The 2021 Austin FC season was the club's inaugural season in

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

, the top flight of soccer in the United States. This was also the first season a top-tier sports franchise is playing in the

Greater Austin The Austin–Round Rock–San Marcos metropolitan statistical area (or Greater Austin) is a five-county metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Texas, as defined by the Office of Management and Budget. The metropolitan area is situated in Ce ...

region. Due to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the season began on April 17, 2021, about a month and a half later than normal, and concluded on November 7, 2021. Outside of MLS, Austin FC would have competed in the

2021 U.S. Open Cup The 2021 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup was planned to be the 107th edition of the U.S. Open Cup, a knockout cup competition in American soccer. After the 2020 competition was suspended and ultimately canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the United ...

, but that competition was postponed indefinitely in April before being canceled in July. Austin FC won their first match in Commerce City, CO against the

Colorado Rapids The Colorado Rapids are an American professional soccer club based in the Denver metropolitan area. The Rapids compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. Founded in 1995, as part of the Anschutz Corporation, la ...

3-1, where midfielder

Diego Fagundez Diego is a Spanish masculine given name. The Portuguese equivalent is Diogo. The name also has several patronymic derivations, listed below. The etymology of Diego is disputed, with two major origin hypotheses: ''Tiago'' and ''Didacus''. E ...

scored the club's first ever goal. They played their first game in Austin in front of 20,738 fans, a 0-0 draw against the

San Jose Earthquakes The San Jose Earthquakes are an American professional soccer team based in San Jose, California. The Earthquakes compete as a member club of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). Originally as the San Jose Clash, the franchise ...

. They won their first home game against the

Portland Timbers The Portland Timbers are an American professional men's soccer club based in Portland, Oregon. The Timbers compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The Timbers have played their home games at P ...

4-1, a match which Austin FC winger

Jon Gallagher Jon Gallagher (born 23 February 1996) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a forward for Major League Soccer club Austin FC. He can also play as a right-back or midfielder. Early life Born in Dundalk in Ireland, growing up Gall ...

scored the first ever MLS goal at

Q2 Stadium The Q2 Stadium is a soccer-specific stadium located in the North Burnet section of North Austin, Texas, United States. It is the home of Austin FC, a Major League Soccer (MLS) team that began play in 2021. The stadium hosted its first event on J ...

. Austin FC struggled in their inaugural campaign despite selling out all their home games. They finished 12th in the Western Conference with 9 wins, 4 draws, and 21 losses.

Alexander Ring Alexander Michael Ring (born 9 April 1991) is a Finnish professional footballer who captains and plays as an midfielder for Major League Soccer club Austin FC. Club career Early career He moved to Bonn with his family when aged three, and grew ...

served as captain, and both Cecilio Dominguez and

led the club with 7 goals.

Background

Season

8 Games on the Road - April / May / June

Due to

not being finished, Austin FC played their first 8 matches in club history all on the road. They lost their first match 2-0 against LAFC, but rallied to win their next 2 matches against the

and

Minnesota United FC Minnesota United FC is an American professional soccer club based in Saint Paul, Minnesota that plays in the Western Conference of Major League Soccer. The club began play in 2017 as the league's 22nd club, and replaced the North American Socc ...

3-1 and 1-0 respectively. Midfielder

scored the club's first goal in the 59th minute in Colorado, a match where Cecilio Dominguez notched the first brace in club history. Austin FC struggled after the win in Minnesota, scoring only 2 goals (both on road games in

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

) and gained 4 points - all draws - over their next 8 matches. They had scoring droughts of 389 minutes between May 9 and June 12, and 364 minutes between June 12 and July 1.

First games in Austin - June / July

Austin played their first home match on June 19, a 0-0 draw against the

in front of a sellout crowd of 20,738. After a quick 2-0 loss in Minnesota, the club was home for their next 6 matches.

scored the first ever goal in Q2 Stadium in Austin's first home win, a 4-1 drubbing of the eventual Western Conference champion

. After losing 3 consecutive home games, they won their first ever

Copa Tejas Copa Tejas is the two cup competitions and one shield between the Major League Soccer, USL Championship and NWSL teams of the state of Texas, awarded by independent supporters groups of the state's teams. It was initially founded in 2019 by su ...

competition, a 3-2 win against the

Dynamo file:DynamoElectricMachinesEndViewPartlySection USP284110.png, "Dynamo Electric Machine" (end view, partly section, ) A dynamo is an electrical generator that creates direct current using a commutator (electric), commutator. Dynamos were the f ...

where

Tomás Pochettino Tomás Pochettino (born 1 February 1996) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Fortaleza in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A. Club career Boca Juniors On 8 November 2015, Pochettino made his first team debu ...

scored his first MLS brace. Austin FC also played their first ever international friendly, a 3-1 loss in Austin against

Liga MX The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year. The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in a ...

side

Tigres UANL Club de Fútbol Tigres de la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, simply known as Tigres UANL or Tigres, is a Mexican professional football club based in San Nicolás de los Garza, a city in the Monterrey metropolitan area, Nuevo León. Foun ...

on July 13.

