The elephant in the room stomped, kicked, and refused to be ignored anymore.

Sebastian Driussi – Austin FC’s star player and scorer of 22 goals during an MVP-caliber 2022 season – hasn’t been good in 2024. Or at least he hasn’t been good enough.

Jader Obrian’s goal in Austin FC’s 1-1 draw on Wednesday against Los Angeles FC gave him six for the season to lead the Verde and Black heading into Saturday night’s contest against the Houston Dynamo at Q2 Stadium – one more than Driussi. Yes, Driussi has missed time with injury, but he’d still played 1,807 MLS minutes this campaign, only 103 fewer than Obrian.

Obrian is a player Austin FC acquired in the 2023 MLS Re-Entry Draft from Texas rivals FC Dallas – the Re-Entry Draft is a draft for players who are out of contract or had their contract options declined by their team. Driussi is a Designated Player (DP). It doesn’t need to be said that more is expected from DPs than players acquired via Re-Entry Drafts.

During Wednesday’s draw (yes, during the match), Driussi – suspended for yellow card accumulation – decided to spend time on the much-maligned social media platform X. He re-posted three posts from Austin FC fans critical of his play. The re-posts have since been deleted, but the optics of this situation aren’t great. Driussi re-posting negative remarks on X while his teammates are fighting to keep Austin FC in the Major League Soccer (MLS) playoff race isn’t going to be seen as a wise use of his time by anyone.

Additionally, by re-posting these posts that would have otherwise gotten lost in the sea of nonsense that is X in 2024, Driussi has shown a spotlight on his underwhelming contributions to Austin FC this season. He put his underperformance on display for comment. And people – both local and national – have unsurprisingly commented.

Saturday night’s 1-0 defeat to the Dynamo leaves Austin FC seven points adrift of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference with four matches to play. Barring a miracle, the Verde and Black aren’t making the 2024 postseason. For everything else that currently ails Austin FC, it isn’t a stretch to conclude that this team would have a much better chance of making the playoffs if its most prominent player had more than seven goal contributions this season (Driussi has two assists to go along with his five goals and its worth noting that two of his goals were penalties).

Against Houston, Driussi responded to the furor created by his Wednesday night social media misadventures with a performance typical of his and Austin FC’s season as a whole: picture the shrug emoji and you’ve basically got it.

“I think he was in good spots to score,” Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff reflected after the match. “I think his energy and the intent in helping us bring attacks to life and arrive in good situations – he’s a big catalyst for all that…I know he would want more goals of course but it’s also part of the requirements of being the most talented on our team and the most recognized. He carries that and it’s part of his responsibility. I’m sure he’s a little bummed by the amount of goals or lack thereof this year,” Wolff added.

Driussi registered four shots worth a cumulative .36 expected goals (xG) against Houston, per fotmob.com. That isn’t exceptional, but on another night it isn’t hard to picture a player with Driussi’s magic finishing touch – he over-performed his expected goals numbers by eight goals in the 2022 season – finding the back of the net on at least one of those chances.

In general, Austin FC can justifiably feel snakebitten only to have one point to show for their performances in their last three matches against Toronto FC, LAFC, and Houston. Over this stretch, per fotmob.com, Austin FC accrued 5.89 xG to their opponents’ 2.84 (Austin FC ‘won’ this xG battle with the Dynamo 1.68 to .92 and outshot Houston 18 to 15).

On Saturday, illustrative of this bad luck were two bicycle-kick attempts – one successful and one unsuccessful – in the closing stages of the second half. In the 80th minute, Austin FC midfielder Alex Ring positioned himself to bicycle-kick a Diego Rubio header into the net and into the memories of everyone in attendance at Q2 Stadium, only for Driussi to run in front of him and clang a headed effort off the crossbar.

Three minutes later, Houston midfielder Coco Carrasquilla attempted and pulled off an audacious bicycle kick from a Dynamo corner for the match’s only goal. Driussi was correct to run in front of Ring – a header is much more likely to cross the goal line than a bicycle kick – but the three-minute sequence involving two players throwing themselves parallel to the ground with the aim of scoring a stunning winner encapsulated the small, cruel margins of this sport.

Ring succinctly summarized soccer’s unforgiving harshness after the match: “That’s what it’s about. Put the ball in the net. That’s what you have to do. If you don’t do that – you don’t win.”

Eric McCoy

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