Austin FC a little thin as camp opens
Full roster or not, MLS training camp is here for Austin FC.
With only 15 senior team players in town for the first week of the season, Austin FC coach Josh Wolff said Thursday in the club's first press conference of the year that it is making do with what it has and utilizing seven Austin FC II players for training camp as it continues to form its roster.
“We're thin on numbers, there's no doubt about it,” Wolff said. “In order to put together 11 vs. 11 in training, there's just a need for bodies. … We do need to get players here, but (sporting director Rodolfo Borrell) will do it in a responsible way.”
It was a somewhat quiet offseason for Austin FC, with the most notable signing being Brazilian outside back Guilherme Biro — though the club did also select winger Jáder Obrian from Dallas with the No. 1 pick in the re-entry draft — who will likely be the main backup to Zan Kolmanic and Jon Gallagher.
The biggest news was arguably defensive midfielder Alex Ring and his large salary returning, which was automatically triggered by a clause in his contract after he met specific benchmarks last year.
Ring has largely been excellent for the club while spending a lot of time playing on the back line instead of his preferred spot in the midfield, but he turns 33 in April and this may be his last year of being a high-impact player.
Wolff hinted that the club is still somewhat limited in space under the salary cap — which would mainly be due to the large salaries of Gyasi Zardes, Matt Hedges and Julio Cascante in addition to the designated player salaries of Ring, Emiliano Rigoni and Sebastían Driussi — but the team cleared well over $1.5 million in space by not bringing back Maxi Urruti, Will Bruin, Adam Lundkvist and Rodney Redes, and it seems to have been stacking salary cap space since Borrell took over.
It would be stunning — and, really, unconscionable — if the club didn't sign at least one forward and another outside back in the next few weeks.
Wolff spoke in generalities about further action and referenced those decisions would be made by Borrell, but Zardes, the team's lone forward currently on the roster, was a big disappointment a year ago and the international transfer window for most leagues closes Feb. 1.
And with Driussi getting his green card the club has an additional international player roster spot to use.
O Captain! My Captain?
Perhaps the biggest news coming out of Thursday was Wolff not definitively stating that Driussi would be the captain this season.
This isn't a huge surprise, as Driussi doesn't really enjoy dealing with the media and it was an odd situation with him being announced captain a year ago with Ring, the club's captain the first two years, still on the roster.
Driussi did meet with the media Thursday, but he largely wasn't made available the latter half of last season during the team's struggles, which is usually when captains need to be the face of the franchise.
It's not necessarily a knock on Driussi if he isn't captain again. Facing the media two or three times a week for nine months can take a toll, and the club may be better off if he just concentrates on being one of the top-five players in the MLS.
Goalkeeper Brad Stuver would be the logical option to be captain, and a return to Ring could theoretically be possible — though that seems slim as he refused to meet with the media all of 2023.
Goalies galore
One thing to keep an eye on is what Austin FC does with goalie Damian Las.
El Tree currently has four goalies on the roster after bringing on veteran Stefan Cleveland in December to go along with Stuver and backup Matt Bersano, and it would be rare for a team to have four goalies under contract.
Las, the reigning MLS Next Pro goalkeeper of the year, is the team's most valuable asset and could be traded for a big haul or sold to teams in Europe for a sizeable fee.
Players in shape
Wolff noted he's pleased with the fitness level the players came into camp at.
It's a difference from a year ago when he called out former players Diego Fagúndez and Jhohan Romana and current midfielder CJ Fodrey for being out of shape.
Wolff praised Fodrey for his fitness level Thursday and noted all the players who dealt with injuries last season are fully recovered.