Midnight Madness: Austin FC Advances to US Open Cup Semifinals With Wild Shootout Win

Verde drew 2-2 with the San Jose Earthquakes after 120 minutes but triumphed in penalties.

Was Austin FC’s quarterfinal US Open Cup match against the San Jose Earthquakes the craziest, most bonkers match in the team’s admittedly short history?

If you, dear reader of Oak Tree Times, can think of a more chaotic game of soccer featuring the Verde and Black, then your brain is functioning far better than mine at nearly 1 a.m. on Wednesday. I think there was a Robert Taylor Panenka at some point, but fact and fiction blur together at this ungodly hour.

Knockout soccer is known for unpredictability. Take a low-scoring sport where games can swing on one or two moments (a handball in the box here, a banger from 25 yards out there), inject it with winner-take-all stakes, and watch the madness ensue. As a soccer fan, you’ve probably heard the term “cup-set” more times in your life than any rational person should. It feels trite and cliched to wax poetic about the zaniness of a competition like the US Open Cup. A team called Flatirons FC participated in this thing, after all.

But because the purpose of this newsletter is to analyze Austin FC, words will follow that attempt to make sense of the events that unfolded during Verde’s 4-2 penalty shootout win over the Earthquakes, following a 2-2 draw after extra time. However, I assure you that this look on Brad Stuver’s face does a much better job of conveying the insanity of Tuesday night’s match than anything the English language has to offer.

As you will notice on the score bug in the upper left corner of that image, it wasn’t going well for Austin FC in extra time. Frankly, it wasn’t going well for Austin FC for the majority of the match. The Earthquakes out-shot Verde 27 to 12, and if it weren't for a dazzling, nine-save goalkeeping exhibition from the man pictured above, then Austin FC wouldn’t have advanced. This particular screen-grab is from seconds after San Jose’s Benjamin Kikanovic finally breached the Great Wall of Stuver to give the Earthquakes a 2-1 lead. Kikanovic’s goal came after a flurry of chances for the home side and several superb examples of last-ditch defending from the visitors.

Kikanovic was only a participant in Tuesday night’s proceedings because substitute Cristian Espinoza had to leave the match after only 13 minutes due to Mikkel Desler’s studs becoming forcibly acquainted with his knee - this is the level of chaos we’re talking about here.

Espinoza wasn’t the only big-name attacker to leave the match with an apparent knee injury. Less than 10 minutes after he tied the game from the penalty spot in the 65th minute, Brandon Vazquez exited on a stretcher after a non-contact injury (players were struggling to keep their footing throughout the night - the grass at PayPal Park was patchier than a vest at your local punk show).

Courtesy of Phil West’s Verde All Day newsletter, Austin FC head coach Nico Estevez had this to say post-match on Vazquez: “We don't have anything that gave us 100%. It could be 50/50 ... every player is different. I've seen different mechanisms of different players, and I think we have to wait. Obviously, it was a tough turn and mechanism that he (Vazquez) did with the knee, but we'll see. We'll see what the scan says to us, and we hope and we pray that it is not very severe.”

Vazquez’s equalizer came after a truly abject first half from Austin FC. Earthquake’s attacker Chicho Arango opened the scoring in the 12th minute (because, of course, he did: it was his fifth career goal against the Verde and Black), and it looked like that might be the only goal San Jose would need. Everyone knows Austin FC has been as frightening as a kitten in the final third in 2025. A primary cause of those final-third woes is how much Verde struggles to build attacks from the back.

Managers like Pep Guardiola emphasize their teams playing short passes in the defensive third to draw opponents forward. As the opposition pushes upfield, gaps open, creating opportunities to play through them. As a result, teams that successfully build out from the back often reach the attacking third with space to exploit.

As has been the case throughout this campaign, Austin FC struggled to build out from the back against San Jose. According to FotMob.com, the team completed just 76% of its passes on Tuesday. Frequently, Estevez's side resorted to hopeful hoofs of the ball forward - Austin attempted 69 long passes compared to San Jose’s 52, per SofaScore.com.

In a structureless, amorphous blob of a match like this one, it can be dangerous to draw any conclusions. The conditions were too wacky to be repeatable. But how Austin FC won the penalty that led to Vazquez's goal is noteworthy. Here’s Guilherme Biro right before playing a pass into the penalty area that allowed Vazquez to draw a foul from San Jose’s Max Floriani.

Nearly 10 minutes before that Biro pass, Austin FC won a corner thanks to a foray into the penalty area from Desler.

Neither of Austin FC’s full-backs has gotten on the ball much in the attacking third in 2025. Desler is in the 25th percentile for touches in the attacking third compared to other MLS full-backs, and Biro is in the 14th percentile (per FBRef.com). Austin getting more aggressive with the positioning of its full-backs could help revive its currently lifeless attack.

Estevez will also hope that the taker of the winning penalty kick can use this match as a springboard to future successes. Owen Wolff sealed Austin FC’s advancement to the semifinals by confidently dispatching his penalty. Wolff also won the penalty that Myrto Uzuni converted in the 115th minute to send the match to a shootout.

Wolff has been a reliable presence for Austin FC in 2025, but there remains a sense that the 20-year-old midfielder has another level he could ascend to. Confidence and swagger should now be in plentiful supply for Wolff after delivering in the match’s most pivotal moments. And how Austin FC as a team responds to Tuesday’s dramatic victory could go a long way to determining how the rest of the season unfolds.