldn’t be excuses.”

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Both Ring and Wolff (and basically everyone else who watched) said the first half of the Minnesota match was dreadful. He said practices this week have been centered around not letting that happen again.

“We as players have to take responsibility there,” he said. “Normal things like competing, playing with confidence and playing a half like that in front of your home fans is inexcusable, especially for the fans. Everyone was bothered by that.”

Seattle lost its opening match on the road to the defending Western Conference champions LAFC 2-1. Saturday’s tilt against Verde is the home opener for the Sounders, and they love playing in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle is 42-16-20 at home over the past five seasons and they’ve won at least seven home matches in all of those. That makes Austin’s win there last season all the more peculiar.

Match time is set for 9:30 p.m. CT and it will be available on AppleTV’s MLS Season Pass.

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