The Aztexan

Happy birthday to this blog! It's been one year since Austin Aztex FC was announced, and I started this blog in a fit of excitement as soon as I heard the news.

Looking back at that first post, it's good to know that my fears were unfounded that the Aztex "might fall apart . . . and get stuck in a crappy stadium and doomed by terrible attendance and totally overshadowed by the all-encompassing Longhorn Football Machine".

2008 was actually a great opening year for the Aztex. I'm not sure what could possibly have been better, realistically. Winning the league, I suppose, but that would almost be greedy. At any rate, here comes 2009, with the addition of the USL-1 team, which looks to only go upward from there.

So, thanks to "old" fans & readers, welcome to new ones, congratulations all around on the first year, best of luck on the second, and looking forward to many, many more to come. Go Aztex!

Labels: meself

The USL-1 season is fast approaching, and I have a feeling the pace of news & announcements is just getting going. While there's a breather, let's take a quick look at our fellow USL-1 expansion team: the Cleveland City Stars.

The team's "promotion" from USL-2 to USL-1 was announced on Dec. 5:

"We are delighted to be the latest addition to the USL First Division for the 2009 season," said Cleveland City Stars General Manager Mark Geissbauer. "After winning the USL-2 Championship last year and the success of our franchise on and off the field, this was the most logical decision to make. We know that this is going to be a big step for our still fairly young franchise, but we are looking forward to the challenge of competing at the highest level in the USL system and bringing the USL-1 into a flourishing market like Cleveland."

I put the word "promotion" in sarcastic quotes because really, it's not one. Not in the way most of the soccer world means it. True, they were the USL-2 champions last year, so if there were a system of promotion & relegation in this country (I wish!), then sure, they would have been promoted. But there's not, so they weren't.

What happened is that the Atlanta Silverbacks folded, and the league scrambled to find a team that would step up and keep USL-1 from contracting. For proof that the Cleveland promotion wasn't long in the works, look no further than the move of Martin Rennie, their award- and championship-winning young coach to the Carolina Railhawks less than a month before the USL-1 announcement. Meanwhile, they have yet to name their own replacement head coach, though I'm sure that's imminent.

Not that the conditions of this 3-year old team switching league tiers matter all that much. I give a hearty welcome to our opponents from Cleveland, aka "The Mistake On The Lake" (I don't make 'em up, I just repeat 'em. I'm from Ohio, it's okay).

Their supporters' group is called the Green Army. They have a blog, which has been quiet since early December, and a discussion forum, which looks more active.

The ownership of the Stars club is unique: it's actually a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, the Cleveland Soccer Foundation. Their slogan is, "Serving the City & Changing the World". In addition to the kind of community outreach you might expect, they also have what might be the most exotic partner team around: the Nairobi City Stars, of the Kenyan Premier League.

They played last season at Cleveland State University's Krenzler Soccer Field, though I think they'll be moving to a new home — also not yet announced — this season.

And though I'm not all that big on mascots, theirs does have a pretty clever name: Crocodinho.

To wrap up, here's an excellent video montage of their USL-2 Championship win over the Charlotte Eagles last year:



Fantastic! Almost makes me regret the Mistake-on-the-Lake comment. Almost.

Labels: rivals, USL-1

The Aztex USL-1 schedule for 2009 was released by KVUE and the Austin Chronicle yesterday. (There were some raised eyebrows about the news, as the league hasn't released the full schedule yet. In fact, the team has yet to announce the schedule itself. How serious this "leak" is, and whether anybody gets in trouble for it, remain to be seen.)

Meanwhile, for the fans, all the matters is that it's finally out!

Half of the 30 games are here, at Nelson Field. All of those 15 home matches are on weekend evenings (Friday, Saturday or Sunday), except two: the 2nd game of the season is on a Tuesday, and the last home game is on Labor Day Monday, Sept. 7.

