Josh Wolff Needs To Lose His Job

I’m angry. You should be too.

Last night, at a time on a Sunday evening / Monday morning that no sane human should be at a soccer match, there we were at Q2 Stadium watching Austin FC blow a 3-1 lead and losing any final hope of making the playoffs.  For the first 75 minutes, the boys in Verde were clearly the better team on the pitch.  But something changed after Emiliano Rigoni’s rocket hit the back of the North End net.

For 75 minutes, Josh Wolff pushed all of the right buttons.  Jhojan Valencia a monster in the midfield, allowing Dani Pereira and Alex Ring to play more freely and create space for the attack.  The aforementioned Rigoni had arguably his best game wearing our crest and may be a real option at striker moving forward.  The team looked like the creative, free flowing Austin FC of last year.  And then the final 15+ minutes happened.

Friends, I don’t have a way to sugarcoat this.  Josh Wolff’s substitutions cost this team a victory last night and with it, the season.  Let’s look at each one after the Rigoni goal.

Available Bench Players

Rodney Redes, Damian Las, Owen Wolff, Hector Jimenez, CJ Fodrey, Brandon Craig, Will Bruin, Memo Rodriguez, Maxi Urruti

76’ Owen Wolff for Jhojan Valencia
In a vacuum, this makes no sense.  Valencia was a rock in the defensive midfield and Owen is a player who defense can be optional for at times.  The elder Wolff said postgame that Valencia asked to be subbed out due to cramping.  Ring dropped back to a familiar CDM role with this sub while Owen took his spot higher up the pitch. Ultimately, this is not a horrible sub given the situation, though Owen’s defensive deficiencies are always going to be a liability until he improves in that area.

85’ Memo Rodriguez for Ethan Finlay & Maxi Urruti for Sebastian Driussi
Honestly, no major issues with either of these subs.  Memo was fine and even created a great scoring chance.  Maxi was the only real option for Driussi after the captain went down with an injury, so dropping Rigoni to the CAM role and putting Maxi at striker made sense, though I would have preferred for us to eschew the attack and instead focus on shoring up the defense more at this point.

89’ Goal Galaxy.  The game is now 3-2 after a header in the box.

90’ Rodney Redes for Dani Pereira
Here’s where you completely lose me.  Dani apparently asked to be subbed off, but in what world is Rodney Redes the replacement for a central midfielder when you are trying to hang on to a 3-2 lead?!  THIS MAKES ABSOLUTELY ZERO FUCKING SENSE!!!

If you’re taking Dani off the pitch and looking at the bench players available, there’s exactly one logical move to make.  Brandon Craig, the CB loanee from Philadelphia, needed to be the sub while the squad shifted to a back 5 to secure the game.  Need evidence of this strategy working?  Look no further than last year’s 2-1 victory at LAFC where Josh Wolff subbed on a little used Kipp Keller and moved to a back 5 to lock down a road result.  It was just Keller’s 4^th appearance of the season at that point and it turned out to be a move that stifled LAFC’s attack over the last 15 minutes.

No, I don’t care that Brandon Craig has yet to see the field for Austin.  Which, while we’re on this topic, the following question needs to be seriously asked of the front office and Josh Wolff:

Why did you bring Craig in on a loan if you clearly have no intention of playing him?

Yes, I know we give up some GAM if Craig plays.  But if your stated purpose is to make the playoffs, then fuck the GAM and play the natural center-back.  He is, unequivocally, a more logical substitution in the 90^th minute to help close out a game than Rodney Redes, especially when L.A.’s attack was crashing the box.  Guess what Josh?  Redes offers no help defensively in the middle!!!

Last night was simply piss-poor game management by a man that looks lost on a weekly basis.  And the problem is, this isn’t a one-off.  Austin FC have dropped points 7 times this season after entering the 75^th minute either tied or in the lead.

Score at 75’	Result	Points Dropped
2-1 vs St. Louis CITY	3-2 loss	3
1-0 vs Colorado	1-1 draw	2
0-0 vs FC Dallas	1-0 loss	1
1-1 @ Houston	2-1 loss	1
0-0 @ FC Dallas	1-0 loss	1
1-1 vs Seattle	2-1 loss	1
3-1 vs LAG	3-3 draw	2

Folks, that is 11 points that Austin has missed out on by letting goals in after the 75^th minute.  9 of those points were lost at Q2 Stadium, our supposed “fortress”.  Quite simply, that is unacceptable.

If you remember, I pointed out back in June that this team has severely regressed since the LAFC win last August.  We now have over a year of results since that game and all data points to two conclusions:

1. This roster needs a serious makeover in the off-season
2. Josh Wolff needs to fucking go.  And it needs to be now.

This club says it wants to be ambitious and compete for trophies.  If that’s the case, then we need Rodo and Precourt to prove it.  A CCL crash out to Violette, blowing a dream U.S. Open Cup draw, a Leagues Cup dud, and missing the MLS playoffs has to have consequences.  No more excuses.  Put your big boy huggies on, call Wolff while he’s shopping at HEB today, and get his ass out of Austin.

#WOLFFOUT