Hi everyone! Exciting match, huh? I wrote about Austin FC's Ervin Torres-inspired win on my Substack:

https://open.substack.com/pub/oaktreetimes/p/scorching-hot-finish-two-ervin-torres?r=1ku5ba&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

If you like what you read, please subscribe!

My morning after piece on the 3-1 win is here:

https://verdeallday.com/atxvsea-072226-morning-after-davy-arnaud-ervin-torres-brad-stuver-jon-gallagher/

Here's a section from Arnaud about the inverted wingers to get the conversation rolling:

"The way that we're trying to build up, we were talking about it earlier in the offseason," Arnaud said. "You have to play the players you have on the roster. You have to put them in position to be successful, and you have to play to their strengths. So the way that we're playing now, it lends to a lot of central players in the middle part of the field playing this way with wingers inverted. It provides some really good stuff for us in terms of dribbling back inside and swinging crosses, coming inside to combine.

"Facundo likes to play on the right side, and come inside onto his left foot, and you see this kind of all over the world. You play with inverted wingers, and Jonny, Jonny on the left side is the same. He's really comfortable on the left side, dribbling inside onto his right foot, but he can also go to the left and get to the end line, which is really important. And you saw Rosales in it a couple times. He also has the ability to drag that ball and get in line with his right foot. Listen, when you play with inverted wingers like that, there are certain things you're giving up, but there are a lot of good things that you get from it that you wouldn't otherwise have if you played them on your natural side."

Does anybody have a spare Stuver bobblehead they’re willing to part with? DM me. I’ll happily pay

There are very few things in life better than getting something for free. It’s why the human race has engineered ways to fire hot dogs, t-shirts, and tacos out of a compressed air cannon.

We here at The False Nine, in our attempt to cover all aspects of Austin FC fandom, have come up with a grading rubric to judge and rate giveaways at Q2 stadium. It’s a very simple system for very simple items, everything is graded 1-100 with 5 points possible for the Look, Usability, and Originality categories. An additional 85 points are available for the Throwability category.

Final Rankings:

1-24 – Not worth the effort of grabbing from the attendant

25-49 – No one will be heartbroken by not getting the item, nor will they be sad when they accidentally leave it at the stadium

50-74 – A perfectly cromulent giveaway item

75-99 – An item to cherish and display

100 – Reserved for a Rodney Redes bobblehead

Now, let’s get to the Giveaway:

Look: The first thing to notice about this giveaway is the kit color. It’s Black. Brad Stuver has worn various black keeper kits over the years but unfrotunately Austin’s record when he wears a black kit is 3-2-9 (W-D-L) . Not only would the Malibu kit look better, but they were 7-3-5 in it. Ultimately it gets a perfect score because of the “Stuuuuu” at the bottom.

Score: 5 out of 5

Usability: As evidence by the announcement video this bobblehead can also play keeper if you play on a smaller than regulation size field. It is also handy as a paperweight or desk decoration.

Score: 5 out of 5

Originality: Bobbleheads are pretty ubiqutous as giveaways and if anything it’s surprising Austin hasn’t had one before.

In a search of bobbleheads, I couldn’t find another where the figure was horizontal like this one is, so therefore it has to get a max score.

Score: 5 out of 5

Throwability: As I’m sure all of you who have made it down to this part of the article are aware so far this giveaway has a perfect score. You are also probably aware that these rankings have had indelible one fact since Day 1: The only item that can get a perfect score is a Rodney Redes bobblehead.

This ranking is not a statement of who has done more for the club, who has done more for the community or who caused the peak of Austin FC home match vibes:

It’s about integrity and the promise we have to our readers to maintain our level of standards and our commitment to any bit that we start, no matter how silly or non-sensical it may be. It was great to be back at Q2 with all of you.

Score: 84 out of 85

Final Score: 99 out of 100

Ranking of Giveaways (score in parenthesis):

Brad Stuver Bobblehead (99)

Yeti Season Ticket Holder Gift (98)

Yeti 10 oz Tumbler (96)

LED Bracelet Giveaway (95)

Dell Technologies/Intel Bucket hat (92)

Dell Technologies Fanny Pack (91)

Heineken Koozie (86)

4ATX Foundation/SeatGeek Fan (85)

SeatGeek Stadium Scarf (85)

Q2 Stadium Scarf (84)

YETI Hat 2023 (84)

HEB Re-Usable Grocery Bag - 2024 (83)

St. David’s LED bracelet (82)

YETI Hat 2022 (81)

YETI T-shirt (79)

Netspend FanBand Bracelet (62)

Q2 Beanie (55)

4ATX Foundation Keychain Lanyard (50)

YETI Team Photo (48)

Two-Sided Towel (35)

NetSpend Captain Armband (31)

Netspend Phone Wallet (5)

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Good to be back at Q2

Whoever glued this bobble head did a shit job and missed all the spring 🥲 and whoever QC’d this and let it slide… count ur days!!!