A fan from the BigSoccer forum has set up a Google Calendar with all the games on it. Here's an embedded copy, starting with April:



And here's the full list view, from the Chronicle (home games in bold; games televised on Fox Soccer Channel marked with a *):
APRIL
Sat., April 18, 7:30pm – Minnesota Thunder
Tue., April 21, 7:30pm – Vancouver Whitecaps
Sat., April 25, 7:30pm – Cleveland City Stars

MAY
Fri., May 8, 7pm – Puerto Rico Islanders *
Sun., May 17 at Montreal Impact
Sun., May 24, 6pm – Carolina Railhawks
Fri., May 29, 7:30pm – Puerto Rico Islanders

JUNE
Fri., June 5, 7pm – Charleston Battery *
Sun., June 7, 6pm – Charleston Battery
Fri., June 12 at Puerto Rico Islanders *
Sun., June 14 at Miami FC
Fri., June 19, 7:30pm – Carolina Railhawks
Sun., June 21, 6pm – Rochester Rhinos
Sat., June 27 at Cleveland City Stars

JULY
Fri., July 3 at Cleveland City Stars *
Sun., July 5 at Rochester Rhinos
Sat., July 11, 7:30pm – Portland Timbers
Sat., July 18 at Minnesota Thunder
Sat., July 25, 7:30pm – Montreal Impact
Thu., July 30 at Charleston Battery

AUGUST
Sat., Aug. 1 at Carolina Railhawks
Sat., Aug. 8 at Rochester Rhinos
Sun., Aug. 16, 6pm – Minnesota Thunder
Sun., Aug. 23 at Montreal Impact *
Sat., Aug. 29, 7:30pm – Miami FC

SEPTEMBER
Wed., Sept. 2 at Vancouver Whitecaps
Sat., Sept. 5 at Miami FC – AUSTIN
Mon., Sept. 7, 6pm – Portland Timbers
Fri., Sept. 11 at Portland Timbers
Sun., Sept. 13 at Vancouver Whitecaps

Lots of home games early on, not so many later in the season. Perhaps that's because of the high school football games that will be played at Nelson in the fall. Some other kinks are unfortunate, such as the back-to-back home games against the Charleston Battery on June 5 & 7. But while it may not be a perfect, well-balanced schedule, the biggest problem I have with it right now is that it doesn't start for 3 months. Thank goodness for the upcoming exhibition games!

Update, 1/23: The full schedule was released by the USL today; also, here's the official Aztex story with the schedule.

Labels: media, USL-1

The brand-new Women's Professional Soccer league held their first draft yesterday, and four UT Longhorn players were selected.

University of Texas senior Kasey Moore led a group of four Longhorn soccer players picked in the inaugural Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league draft as the three-time National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) All-American was selected as the 15th overall pick Friday morning.

Seniors Stephanie Logterman and Jill Gilbeau were picked 20th and 22nd respectively, giving UT the second-most picks from a Division I school in the top 25 (three). Former UT standout Kelly (Wilson) Schmedes was the 44th selection, rounding out the Texas players in the draft.

The 4 draft picks in summary:

• Kasey Moore (pick #15) & Kelly Schmedes (UT alumna; pick #44) — Boston Breakers (with Angela Hucles & Kristine Lilly)


• Stephanie Logterman (pick #20) — St. Louis Athletica (with Hope Solo)


• Jill Gilbeau (pick #22) — Washington Freedom (with Abby Wambach & Cat Whitehill)

I'm looking forward to seeing how the WPS does. Their season starts on March 29, with a match between the Washington Freedom and the Los Angeles Sol. The Sol just signed Brazilian star Marta, two-time FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year, and her teammate Cristiane is looking at signing with "my team", the Chicago Red Stars. Watching the international stars will be fun, and now I can keep an eye out for a few of the women I saw at Myers Stadium last year, too.

Labels: UT, WPS

Huge news: Aztex FC has managed to schedule not one, not two but three exhibition games against MLS teams in the upcoming months. All three will be played at Nelson Field, the new home stadium of the Aztex.