Reinforcements and Further Struggles - August / September

Through the club's first 16 games, Austin only scored 13 goals. To kickstart their offense, they paid $1.65 million to sign Moussa Djitte from

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

and $7 million to sign Argentinian forward Sebastian Driussi from

Zenit Saint Petersburg Football Club Zenit (russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб «Зенит» ), also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg or simply Zenit, is a Russian professional football club based in Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1925 (or in 1914, acco ...

of the

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...

. Driussi made his debut August 7 and scored his first goal in a 3-1 win against Portland on August 21. Despite nearly doubling their offensive output scoring 12 goals over a 7 game stretch, Austin had 1 win and 8 losses over 9 competitions from August 7 to September 18 following Driussi's debut.

End of the Inaugural Season - October

While only having 19 points through 25 matches, Austin FC was still technically in the playoff race come October. On September 26, homegrown player McKinze Gaines became the first Austinite to score a goal for the club in a 2-0 upset win against the

LA Galaxy LA Galaxy, also known as the Los Angeles Galaxy, are an American professional soccer club based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Galaxy competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), as a member of the Western Conference. The club began pl ...

. Even though they won 4 of their last 5 home matches, their lone loss against Minnesota eliminated them from postseason play on October 16. Despite the loss, Austin FC still had 2 more Copa Tejas matches. They defeated the Dynamo 2-1 on October 24 and could have secured the Cup with a win in Frisco against

FC Dallas FC Dallas is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The club competes as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference in Major League Soccer (MLS). The franchise be ...

. However, they lost the contest 2-1, conceding the Cup winning goal to

Franco Jara Franco Daniel Jara (born 15 July 1988) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward. Club career Born in Villa María, Córdoba, Jara made his professional debut with Arsenal de Sarandí, first appearing in the Primera Divi ...

in the 80th minute. Austin won their last home game of the season against

Sporting Kansas City Sporting Kansas City, often shortened to Sporting KC, is an American men's professional Association football, soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The administrative offices are located in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and t ...

where Sebastian Driussi scored 30 seconds into the match, the fastest goal in the club's short history. Austin FC ended their inaugural season on November 7, a 3-0 loss to the Timbers in Portland.

tied for the team lead in both goals with Cecilio Dominguez (7) and assists with Sebastian Driussi (5). He was selected as the team's offensive player of the year, while GK

Brad Stuver Bradley Stuver (born April 16, 1991) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a goalkeeper for Major League Soccer club Austin FC. Youth and college Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Stuver attended Twinsburg High School in Twinsburg, ...

was selected as the team's defensive player of the year, respectively. Stuver led the MLS with 134 saves in 2021.

Management team

Roster

''.''

Transfers

In

Loan In

Out

Loan out

MLS SuperDraft picks

Non-competitive fixtures

Preseason

Midseason

Competitive fixtures

Major League Soccer regular season

Standings

= Western Conference

=Overall

Matches

U.S. Open Cup

The first three games of the 2021 MLS season were originally going to serve as the qualification for MLS teams to the 2021 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. After these games were played, U.S. Soccer canceled the 2021 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Qualification

Statistics

Appearances and goals

''Numbers after plus–sign (+) denote appearances as a substitute.''

Top scorers

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Cecilio Domínguez Cecilio Andrés Domínguez Ruiz (born 11 August 1994) is a Paraguayan professional footballer who plays as a winger for Liga MX club Santos Laguna and the Paraguay national team. Club career Sol de América Born in Asunción, Domínguez was ...

, 7 , 0 , 7 , - , 3 , FW , 25 , align="left",

Sebastián Driussi Sebastián Driussi (; born 9 February 1996) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Major League Soccer club Austin FC. Club career River Plate On 2 December 2013, Driussi made his debut for River Pla ...

, 5 , 0 , 5 , - , 4 , MF , 8 , align="left",

, 4 , 0 , 4 , - , 5 , FW , 17 , align="left",

, 3 , 0 , 3 , - , rowspan=2, 6 , MF , 7 , align="left",

, 2 , 0 , 2 , - , DF , 18 , align="left",

Julio Cascante Julio César Cascante Solórzano (born 3 October 1993) is a Costa Rican professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Major League Soccer club Austin FC. Career Following a career in his native Costa Rica with Orión, Universidad de Co ...

, 2 , 0 , 2 , - , rowspan=4, 8 , DF , 16 , align="left", Hector Jiménez , 1 , 0 , 1 , - , - , FW , 18 , align="left",

Moussa Djitté Moussa Kalilou Djitté (born 4 October 1999) is a Senegalese professional footballer who plays as a forward for the Major League Soccer club Austin FC. Professional career On 21 June 2018, Djitté transferred from the Senegalese club ASC Niarr ...

