Another week, another sacking. Austin FC let go of their longtime sporting director Rodolfo Borrell and set coach Nico Estevez packing as well. Particularly after Verde's last two losses, a 5-0 shellacking against San Diego FC and loss to Sporting KC, in which they led early. .
Elsewhere, Petar Musa is crushing goals and Sam Sarver is beers (and goals). Red Bull wunderkind Julian Hall is scoring his way into the thoughts of Mauricio Pochettino, or a European squad transfer. Lastly, Zavier Gozo continues to do Gozo things for RSL.
1.) Rodo Borrell came to Austin FC in 2023, bringing credentials from Barcelona and Manchester City. He hopped onto a moving train after the Claudio Reyna era left enough wreckage that we'll save it for another column. But the team was pretty good when Rodo arrived. During the 2022 season they went to the Western Conference Final before losing to LAFC. Since then, it's been a lot of strange moves, a lot of money moved, and not a lot of wins. Who knows where AFC owner Anthony Precourt goes after this, but interim coach Davy Arnaud is left to pick up the pieces. Some upside, Brandon Vasquez and Owen Wolff have recently returned to the squad.
2.) Petar Musa and super-sub Sam Sarver has FC Dallas firing on all cylinders. The DFW squad recently beat the nearly unbeatable San Jose Earthquakes with Sarver notching the late goal. Musa has 12 goals in 13 games, while Sarver has three goals in the last four games over a total of 183 minutes. MLS Stats show Sarver has three SOT or "on target scoring attempts." So 3-3? More importantly, the Earthquake fans were up in arms after his game-winning goal, throwing beers at the young player. He did what any sane person would do and shotgunned it. Endearing himself to the entirety of the MLS fanbase and becoming an instant legend.
Sam Sarver scored a stoppage-time game-winning goal for FC Dallas last night at San Jose. Beer cans were thrown onto the field and Sarver grabbed one off the ground and shotgunned it. IMMEDIATE MLS heritage.
— Tom Bogert (@tombogert.bsky.social) May 17, 2026 at 7:54 AM
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3.) Julian Hall turned 18 in March and has scored 12 goals in 16 games. Most recently he notched a hat-trick against the Columbus Crew, becoming the youngest MLS player ever to do so. Hall was born in 2008 and came up through the NYRB academy. He has four caps for the U17 US national team. He's a big fan of Robert Lewandowski and he's eligible for Poland through his family, which makes him one of the more interesting dual-national situations in the American pool right now.
4.) Real Salt Lake continue to look like front office geniuses as Zavier Gozo scored his fourth goal in four games. He put two past the Houston Dynamo goalkeeper whose name I'm too lazy to look up right now. More importantly, Hall and Gozo need to be in the running for the 26 man USMNT squad that will be announced in late May. The form is there. The window is now.
Zavier Gozo has a brace tonight and five goals on the year!
— Soccerwise (@soccerwisehq.bsky.social) May 13, 2026 at 10:29 PM
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