Who remembers the name Philip Mayaka?

The Kenyan-born former Clemson Tiger midfielder was supposed Austin FC’s first-ever draft pick in the 2021 MLS SuperDraft. Austin FC had the number one pick, and there was no debate: Mayaka was who they should select.

This decision was like telling your host or hostess you’d like to sit inside and not out on an August afternoon in Austin. If the Verde Store had existed in January 2021, it could have just gone ahead and hung up a bunch of freshly-minted green and black jerseys with Mayaka’s name slapped on the back.

The “clearest number one choice since Cyle Larin” in 2015 was mlssoccer.com writer Matt Doyle’s assessment of Mayaka. Larin recently signed for La Liga club Real Valladolid and features regularly for Canada’s very good men’s national team. Mayaka? After Austin FC shockingly passed on making him the number one pick, he fell to the Colorado Rapids at number three, never played for them, and is now with Crown Legacy – Charlotte FC’s MLS Next Pro team.

Austin FC made a surprising choice by using their number one pick on Virginia Tech’s Dani Pereira, but they made a good one. While Mayaka is still struggling to ignite his career, Pereira, now in his third MLS season, has established himself as one of the league’s most reliable midfielders.

Scratch that – ‘reliable’ is too boring a word to attach to Pereira. Sure, Pereira is reliable, but ‘reliable’ is how you describe your internet service or your dishwasher when they’re performing the functions expected of them. Pereira excels at defying expectations.

After Pereira’s solid debut campaign with Austin FC in 2021 playing in central midfield with Alex Ring, the Verde and Black signed Jhojan Valencia, who was fresh off of winning a league title in Colombia with Deportivo Cali. The move to sign Valencia – a proven league winner from South America – seemed to be the club saying to Pereira: “Nice job in year one, kid, but the grown-ups will take over from here.” Except that’s not what ended up happening.

Pereira started Austin FC’s first match of the 2022 season and played well. The same thing happened in the season’s second match. And then in the third, the fourth…you get the idea. It took a red card against Real Salt Lake in Austin FC’s eleventh match of their MLS campaign for Pereira to finally miss a match due to the ensuing suspension (avoiding the watchful eyes of MLS officials was a problem for Pereira last season). In Austin FC’s first match following Pereira’s suspension, the Venezuelan was right back in Josh Wolff’s starting eleven.

Simply refusing to relinquish his starting midfield spot, Pereira became integral to how Austin FC advanced the ball forward. Last season, no Austin FC player who played at least 1,000 minutes completed more progressive passes per 90 minutes than Pereira (all stats per fbref.com. Visit this link for a description of how fbref.com defines progressive passes and progressive carries). In addition to the 6.08 progressive passes per 90 Pereira completed in 2022, he also completed 5.56 passes per 90 into the final third – the most on Austin FC. When it came to moving the ball from Austin FC’s defensive half into the attacking third there was no one better than Pereira.

This season, Pereira’s ability to spot a pass remains intact. Only Alex Ring on Austin FC has played more progressive passes per 90 and only Ring and Julio Cascante have played more passes into the final third per 90. Where Pereira has improved in 2023 is in his ability to carry the ball forward all on his own. You can close your eyes and picture it: Pereira receives a forward pass from an Austin FC center-back, a pair of bloodthirsty opposition midfielders lurk in front of him waiting for the slightest misstep, but nope – a drop of the shoulder, a twist of the hip, and Pereira glides right by them, surging ahead into the attacking half of the field.

Dribbling the ball upfield has been a part of Pereira’s game since arriving in Austin, but in 2023 he’s ascended to another level. In 2021, Pereira completed 1.62 progressive carries per 90, and last season he completed 1.42. Thus far in 2023, Pereira has completed 2.05 progressive carries per 90. Opposing defenders don’t know whether to lunge in with a tackle to try and stop Pereira’s slippery dribbling or to sit back and pray they’re sufficiently clogging potential passing lanes.

When Pereira is directly compared to the man who was supposed to supplant him as a starter, his ball-progression wizardry is even more impressive. If Pereira is a sleek, dependable Lexus, guaranteed to get Austin FC to its required destination then Valencia is an Uber request in a remote part of town at 4 in the morning – don’t expect to get anywhere anytime soon.

Valencia seldom dribbles the ball forward (he’s completing just .23 progressive carries per 90) and is completing nearly two fewer progressive passes per 90 than Pereira. The Colombian wasn’t acquired by Austin FC for his sparkling ability on the ball. He had a reputation for being a midfield destroyer in his native country. And though Valencia has performed his defensive duties well enough (not noticeably better than Pereira performs his, it’s worth mentioning), Austin FC’s attack can look stuck in quicksand when he fills in for his Venezuelan counterpart.

Doubt Pereira at your peril. Whether it was MLS draft experts wooed by the potential of Mayaka or Austin FC season preview writers ahead of the 2022 season penciling in Valencia’s name as Wolff’s preferred starting central midfielder, Pereira has defied the humble expectations placed on him. You’re much more likely to underestimate Pereira than you are to stop him breezing by you on a soccer field.

Eric McCoy

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