, 1 , 0 , 1 , - , - , FW , 18 , align="left", McKinze Gaines , 1 , 0 , 1 , - , FW , 20 , align="left", Jared Stroud , 1 , 0 , 1 , - !colspan="4", Total ! 34 ! 0 ! 34

Top assists

{, class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%; text-align: center;" , - !width=30, Rank !width=30, Position !width=30, Number !width=175, Name !width=75, !width=75, !width=75, !width=75, Total , - , rowspan=2, 1 , FW , 25 , align="left", Sebastian Driussi , 5 , 0 , 0 , 5 , - , MF , 14 , align="left",

, 5 , 0 , 0 , 5 , - , rowspan=3, 3 , MF , 10 , align="left",

, 4 , 0 , 0 , 4 , - , DF , 11 , align="left", Žan Kolmanič , 4 , 0 , 0 , 4 , - , MF , 20 , align="left", Jared Stroud , 4 , 0 , 0 , 4 , - , 6 , DF , 24 , align="left",

Nick Lima Nicholas Lima (born November 17, 1994) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a defender for Major League Soccer club New England Revolution. Career College and amateur Lima played four years of college soccer at the Universit ...

, 3 , 0 , 0 , 3 , - , rowspan=4, 7 , DF , 18 , align="left",

, 2 , 0 , 0 , 2 , - , MF , 16 , align="left", Hector Jimenez , 2 , 0 , 0 , 2 , - , MF , 7 , align="left",

, 2 , 0 , 0 , 2 , - , MF , 8 , align="left",

, 2 , 0 , 0 , 2 , - , rowspan=5, 11 , MF , 6 , align="left", Sebastian Berhalter , 1 , 0 , 0 , 2 , - , FW , 17 , align="left",

, 1 , 0 , 0 , 1 , - , FW , 9 , align="left",

Danny Hoesen Daniel "Danny" Hoesen (born 15 January 1991) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a forward. Club career Fortuna Sittard After short stints at local amateur clubs Hoesen enrolled in the Fortuna Sittard youth academy. He was promote ...

, 1 , 0 , 0 , 1 , - , MF , 15 , align="left", Daniel Pereira , 1 , 0 , 0 , 1 , - , FW , 11 , align="left", Rodney Redes , 1 , 0 , 0 , 1 , - !colspan="4", Total !37 !0 !0 !37

Disciplinary record

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, 3, , 1, , 1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 3, , 1, , 1 , - , 8 , MF , align="left",

, 5, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 5, , 0, , 0 , - , 3 , DF , align="left", Jhohan Romaña , 5, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 5, , 0, , 0 , - , 20 , MF , align="left", Jared Stroud , 5, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 5, , 0, , 0 , - , 18 , DF , align="left",

, 4, , 0, , 1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 4, , 0, , 1 , - , 21 , DF , align="left", Žan Kolmanič , 4, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 4, , 0, , 0 , - , 24 , DF , align="left",

, 4, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 4, , 0, , 0 , - , 10 , MF , align="left", Cecilio Dominguez , 3, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 3, , 0, , 0 , - , 7 , MF , align="left",

, 3, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 3, , 0, , 0 , - , 6 , MF , align="left", Sebastian Berhalter , 3, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 3, , 0, , 0 , - , 5 , DF , align="left",

Matt Besler Matthew Scott "Matt" Besler (; born February 11, 1987) is an American former professional soccer player. A left-sided central defender with the ability to play left-back. Besler spent the majority of his career in MLS with Sporting Kansas City ...

, 2, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 2, , 0, , 0 , - , 25 , FW , align="left",

, 2, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 2, , 0, , 0 , - , 16 , MF , align="left", Hector Jiménez , 2, , 0, , 1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 2, , 0, , 1 , - , 41 , GK , align="left",

, 2, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 2, , 0, , 0 , - , 27 , FW , align="left", McKinze Gaines , 1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 1, , 0, , 0 , - , 19 , DF , align="left", Freddy Kleemann , 1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 1, , 0, , 0 , - , 4 , DF , align="left",

Aedan Stanley Aedan Stanley (born December 13, 1999) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a defender for Indy Eleven in the USL Championship. Born in Columbia, Illinois, Stanley began his career with St. Louis Scott Gallagher before sta ...

, 1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 1, , 0, , 0 , - , 21 , DF , align="left",

, 1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 1, , 0, , 0 , - , colspan="3", Total, , 58, , 1, , 3, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 58, , 1, , 3

Clean sheets

{, class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: 95%; text-align: center;" , - !width=30, Rank !width=30, Number !width=175, Name !width=75, !width=75, !width=75, !width=75, Total , - , 1 , 41 , align="left",

, 5 , 0 , 0 , 5 , -

End-of-season awards

{, class="wikitable" , - style="background:#cccccc;" !Award !Winner !Ref , - , - , Defender of the Year ,

, style="text-align: center;", , - , Offensive Player of the Year ,

, style="text-align: center;", , -

Notes

References

{{2021 in American soccer

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Austin Fc Austin FC is an American professional soccer club based in Austin, Texas. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. Founded in 2018, the club began play in the 2021 season. Their home stadium is Q2 ...