Maxi Urruti scored his third and fourth goals of the season inside the opening half-hour, Sebastian Driussi added his league-leading sixth after halftime and Austin FC moved atop the Western Conference table with a 3-0 win over Vancouver Whitecaps FC on Saturday night at Q2 Stadium.
Driussi also added an assist on Urruti's first in a victory that put Los Verdes a point in front of second-place LAFC ahead of the Black & Gold's game Sunday at FC Cincinnati (5 pm ET | FS1, FOX Deportes).
After opening the scoring with a gorgeous first-time finish 11 minutes into the contest, Urruti found his brace in the 26th minute, collecting a feed from Alex Ring and converting a nifty spinning shot to the far post. The hosts rounded it off with a third on 68 minutes, when Julio Cascante flicked on a header off Nick Lima's throw-in that freed Driussi for an insurance tally, sealing a third consecutive victory and improving Austin's home record to 4W-0L-1D on the season.
Vancouver had 12 shots but put only one on target as they sank to their third consecutive defeat and failed to score for the first time since a 0-0 home draw to New York City FC in Week 2.
Goals
Three Things
- THE BIG PICTURE: For Vancouver, this will be another match where the result might have been worse than the quality of the effort, losing by three goals on a night where their opponent just barely shaded the expected goals count, 0.9 to 0.7. For Austin, this will be another comfortable win that could still give detractors reason to offer a caveat: this time that Whitecaps playmaker Ryan Gauld was out in the league's concussion protocol.
- MOMENT OF THE MATCH: With respect to a pair of classy finishes from Urruti, Austin's third was a really well-worked set piece off a long throw that should bring joy to a former US men's national team defender turned TV analyst. It also effectively put the match out of reach after the Whitecaps had a more promising start to the second half.
- MAN OF THE MATCH: Maxi Urruti doesn't have to be a world-beater in Austin, just provide competence in the No. 9 role and have the occasional exceptional day. This was one of those, with a pair of difficult finishes he made look deceptively easy.
Up Next
- ATX: Saturday, April 23 at Houston Dynamo FC | 1:30 pm ET (UniMas, TUDN, Twitter)
- VAN: Sunday, May 8 vs. Toronto FC | 4 pm ET (MLS LIVE on ESPN+ in the US, DAZN in Canada)
