Every morning, we send you a free email packed with Austin news, business, and entertainment. Join 16,000+ readers who wake up to Austonia's newsletter.
Featured
austonia newsletter
Most viewed
Jersey Number: 7
Hometown: Rafaela, Argentina
Position: Midfielder
Age: 25
Former club: Club Atletico Talleres
Background
He's #VERDE!
— Austin FC (@AustinFC) February 11, 2021
Your newest Designated Player. 🌳
Welcome to Austin FC, Tomás Pochettino! pic.twitter.com/WUwcTuoqdS
Austin FC spent big bucks on Tomas Pochettino, an attacking midfielder from Argentina who went Verde off a $2.5 million contract.
Before he signed on as the club's second Designated Player, "Toto" Pochettino transferred from Club Atlético Talleres in Argentina's Primera División. Pochettino appeared in 62 matches with Club Atlético Talleres, logging seven goals and 10 assists in 62 matches from 2018-21.
With Talleres, Pochettino was an expert at free kicks, and he's transferred that over to his newest club.
"It's something that I'm quite used to," Pochettino said. "I used to do a lot of set pieces and a lot of free kicks back in Talleres so it's something that I have a lot of practice with."
Before the club, Pochettino started his career at the Boca Juniors U-20 team, followed by Boca Juniors II in 2014. Pochettino then helped the Boca Juniors first team to win the Argentine Primera División in 2015 and was loaned to Defensa y Justicia, where he made 51 appearances, scored four goals and made five assists.
With Austin FC
That field-level look to start your day. pic.twitter.com/inyYiBdyXl
— Austin FC (@AustinFC) April 4, 2021
As the team's second Designated Player, Pochettino gained a starting position in the club's first match as a creative midfielder for the club.
"Tomás is an exciting and attack-minded midfielder we have been monitoring for some time. He has the technical and tactical qualities we are looking for in a Designated Player," Wolff said. "He will offer us pace and versatility in the midfield, and we are confident he will make an immediate impact on our attacking end."
Pochettino said that he was happy to make the move to the MLS and join Austin FC for its first-ever season.
"I think being a Designated Player's a beautiful responsibility, and I don't concentrate much on it," Pochettino said. "I'm just here to be a part of the team, and I hope that the rest of the team and the technical staff can trust me."
So far, Pochettino has shown that he can be trusted to put the ball in the back of the net. Pochettino scored the first-ever Austin FC goal against an MLS opponent against the Houston Dynamo as part of La Copita, and he put another one in off a free kick against San Antonio FC to close out the preseason. In the team's first-ever match against LAFC, Pochettino saw some of the most chances out of any player on the team, and he proved to be a solid defensive player when needed as well.
Both Pochettino and Wolff have acknowledged that they come with different skillsets: while Pochettino is used to having more liberty as he channels the ball up the field, Wolff has implemented a stricter regimen to help with the team's cohesiveness.
"Tomas is probably used to having more freedom," Wolff said. "So we're bridging that to find the right balance for him, and I think that'll be a continuous growth thing for both of us. And we need to because he's got real quality, and we've seen that in the moments that he's played for us in these games."
Pochettino's biggest goal, aside from scoring, is to leave a legacy behind and make a run for the playoffs.
"I want to leave a beautiful legacy behind in Austin," Pochettino said. "I think my main goal is to make the playoffs (and) I'm also very set on listening to the way that Josh coaches and being the best version of myself for the team."
Off the pitch
(Austin FC/Twitter)
Born in Rafaela, Argentina, Pochettino might be the farthest from home in Austin. Although he missed some of preseason due to COVID protocol, Pochettino said he's still had time to connect with his teammates on and off the pitch.
"Everything in life takes time to adapt, and in soccer, I have to rely on my teammates, both on and off the pitch," Pochettino said. "I've been stuck in a hotel for a couple of weeks, but throughout the preseason, I've gotten to know my teammates a lot more. And we've built some great friendships so far."
Though far from home, Pochettino can find a familiar face in fellow DP Cecilio Dominguez. Pochettino and Dominguez went head-to-head as opposing players in the Primera División, but now Pochettino says he's glad to get to know the person behind the player.
"I knew that he's a good player, I know that he wants to get to the ball," Pochettino said. "But now that I've known him as a person off the pitch, I can attest that he's a good an overall great person, so I'm really excited that I get to play alongside him now."
