2024 Austin FC “Goal of the Year” Bracket - Quarterfinal Round
2nd Round Recap
You may have already heard on Episode 187 that the second round of voting has concluded and the short recap we gave. If not, here’s what went down as Austin FC fans continued to make their voices heard this offseason. We saw our first one seed bow out in the “Away Region” as Owen Wolff’s fifth seeded 75’ goal at Toronto FC took out Emiliano Rigoni’s top seeded lone goal contribution of the season, a game winner at Houston Dynamo.
The most “dominant” goal in the second round voting process was out of the “Home Region”, where Sebastián Driussi’s top seeded 90+11’ game winner against San Jose Earthquakes put away Gyasi Zardes’ fourth seeded 69’ (nice) brace against NYCFC with 84.6% of the vote.
The second round was more decisive than the first, with the closest vote tally coming in the “Verde Region” courtesy of Driussi’s second seeded 87’ game winning goal against Houston Dynamo garnering 60% of the vote against Jáder Obrian’s sixth seeded 45+2’
The Quarterfinal Round Ballot is open, Vote Now!
You can find the 2024 Bracket by clicking here. Each goal in the bracket is a clickable link, providing you with a highlight of the goal to help you vote to advance your favorite goal in each matchup. You can vote on the quarterfinal round matchups by clicking here. There are three top seeds among the remaining eight goals, along with two seven seeds! Like March Madness, the 2024 “Goal of the Year” bracket has produced some predictable results and served up some eye-popping upsets.
We hope you continue to enjoy this journey back through the season that was! Even though the result of the season wasn’t what any Austin FC fan wanted, there are certainly some moments in this bracket that will bring a smile to your face or a good memory to mind. Thank you for participating in our second round voting this week. We’ll cover the results on our next episode and we hope to see you back here next week for the quarterfinal round!
View the 2024 “Goal of the Year” Bracket here.
Confusion about what we’re doing here? Read the following for more information.
It’s Bracket Time!
With the 2024 MLS regular season in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to bring back our annual tradition here in The North End. In each of the first two off seasons that we have spent covering everyone’s favorite team, The North End Podcast has brought Verde fans a fun holiday season exercise, the Austin FC “Goal of the Year” bracket!
When the lights are turned off for the winter at Q2 Stadium, we spring into action, placing all of the goals scored by the Verde & Black from the previous season into a “March Madness” style bracket to determine which moment was the fan favorite.
In 2022, it was Moussa Djitte’s third goal from his franchise record setting hat-trick performance that took home the crown. Last season, Sebastián Driussi’s opening night chip of St. Louis City SC goalkeeper Roman Bürki came out on top.
The voting process for the first two “Goal of the Year” brackets has been fully conducted through our Twitter account. You can click these links to see the full brackets and results from both the 2022 season and the 2023 season. This year, we wanted to make it easier for all Austin FC fans following our show to access this fun activity and help us crown the 2024 Austin FC “Goal of the Year”.
How Does It Work?
You’ll notice a significant difference in this season’s bracket compared to years past, which corresponds to the overall offensive success of Austin FC. In the magical 2022 season that ended with a run to the Western Conference Final, we had 64 goals included in the bracket, broken down into four regions of 16 goals. What a time that was… we had an entire region dedicated to only goals scored by Driussi!
With the team’s offensive output declining in each of the last two seasons, we’ve adjusted the format accordingly. The 2023 bracket had 48 goals in the competition, organized in four regions of 12. In all three brackets to date, we’ve had a “Home” region, with only goals scored at Q2 Stadium. We’ve also had an “Away” region comprised solely of goals scored away from central Texas. We replaced the “Driussi” and “Sentimiento” regions of 2022 with “Verde” and “Vibes” in the 2023 bracket.
While the team managed 44 goals across all competitions this season, the 2024 “Goal of the Year” bracket will include just 32 goals in four regions of eight. We did not include any of Austin’s four goals that came from the penalty spot. We also took the liberty to decide internally which of the eight goals from open play did not make the cut for the bracket.
We have rolled over the same four regions from the 2023 bracket into this year’s competition. We have also kept our previous seeding methodology, that states that every game winning goal (any goal that put Austin FC in the lead for the remainder of a match) cannot be seeded lower than a fourth spot in any region. Any goal scored in a “Copa Tejas” matchup cannot be lower than a sixth seed in any region.
Over the course of five weeks, we will vote to crown our 2024 Austin FC “Goal of the Year”. Thanks for playing along!
