Austin FC offense explodes in dominant win over Portland Timbers

Photo Credit: Scott W. Coleman

There’s truly no place to hide your emotions on the soccer pitch.

When things are going poorly, the frustration is hard to miss. But when the game is clicking and the good vibes are flowing from the players to fans in a brand new stadium primed to explode in a city starved for soccer, the emotions can be hard to contain.

Thursday night was one of those nights.

“I woke up and had a good feeling, and I’m just like ‘F it, we’re going to score tonight,” forward Jon Gallagher said.

Gallagher injured his foot five minutes into the game — he was on crutches when the match ended. But when he watched the ball go into the net for the first MLS goal at Q2 Stadium in the 33rd minute, he couldn’t feel any pain.

“Adrenaline is pretty special,” Gallagher said. “It was a surreal moment that I’ll never forget. It still hasn’t sunk in. I’ve visualized it for the last few weeks. We’ve all wanted to score for a while, but myself in particular. It’s a happy night.”

In the previous two home games — both scoreless draws — Austin FC combined for 37 shots with no goals to show for it. Austin scored just one goal in the seven games before taking the field on Thursday.

Austin FC had 13 shots in the win on Thursday, and it nearly doubled its season total in goals.

“Tonight, everything was right,” Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff said. “(Austin FC Majority Owner) Anthony (Precourt) and (Co-Founder) Eddie (Margain) were in the locker room after the game. In essence, they brought us all here. They built this beautiful stadium and delivered us this fantastic community.”

Tomás Pochettino slipped a pass through to Gallagher in the 28th minute, who poked it in for the first-ever MLS goal in Q2 Stadium.

Less than five minutes later, Julio Cascante headed forward a long ball, and Cecilio Dominguez tipped it forward to Diego Fagundez, who found the far post to double the Austin FC lead and send Q2 Stadium into even more of a frenzy.

Portland got a goal back just before halftime, but Austin did what Wolff has wanted the squad to do all season and kill the game with goals from Alex Ring and Hector Jimenez in the final 15 minutes.

“The fluidity and understanding of what we have was really nice to see,” Wolff said. “We changed tempo a little at the start of the second half. You earthier get the third goal, or it is death by 10,000 passes. It was great to see the guys finish the game off.”

Austin FC opened Q2 Stadium with two straight scoreless draws against the San Jose Earthquakes and Columbus Crew, with a disappointing 3-0 loss at Minnesota United FC in between.

LAFC comes to Q2 Stadium on July 7, and Austin FC hosts Mexican league stalwarts Tigres in a friendly on July 13.

“The team can play really well,” Gallagher said. “Now that we know we can score goals and that amount of goals in a game against a team like Portland, it’s going to give a lot of confidence going forward.”