- Austin FC signs Designated Player Tomas Pochettino - austonia ›
- Ben Sweat brings years of MLS experience to Austin FC - austonia ›
- Austin FC midfielder Alex Ring was once NYCFC captain - austonia ›
- Julio Cascante comes from Portland Timbers to Austin FC - austonia ›
- Sebastian Berhalter is Austin FC's youngest team member - austonia ›
- Austin FC's Daniel Pereira is the club's youngest starter - austonia ›
- Austin FC looks to score their first goal against the Colorado Rapids - austonia ›
- Jhohan Romana was unexpectedly picked up by Austin FC - austonia ›
- Diego Fagundez showed his Verde colors with Austin FC's first goal - austonia ›
- Austin FC beats Minnesota 1-0 for first-ever win streak - austonia ›
- With a fast pass to the starting XI, Žan Kolmanič rises to the challenge - austonia ›
- Austin FC is looking for a three-match win streak at Kansas City - austonia ›
- Austin FC fights to keep a clean sheet at the half against Sporting KC - austonia ›
- Austin FC loses 2-1 after catastrophic red card - austonia ›
- Austin FC faces stiff competition in LA Galaxy, Chicharrito this weekend - austonia ›
- Austin FC spends less than most first-year expansion teams - austonia ›
Popular
UT is developing technology targeted at power, steel, cement and other industrial plants to lower emissions. (UT Austin)
The ruling was brought after a challenge to a lower court opinion brought by Texas and more than a dozen other states.
Vaibhav Bahadur, an associate professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin called the SCOTUS decision significant, noting that Texas is the biggest energy producer in the U.S., and produces more energy than the United Kingdom.
“Power generation accounts for a significant fraction of U.S. carbon emissions, and the EPA loses its ability to control what's happening in about half of that sector,” Bahadur said. “And it's not just the U.S., I think people and environmentalists on pretty much anywhere on the planet will be disappointed because this is going in the wrong direction. We know we want to be decarbonizing, and this is essentially putting a roadblock on progress toward decarbonization.”
So, we’re going to need some insurance, Bahadur says. He’s carrying out work that’ll act as such through his research on carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), the process of sucking carbon from the air and burying it.
For the past five years, he’s been working on a novel approach to storing carbon. It involves supercharging the formation of carbon dioxide-based crystal structures and storing billions of tons of carbon under the ocean floor.
“If all of this is successful, then we will have another option for safely and responsibly storing carbon at the bottom of the seabed for essentially eternity,” Bahadur said.
Still, Bahadur talked about a different approach to responsibly cutting down emissions in the next decade, and doing so in a meaningful and substantial way, then the environment will eventually heal itself and we might not need CCS.
But that’s not the path we’re headed down.
“We're already starting to see temperature records being shattered this year, and we're still to hit peak summer,” Bahadur said. “All of this just makes me think that we need CCS to a larger extent, and possibly sooner than what a lot of scientists anticipate, especially if we can't keep our emissions in check.”
Gary Rochelle, a professor in the department of chemical engineering at UT, thinks CCS was ready to be deployed in 2010 and those 12 years have made a difference.
“But now we've emitted all that CO2,” Rochelle said. “And unfortunately, unlike other pollutants, when you emit CO2, it's there. It's not going away.”
Gary Rochelle and Vaibhav Bahadur are both researching technology to address carbon emissions. (UT)
Still, the delay is good in that now researchers like him have had time to learn about and improve the technology, allowing for fewer problems once it's deployed.
In December, UT announced a licensing agreement with advanced technology company Honeywell. The technology from that is targeted at power, steel, cement and other industrial plants to lower emissions.
Rochelle has been working on the technology since 2000 as part of an international collaborative effort. When he talked to Austonia on Thursday, he had just had calls with collaborators in Germany and Norway. Currently, he’s working with some Ph.D. students on addressing a chemical reaction that can happen with the technology known as oxidation that could lead to ammonia emissions and cause problems for a large-scale commercial unit.
Rochelle says he’s driven to this work because he wants to make a contribution.
“We're trying to develop this technology so that we can make a difference,” Rochelle said. “It's a nice problem to work on. The students are motivated and those are the primary things which drive us.”
Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott celebrated the high court’s decision which acted as a blow to President Joe Biden’s plan to reduce emissions.
“Today’s landmark victory against an out-of-control administration is also a big win for Americans who worry about skyrocketing energy costs due to expensive federal regulations that threaten our energy industry,” Abbott said. “President Biden cannot keep attacking the energy industry and the hardworking men and women who power our nation.”
- UT reports three students bitten by raccoons - austonia ›
- UT athletes racked up over $2 million in NIL deals in first year ... ›
- UT-Austin's 'Frack King' has a vision for clean, geothermal energy ›
- UT Austin debuts new hologram program amid pandemic - austonia ›
- UT admits the most diverse class in the school's history - austonia ›
- A peek inside UT's new $338 million Moody Center - austonia ›
