The Aztexan

Saturday, August 29, will see the Austin Aztex back home again at Nelson Field. The 7:30 game, against the Miami FC Blues, will be their next-to-last home game, and their last weekend game, of the season (the very last game will be on Monday, Sept. 7).

Miami stumbles into town this weekend in extraordinary shape. Though they recently signed "Brazilian hero" Junior Baiano, and they're just 6 points down the table from the last playoff slot, they've had a couple of serious setbacks recently.

First was a midweek loss to the Carolina Railhawks on Wednesday night. Not just any loss, but the worst beating in league history¹: a 9-0 drubbing (match report / box score / video highlights). [Update: not the worst in league history after all; see footnote below.] At one point the Railhawks let the U12 team from halftime take the field, and they scored twice! Okay, that's just a joke, but this was a collapse on a scale rarely seen in professional soccer anywhere in the world. The loss caps a 7-game winless streak for the Blues that's seen them shut out 4 times and dropped their goal differential by 20.

As if that weren't enough to put a cloud over a team, there are reports in the wake of yesterday's sale of USL that Miami owners Traffic Sports may pull the plug on the whole franchise:

Traffic had considered folding the club before this season but gave it a reprieve, with certain stipulations: Improve the performance on the field and with attendance.

At 7-13-4 and playing in front of just a few hundred fans a game, neither benchmarks have been met. Now, with the ownership bid collapsing, it is unclear what level of commitment the Brazilian soccer company will have in South Florida.

The Aztex, meanwhile, are looking for some redemption for the end of the season. They're already started rebuilding for next season's campaign, signing 2 new players this week: Jamie Watson and Salif Diao-Jimenez.

Defender Salif Diao-Jimenez joins the Aztex on a two-year contract fresh from Stoke City’s Youth Academy. The 19-year-old is a product of the Stoke City Academy where he spent the last three years playing for the Stoke U-19 and reserve teams. Diao-Jimenez is a versatile player who can play either at fullback or midfield and was highly rated by the Stoke coaching staff. He is originally from Senegal but has dual Dutch citizenship.

Watson returns to Austin after a very successful season with the Wilmington Hammerheads of USL-2, in which Watson was the league's top scorer (12 goals and 6 assists) and helped the Hammerheads win the USL-2 Championship. For his efforts, he was named to the USL-2 All-League Team.

I'm sure we'll see Jamie get some minutes this weekend, though Salif was just stepping off the plane on Thursday, so he may be less likely to play.

As usual, the place for pre-match refreshments is Nomad Bar, just off Cameron Rd. The regulars from Chantico's Army will be joined by the fine folks of the Free Beer Movement, hosting their second Aztex match day. If you're a soccer newbie, maybe a little curious to see what all the fuss is about, now is the time to check it out. You'll get an evening of fine football and a free beer or five, compliments of FBM. These pre-game festivities will get going around 4:00 (FBM) or 5:00 (Chantico's Army).

Kickoff will be at 7:30 on Saturday; we should be in for a good show. Come on out and cheer your Aztex on over this final leg of their inaugural season. Come on you Aztex!

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¹ I determined this after examining historical results back to 2003. 2007 results are not available; if anyone has access to those, I'd love to see them.

Update: I stand corrected; Miami's 9-0 loss was not the worst in league history. Per the Railhawks Report, there was a worse defeat in 1998 (Seattle over California 10-0 on June 19).

Labels: gameday, rivals, USL-1