Playing its first international club-friendly match at Q2 Stadium, Austin FC lost, 3-1, to Liga MX’s Tigres UANL, winners of seven league titles and the 2020 CONCACAF Champions League. Rodney Redes scored the Verde and Black’s lone goal to briefly pull Austin level in the second half.
Tigres defender Diego Reyes opened the scoring in the 25th minute, but not until Austin had put together a series of chances going forward. Diego Fagundez and Tomás Pochettino each fired a shot wide after breaking through a Tigres defense that included Reyes and another former Mexican National Team center back, Hugo Ayala. Reyes’ goal came off a corner kick as Guido Pizarro flicked on Rafael Carioca’s cross to Reyes, who nodded it in from 4 yards.
The second half started slowly for both teams but picked up in the 59th minute when Andrew Tarbell made an impressive save after turning the ball over. Three minutes later, ATXFC found an equalizer.
Redes took a midfield pass from Owen Wolff and drove at the defense. He skipped past one tackle and fired a rocket into the bottom left corner from 25 yards out.
Tigres regained the lead in the 71st minute when Raymundo Fulgencio connected on a cross and volleyed it towards goal. Nicolas Lopez swooped in to deflect the ball past Tarbell. Lopez scored again just two minutes later. Tigres goalkeeper Nahuel Guzman played a long ball that found the foot of Fulgencio. A quick combination play put Lopez into penalty area and the forward placed a curling shot into the far upper corner of the net.
Both Manny Perez and Kekuta Manneh had chances to cut into the lead in the 82nd minute but Guzman came up with two big saves to preserve his Tigres’ two-goal lead.
Goal-Scoring Summary
TIG (0-1) – Diego Reyes, 26’ (assisted by Guido Pizarro)
ATX (1-1) – Rodney Redes, 62’ (assisted by Owen Wolff)
TIG (1-2) – Nicolás López, 71’ (assisted by Raymundo Fulgencio)
TIG (1-3) – Nicolás López, 73’ (assisted by Raymundo Fulgencio)