Estevez Urges Austin Fc to Stay Game by Game Before St. Louis
austin fc snapped a seven-match winless run with a 2-0 home win over Houston Dynamo, and Nico Estevez is asking his players to keep the season simple before Sunday’s meeting with St. Louis City SC. Austin now sits 13th in the Western Conference with 10 points from 10 matches, while St. Louis enters in 14th with six points from nine games.
Estevez Sets the Tone
“Well, I think for us, the important thing is to take one game at a time,” Estevez said ahead of the St. Louis match. “And the games at home are really important, as we know.”
He added that Austin must “just go game by game as the points are coming up for us” before the stretch ends ahead of the [World Cup] break. That approach fits the table: Austin has only two wins this season, and both came at Q2 Stadium.
Houston Win Changes the Mood
Jayden Nelson and Myrto Uzuni scored in the first half against Houston, giving Austin the kind of start it had been missing during the skid. Brad Stuver made five saves in the 2-0 result and became the fifth active goalkeeper to reach 700 career MLS regular-season saves, sitting at 704.
The win was Austin’s second of the season and its first multi-goal shutout at home in almost two years. Estevez said after the match, “I give a lot of credit to the players,” and called the stretch “a really tough time for everyone here. Staff, players, everyone.”
St. Louis City Arrives Slipping
St. Louis City SC lost 3-2 to the San Jose Earthquakes in its last match and is on a four-match winless streak. The club has one win, three draws and five losses this season, and Hartel recorded multiple goal contributions in an MLS match for the seventh time in his St. Louis City career against San Jose, setting a club record for such performances.
The matchup also carries recent history. Austin is winless at home against St. Louis City, with one draw and two losses in six meetings overall. For Austin, Sunday is less about chasing anything bigger than the next result and more about turning one home win into a run that finally changes its place in the West.
