The Aztexan

Watching the Carolina Railhawks playing the Minnesota Thunder Friday night (beating them 2-1), I was struck by a kind of déjà vu when I saw Minnesota's home jerseys. Notice any similarities?

That grainy picture on the left is a screenshot of the USLlive video feed, because oddly enough, I couldn't find photos anywhere on the web of that Thunder jersey. All the pictures I found were solid blue, like this.


Notice the sponsor is different. Maybe that's the whole explanation right there?

In any case, the similarity between the blue and red striped jerseys isn't really that surprising. When you see the back, you might remember that Aztex sponsor & jersey provider Soccer USA has locations in another place besides Austin: the Twin Cities, Minneapolis-Saint Paul.

Labels: U-23, USL-1

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

[With apologies to Jeff Foxworthy, not that he'd know what "soccer" is.]

• If your gym has seventy-five TVs, but none of them are showing the Olympic semifinal between Argentina and Brazil, you might be an American soccer fan


• If your official Olympic broadcaster relegates the matchup between these world superpowers of football to cable-only MSNBC instead of the primary NBC affiliate, you might be an American soccer fan


• If the primary channel of your official Olympic broadcaster is filling airtime with fricking Matt Lauer and Al Roker dorking around pretending to be fricking rhythmic gymnasts during that same semifinal, you might be an American soccer fan


• If the cable-only carrier of this game breaks in — during play — to show MOTHERFLIPPIN @*#$& SASSAFRASSIN ^@#*% RACKIN FRACKIN #!&% COMMERCIALS, then there's no doubt about it. You're an American soccer fan.

Next time I'll just change the channel to Telemundo...

Labels: media

Saw this story, via another Stoke City blog called Going Down The Match, that makes an interesting view of Stoke City's chances in the EPL based on some of their shots-taken stats: Premiership Prospectus 2008/9 -- Stoke City.

However it's also possible that Stoke are set up better than either Hull or West Brom for the step up in class. If they can get anywhere near scoring once every seven shots they have a good chance of survival (provided their defense doesn't collapse completely). You would imagine that Premiership teams would cope with Stoke's set plays better than Championship sides, but it's not a certainty.

Labels: Stoke City

Today was a Stoke City kind of day: the first team played their first game in the Premiership against Bolton Wanderers at The Reebok in Horwich, and their U18 Academy team played a friendly against the Rayados youth team at Town & Country here in Austin.

If you had to pick one squad to win and one to lose, you'd probably have reversed the results: the U18s won 2-1, and the first team lost 3-1. Of course the table is next to meaningless after only one game, but we now have Bolton at the top and Stoke at the bottom, thanks to the goal differential of 2 from this game. I'm sure the Potters won't stay at the bottom any longer than the Trotters will stay at the top.

The fine Stoke blog on BlogsFC has a good recap & player ratings.

The problems in the team are clear though. Griffin is just not good enough fo the Premier League any more, and is also too small and slow. Bolton had a lot of joy attacking down that side through their pacy wide players. Contrast that to Stoke’s lack of width. A new full back (Andrew Davies looks very likely to join from Southampton) a new winger are a must.

As for the new signings, Olofinjana impressed me, Kitson worked hard and tried to be creative but had little success and Sorensen could possibly have claimed a few more crosses that he left, once at our great cost but apart from that had a reasonably solid debut despite conceding three.

The sooner Abdoulaye Faye comes into the side the better and I hope the Davies signing is completed, as the defence looks very weak for a Premier league side, which is what we gladly now are. Investment is a must if we wish to remain that way.

If you haven't caught any of the Stoke City Academy games this weekend, you have one more chance tomorrow at noon. There's very limited bleacher seating, and absolutely no shade for 200 miles in any direction, so take a chair and an umbrella if you go. You'll thank me.

Labels: Stoke City

The first excitement, as you've probably seen, was when Jamie Watson signed with FC Dallas. That was just over a week ago, but already he's traveled to Toronto for Dallas' 2-0 win over TFC (though he didn't see minutes in that game). Then this week, he played for the FC Dallas reserve team in a match against Real Salt Lake's reserves. Although Dallas lost the game 3-2, Jamie scored both the home team's goals, getting a little player revenge on RSL, his former MLS club.

The excellent FC Dallas blog 3rd Degree had this to say about Watson's Hoops debut:

Jamie Watson was terrific against RSL with two goals. He was a bit lost through about 30 minutes until he scored and then raised his game after that. Obviously his nice performance might have been motivated by a team that dropped him. Still a good start for the kid. He combined well, took some guys on. He still needs to learn a bit of the role in Schellas’ 4-4-2.

"It was nice to see Jamie pick up two goals. He’s only been with us a short week and this game means something to him cause he was dropped by Real. So I think he had some internal motivation. I thought he did very well today, but I thought he faded also at the later part." - [FCD Head Coach] Schellas Hyndman

Also via 3rd Degree, a metric ton of fan photos from that reserve game. I went to the trouble of skimming through all 242 of them to find the decent ones featuring our man Jamie: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30.

Last but not least in this Week of Watson is this nice long story on him for MLSnet.com: Home sweet home for Hoops' Watson.

Ellinger, who is Hyndman's top assistant with the Hoops, is happy to have Watson playing for him once again.

"It's positive to have an extra addition to the team with what he brings. One thing I have always liked about him as a player is that he's always had that chip on his shoulder and isn't afraid to work. He feels that he can have a positive impact in any game whether it's an assist or a goal," Ellinger said.

Update: one last bit, a post by Watson himself about this whirlwind signing on The Original Winger, Damn It’s Been Awhile.

And though he hasn't gotten quite the press Watson has, the second big pro-signing news is for the very first member of the Aztex USL-1 team: goalkeeper extraordinaire Miguel Gallardo. Gallardo was also named by United Soccer Leagues this week as the PDL Goalkeeper of the Year, no real surprise given that he had the best GAA and most shutouts league-wide. It's hard to imagine a better nucleus around which to build next year's top-flight team.

Congratulations to Jamie, and welcome Miguel! Now, who's next?

Labels: alumni, MLS, players, U-23, USL-1

The name for the first independent Austin Aztex supporters' group has been decided on. The name was suggested, discussed and rallied around predominantly in that den of soccer fandom: the BigSoccer.com discussion forums.

The name: Chantico’s Army.
The website: http://chanticosarmy.com.

Not to be confused with the short-lived little "gourmet drinking chocolate beverage" marketed by Starbucks a few years ago, Chantico comes to us from the ancient mists of Aztec mythology. According to Wikipedia, Chantico was the goddess of fires in the family hearth, volcanoes and precious things.

She is said to rule over the 13-day period of wind in the Aztec calendar; perfect for the Aztex's windy home advantage this year at Dragon Stadium. And perhaps being She Who Dwells In The House will help align the stars to get the Aztex USL-1 team playing in fan-favorite House Park next season.

Besides, as you can see from the picture above, she's quite a looker. (Especially if you happen to have a thing for the Mario Brothers.)

As you may have guessed if you've read this blog for long, the official pub of this unofficial group of fans is Mother Egan's Irish Pub, 715 W. 6th St. (Google map). The next get-together is to see the PDL final this Saturday, Aug. 9 at 6:30 PM. Will the Thunder Bay Chill melt under the Laredo Heat? Or will the 2007 champs be put on ice? My prediction: Chill 2-1 Heat, possibly after OT.

Update: Admit it, I was pretty close on that PDL final prediction, wasn't I? If only Thunder Bay had scored in OT, instead of going through to win, finally, on penalties.

Labels: supporters, U-23