Austin Fc Co-owners Comes Out Clear “Josh Wolff Must Do Better”A Win Not Enough.
Austin FC finally secured its first win of the 2024 season Saturday night, beating an injury-plagued FC Dallas 2-1 at Q2 Stadium. For Austin FC players and coaches, particularly head coach Josh Wolff, the moment allowed for a rare and refreshing break from the constant tension that exists when a club is failing to live up to the expectations of its supporters.
Until about midway through Wolff’s post-match press conference, that is.
That’s when Jorge Iturralde of Club Deportes – a longtime critic and verbal sparring partner of Wolff – informed the fourth-year coach that a “Wolff Out” march, complete with a 10-foot-long banner, had taken place before the match.
Wolff, as any embattled coach with half a brain would do, dismissed the question without comment, but not before falling back into the kind of guarded, tense disposition that has become his mantra during tough stretches for the club.
Though attendance for the “Wolff Out” march in question seemed to number more in the dozens than in the hundreds, it’s clear to anyone who follows Austin FC that a sizable portion of the fan base has lost its patience with, and its faith in, Wolff. The odd win against a banged-up rival certainly won’t be enough to alter those feelings.
Last October, longtime MLS voice and former Austin FC play-by-play announcer Adrian Healey, who at the time was still on the club’s payroll as a host of the Verde Lights studio show, outlined the crux of the issue in a brutally honest tweet.
By the global standards of modern pro soccer management, Josh Wolff is extraordinarily lucky to still be coach of Austin FC after 3 seasons in the job. A record of 37-52-21 after 110 [games] in all [competitions] would be fatal in 99% of cases,” Healey wrote.
Following the ATXFC’s loss to Orlando City on March 23, Healey, now no longer employed by the club, issued a cheeky follow-up, tweeting simply, “37-54-24.”
Healey is right. Even when you factor in a stellar 2022 season which concluded with a trip to the Western Conference Final, Austin FC’s all-time record under Wolff, frankly, sucks.
And that’s not the only factor working against him, especially when it comes to winning the hearts and minds of the Verde fanbase.
From a personality standpoint, Wolff at the helm of an MLS franchise in Austin, Texas has long given off square peg-round hole vibes. The Austin fanbase is tailor-made for the kind of gregarious, charismatic, unapologetically ambitious coaching personality you’ll find in Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp or, closer to home, Nashville SC’s Gary Smith.
Wolff, however, is reserved, pragmatic, and prefers to lie low when not under the Verde lights at Q2 Stadium. He rarely misses an opportunity to express his appreciation for the ATX fans, but also rarely goes out of his way to involve himself in the Austin community on a personal level the way that, say, goalkeeper Brad Stuver regularly has.