The Aztexan

Here's a follow-up to my recent post about where one could get one's soccer fix after the Aztex season finished. While I still miss the games out at Dragon Stadium, it's hard to argue there's not enough soccer to keep a fan busy.

• Stoke City — their season is underway, so there are games every weekend. Unless you have satellite TV, you'll probably watch these matches at a bar. For example: Mother Egan's this Saturday at 1:30PM to see Stoke City v. Aston Villa.


• USL-1 — I have been (casually) following the Carolina Railhawks, as I said I might. As part of this experiment, I paid for a month of video via USLlive.com to catch some of their games. The announcing is uneven but not terrible, the video quality I've seen is also uneven but not terrible. There have also been frustrating technical issues (video not starting, for example, or in one instance, the live stream being switched off "while we archive this video" before the game was even over!). It's pricey for that quality, in my opinion ($10/month or $50/year).
  
  I don't imagine they have zillions of subscribers. It's probably 98% avid fans who want to see their team at away games (e.g., like I'll be next season), so maybe that's just how the cost has to break down, but it's unfortunate. If it were cheaper — more like MLSnet's $20 (which just dropped to $10 after the all-star game) for the whole season — I'd just subscribe and catch the occasional game for fun. As it is, I won't continue past this month.


• Olympic soccer — what can you say about the U.S. men's team? "You lose some, you lose some"? There's been some great soccer to see, though. And the U.S. women's team will get at least silver, which is great, though gold would surely boost next year's WPS launch just a little bit more. We'll find out tomorrow morning! (On Telemundo, USA network or online, if I'm reading NBC's website correctly.)


• FCD — they seem to be coming around, maybe. They've been wheeling and dealing, cutting and signing, including, as you surely know, our own Jamie Watson. Told you Dallas was classier than Houston, didn't I?


• miscellaneous other stuff from previous post — Stoke U18 games, check; no knitting, as predicted; haven't gone to the Mexic-Arte Museum yet (but I have until Sept. 16); no rumors on stadiums yet (there's plenty of time for that); and Juan Toja's move to Liga I Frutti Fresh hasn't gotten another 2 seconds of my time since I mentioned it. Sorry, Juan.


• one major soccer option I completely failed to mention — the University of Texas women's team. Among Aztex fans it seems that mentions of UT result in grumbling about (a) the total preoccupation of the Austin sports media (and fans) with anything and everything burnt orange, or (b) how unlikely it is that the Aztex could ever play at UT's Mike Myers stadium.
  
  What's perhaps forgotten, at least by me (though not by Nick Barbaro at the Chronicle), is that there's already a soccer team that plays there, and a darn good one at that. Ranked 8th in the country, expected to win the Big 12 this year, etc. Here's the 2008 Longhorn Soccer schedule; their first home game is Friday night at 7:00 vs. Samford. I might just go; I'll be the one in the Aztex shirt (I don't have any burnt orange anyway).

Labels: MLS, stadium, Stoke City, supporters, USL-1