Clinching a playoff spot for just the second time in club history wasn’t supposed to feel this way.
“I think it’s [been] a horrible week for us. Horrible,” Austin FC head coach Nico Estévez said following a dismal loss to already-eliminated St. Louis City SC at home over the weekend.
The defeat capped off a nightmarish eight-day stretch for the Verde and Black during which the club suffered heartbreak in the 2025 U.S. Open Cup final – losing 2-1 to Nashville SC on Oct. 1 – bookended by a pair of 3-1 MLS defeats against Real Salt Lake and St. Louis on consecutive Saturday nights.
“You cannot know how we feel. We feel really bad,” Estévez said.
That was around 10pm on Saturday. Elsewhere, in the ensuing hours, losses to the Colorado Rapids and San Jose Earthquakes meant that Austin FC was mathematically guaranteed to finish ninth or better in the Western Conference standings by the end of the season. Boom, playoffs clinched. A much needed morale raiser? Or a hollow consolation after a miserable stretch?
The final two weeks of the season will decide. ATXFC still has some work left to do to avoid the treacherous play-in game contested between the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds, in which the prize for the winner is a first-round series against the West’s top team (which is still very much in the balance). Escaping that predicament is now the club’s primary goal through the remainder of the regular season.
By the time the club kicks off match No. 33 of 34 Sunday evening at Q2 Stadium, it will know whether a win or merely a draw will be enough to lock up a spot in the top-seven. And should the club drop a fourth straight match, a last-ditch opportunity awaits on Decision Day, when ATX travels to San Jose to wrap up the regular season.
But there’s more on the line than seeding in these final two games. Austin FC has been an extraordinarily streaky team all season, from failing to win in MLS play throughout the month of May to a stretch of four wins in five games prior to the start of this most recent skid. It’s imperative for the club to recover some momentum and confidence before diving head-first into the playoff gauntlet.
“We want to give the fans a win and also celebrate the clinch of the playoffs,” Estévez said. “We’ve already shown that we can beat LAFC this year, and then we just have to prepare really well [for] this game, in order that we can be here with our fans and have a night that we all remember.”
It’s been a shaky run for internationally renowned coach Mauricio Pochettino since taking the reins 13 months ago, but he arguably has his most talented roster of players yet assembled for this camp.
Established stars Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, and Chris Richards are joined by rising impact players Alejandro Zendejas, Malik Tillman, and Diego Luna to take on an Ecuador team which has been one of the biggest success stories of World Cup qualifying.
La Tri finished second in South American qualifying – behind only Argentina and ahead of Colombia, Uruguay, and Brazil – behind impeccable defense. Ecuador conceded just five goals across all 18 of its qualifiers.
This article appears in October 10 • 2025.
Austin FC Clinches Playoffs Despite “Horrible” Stretch
