The Day After: Post-Seattle quotes on the offense, defense, and yes, mentality
We asked an Austin FC player about the charge from a former player that the team has a 'soft mentality,' and asked Josh Wolff about the team's anemic offense.
After Austin FC’s 0-0 draw on Saturday night with Seattle Sounders FC, defender Matt Hedges said he hadn’t caught wind of former teammate Will Bruin’s online charge — in the wake of last week’s 2-1 loss to Minnesota United FC — that the team had a “soft mentality.”
But Hedges feels the team’s defensive effort against the perennial powerhouse serves as a rebuttal.
“I think we I think we had a great mentality today,” Hedges asserted. “I don’t have much to say on that, to be honest. I thought getting a shutout here with the defensive performance we put in today, I think that shows our mentality.”
Hedges was instrumental in one of the most dramatic defensive plays of the match, stuffing Jordan Morris in front of goal in the 64th minute to stop what could have been the seemingly inevitable Sounders goal.
He noted, “This is one of the toughest places in the league to come and get a point and a shutout. I'm very proud of the work that we put in tonight.”
The shutout was mostly attributable to bend-but-don’t-break defense, but also owed in part to a few bounces going Austin’s way, with Raul Ruidiaz smashing one would be match-winner off the crossbar in stoppage time to help an again-effective Brad Stuver out.
In one alarming and then amusing sequence late in the match, Jon Gallagher stayed down after challenging a Sounders attacker, and somehow, the ball got recycled back out to the wing, landing on Gallagher’s foot, where he was able to start a counterattack from his prone position. It fizzled out, of course, but at least it gave Stuver and his back line a little more lifeline.
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