Austin FC vs St. Louis City SC Prediction: will Josh wolff get a working tactics in time to face St. Louis?

It's day 3 of the league campaign and there are no words to describe the mood within the Austin camp. It's been a poor start to the campaign for Austin after a defeat and a draw in the opening 2 games and there's a lot of tension building with the team. And next up for Austin FC is St. Louis City and the only result that Austin needs at the moment is a win.

St. Louis City may have gotten their first win in the last game against New York City but the team is far from where they intend to be. Especially as they are on the brink of an exit from the CONCACAF Champions League. St. Louis City will hope to get another excellent result against a very desperate Austin FC team when both sides clash for 3 points on day 3 of the season.

Austin FC

Austin FC have started the season poorly and there's a lot of anxiety building around the team. At the beginning of the season, they were aiming for great things in the new season and a draw and a defeat is a total turn off for the team.

Austin's tactical awareness and overall quality was once again questioned after the game against Seattle Sounders. The game ended as a draw but it wasn't an exciting performance from the players. Certainly not one from a team that is anxious to get their first win.

Austin manager Josh Wolff deployed the flat 4-3-3 formation in the game against Seattle Sounders and the team struggled to play throughout the game. More evidently, they had only 43% possession, 1 shot on target and 0 corner kicks. There were no key chances created and also no shot recorded inside the opponent's box. All these indicate how dire the situation is for Austin FC. 

Josh Wolff will be expected to make big changes to the setup of the team ahead of this game. Whether it's the formation of the personnel, it's unclear but Austin FC needs a change as soon as possible.

St. Louis City

St. Louis City may not really be the 100% consistent-ish team but coming up against Austin FC, they really don't have any excuse here. Especially after the win against New York City in the last match.

St. Louis City managed to turn their difficult position into a win and that's commendable. There was no big difference between them and the New York City team and in fact no one considered St. Louis City were outright winners of that game. They converted the limited opportunities and got the win at the end. Celio Martins and Samuel Adeniran both scored in both halves to secure the win for St. Louis City.

According to the stats, St. Louis City was not far off. They had 45% possession, 3 shots on target and 5 corner kicks. They created 0 big chances but hit the woodwork twice and had 3 counter attacks.

St. Louis City manager has a decision to make on how the team will play the upcoming game. He is most likely to play a 4-4-2 with the same squad as the previous game. But many fans will hope to see more attacking threat from the St. Louis City forwards against Austin FC. They need another win and the current state of Austin FC is a great opportunity.

Head to Head

The h2h stats shows only 2 games played between St. Louis City and Austin FC and St. Louis City won both encounters.

Analysis and Predictions

It's clear Austin FC don't yet have a clear and working tactical plan and that's up to Josh Wolff, whether he gets the team up and running in time is still unknown. And for St. Louis City, their consistency has been an issue in the past and they are the sort of side to just throw momentum when you expect them to cut through opponents.

According to analysis, there's been more than 2.5 goals in 4 of Austin’s last 5 matches and both teams scored in 8 of their last 10 matches. 

• 3 Way Total Corners Over 9 Corners at 1.667 Odds
• 3 Way Total Corners Over 9 Corners at 1.67 Odds
• Under 2.5 Total Goals at 2.25 Odds