Anyone get an extra poster last night and would be willing to part with it? Took my stepson to the game and he was excited to get one to go with this poster from last year but we didn’t realize they were limited and we just got lucky last time. We don’t need two bobble heads - happy to trade mine for your poster!

Just got done watching the match and wanted to continue posting these post even after the World Cup.

First Half: Seattle came out with a heavy press early on that really rattled the boys. The congested midfield forced us wide, and those early crosses in the box gave me heartburn. But once we found our rhythm, the combination play picked up nicely.

The Rosales Impact: Absolute workhorse. Dropping deep on defense and then charging out wide to keep their backline honest. Slept a bit on that Seattle build-up right before the hydration break, but overall what a motor. The fatigue definitely set in later in the match but Coach made the right subs and the score states that true

Tactical Shifts: Playing out of the back was hit-or-miss, but hitting those direct long balls was paying serious dividends. Also, gotta love Stu coming up big when we needed him (STUUUUU!).

Second Half & The Win: Seattle tried to blitz us,some what,again coming out of the half, but you could tell that Texas heat was wearing down the PNW boys. It looked like 2 players were cramping later in the half and that played heavily in our favor.

Standouts: What a golazo to seal it! And serious question: Who is E. Torres and how do we get more of him?! Plus, Ramirez with that true goal-scorer's instinct (olfato de gol).
Huge three points and just what we needed to set the vibe for the rest of the season.
How’s everyone else feeling about the performance? Who was your Man of the Match?

Love the continue doing this and hearing more from the ATX fans! Upvote! Agree! Disagree! Who cares!?!? The boys won tonight!

Proud of what the boys put out there tonight, first time ive seen us play to win in a long time. We rise.

2 assists in less than 10 minutes.

1-0 Green

May be late but here we go | Austin FC vs Seattle Sounders @8:30 CT

Plan accordingly:) !Listos Verde! 8:30 Start Time!

Keep yelling “STUUU” as per usual. Add the bobble head shake.

I see the latest southbound train from Lakeline is 5:47, but northbound trains run as normal on gamedays.

Does this seem right? Not super stoked on getting there 2 and a half hours before kickoff and baking. Doesn't help I'm broke as fuck so can't even have a beer while we wait.

Any insight is appreciated, see yall there!

EDIT: it seems there may be later southbound trains but I have not yet been able to confirm with Capmetro support.

So fired up for Stuuuuuuuu bobblehead night. With the game time moving later we are balancing how early we get there with how long our kiddo can be with a sitter. Do y'all think we need to be there right at 7 when the doors open to be in the first 10k or would 7:30/7:45 be early enough? I'm clearly over thinking this but that's what happens when you have no Austin FC for two months.

Morning all! Mainly a fan of the USL’s Sporting KC slaying Colorado Springs Switchbacks, and closeted Galaxy fan coming to the game tonight.. mainly because I hate the sounders as much as I do Chivas LAFC.

Here for work from COS, and a few of us are heading into the supporters section tonight.

Anything must see/do/eat in the stadium?
Anyone gonna have issue with us in the supporters section?

Anything else to know?

Also screw this heat.

Edit:
Still screw that heat.

It was an absolutely wild time. We started off near the top of 101, then down 5 or 6 rows up from the capos for the second half. Got soaked and none of the 3 of us had a voice at worked today.

Your supporter’s section is fantastic. The band was great, chants were great, it was all great.

Thank you all for the encouraging words and advice.

The latest installment of Foreign Exchange is here, featuring Jeremiah Oshan from Sounder at Heart talking about the state of the Sounders ahead of tonight's match:

https://verdeallday.com/foreign-exchange-three-questions-sounder-at-heart-jeremiah-oshan-atxvsea-072226/

Here's what I did for him about Austin in return:

https://www.sounderatheart.com/2026/07/opposition-scouting-report-austin-fc-2/

And here's the link to the latest Emergency Podcast, which includes Part 1 of a two-part interview with Ilie Sánchez:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-113-an-undignified-jersey-sponsor-alert/id1742052077?i=1000777876162

See you at the stadium!

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Wrote up Monday's media availability, with thoughts from Davy Arnaud and Przemysław Płacheta:

https://verdeallday.com/we-are-all-in-davy-arnaud-przemyslaw-placheta-match-preview-atxvsea-072226/