'There's a lot of positives': Savoring a shutout road win to kick off Austin FC's playoff push

Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff had praise for multiple players following his team's 2-0 win over Nashville SC on Saturday night.

Doing a quick consult of a thesaurus, the best word to describe Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff following Saturday’s 2-0 match might be jubilant.

After all, his team weathered giving up a penalty kick in just the second minute, pitting one of the league’s best attackers against one of its best goalkeepers. It weathered a strange first half that led to 11 minutes of stoppage time. Verde got to halftime on one of its best-assisted goals of the season, and then sealed the game late with its new marquee designated player scoring his first-ever MLS goal.

Wolff, effusive in his praise for a number of his players, noted, “There's a lot of positives. There's still plenty of things we need to work on, but getting three points on the road, getting a shutout, big marks, big kudos to the players, and hopefully, this keeps moving us up the table and building off what's been a good last six or seven games for us.”

It started with Brad Stuver’s save of Hany Mukhtar’s penalty kick, coming after a Brendan Hines-Ike foul in the box on a streaking Jacob Shaffelburg just 77 seconds into the match. “Brad made a massive save,” Wolff remarked. “I mean, two minutes into it, to have to deal with that … but I thought the guys managed the rest of the game quite well.” Stuver registered seven saves on the night, coming away with his seventh clean sheet of the MLS season.

While Stuver was instrumental in securing a victory that could prove crucial in Austin’s quest for the playoffs, this match may well best be remembered in the season’s narrative for Osman Bukari’s electrifying 84th-minute goal, which is worth watching again (and again) if you haven’t gotten to rewatch it yet.

Osman Bukari finally got to celebrate a goal in Verde (Austin FC/Instagram)