• Feb. 28 vs. New England Revolution (4-time MLS finalists, 2007 Open Cup Champions, 2008 Superliga Champions)


• Mar. 7 vs. Houston Dynamo (2-time MLS Champions, 2008 Western Conference winners)


• Mar. 14 vs. Columbus Crew (2002 Open Cup Champions, 2-time Supporters Shield winners, 2008 MLS Champions)

Owner Phil Rawlins was on AM 1300's The Zone today to make the announcement. The story is on the team's site, and was also covered by the Statesman:

"Exhibitions are a great way to evaluate talent and since this will be our first-ever game action, I believe these games will allow us to really identify who will see considerable playing action in the upcoming season," said Aztex coach Adrian Heath.

These games are going to be fantastic. Sure it's offseason for the MLS teams, and the Aztex side won't even really be complete. But in terms of publicity and excitement and a demonstration of the seriousness of our Austin team, this could hardly be better. These aren't run-of-the-mill MLS squads, either: no San Jose, no Toronto, no Kansas City. They even made it easier on all of us FC Dallas fans — who would have been conflicted about who to cheer for — by inviting that other Texas team, the one that's easy to root against.

Best of all, it drastically brings in the date to look forward to: instead of being way out in mid-April, now it's just over 6 weeks until that Feb. 28 match against the Revs. Suddenly, instead of too much time, it almost seems like too little (key word, "almost").

Seating at Nelson Field is divided into two levels. Better is "Center Circle"; cheaper is "Sideline" (see chart). Tickets for the individual exhibition matches will be $30 and $20, respectively. If you buy season tickets ($290 for Center Circle; $240 for Sideline) before February 23, the MLS games are included. There's also an "MLS Madness" pack: the 3 MLS games plus 2 regular-season Aztex games ($100 or $70). Full details on the team website.

Labels: exhibition, MLS, USL-1

With most teams having played 20 games, the English Premier League's 38 games are more than halfway gone at this point. So, time again for another quick look at how Stoke City, the Aztex's partners across the pond, are doing. When I last wrote, after game 10, the Potters were sitting in the 15th spot, with a total of 10 points to their name.

Here's the league table as it stands today:

P	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Liverpool	20	13	6	1	35	13	+22	45
2	Chelsea	20	12	6	2	40	9	+31	42
3	Manchester United	18	11	5	2	29	10	+19	38
4	Aston Villa	20	11	5	4	33	22	+11	38
5	Arsenal	20	10	5	5	33	23	+10	35
6	Everton	20	9	5	6	27	25	+2	32
7	Wigan Athletic	19	8	4	7	24	21	+3	28
8	Hull City	20	7	6	7	28	37	−9	27
9	Fulham	19	6	8	5	18	14	+4	26
10	West Ham United	20	7	4	9	24	28	−4	25
11	Bolton Wanderers	20	7	2	11	22	28	−6	23
12	Portsmouth	20	6	5	9	21	33	−12	23
13	Manchester City	20	6	4	10	38	30	+8	22
14	Newcastle United	20	5	7	8	26	32	−6	22
15	Sunderland	20	6	4	10	21	29	−8	22
16	Tottenham Hotspur	20	5	5	10	20	25	−5	20
17	Middlesbrough	20	5	5	10	17	29	−12	20
18	Stoke City	20	5	5	10	18	33	−15	20
19	Blackburn Rovers	20	4	6	10	22	36	−14	18
20	West Bromwich Albion	20	5	3	12	16	35	−19	18

As you can see, our fellow red-and-white striped ones are sitting in the relegation zone, at 18th. However, it's worth noting that only 5 points separate 11th place (Bolton, with 23) from 20th (West Brom, with 18).

The Potters have also been faring poorly in non-league competitions, unfortunately. They were eliminated from the Carling Cup in a heartbreaking loss to Derby County in early December. The team that was relegated back to the Championship for this season pulled out a 1-0 win at literally the last minute:

Extra-time loomed but in injury-time, Andy Griffin was judged to have handled a cross from Kazmierczak, and referee Rob Styles awarded a spot-kick that Ellington rolled in right in front of the massed Derby ranks.

Ten seconds later, the game was over.

Their prospects in the FA Cup weren't much better, as they didn't even make it past the 3rd round. And again, they were upset by a lower level team. This time it was Hartlepool United — a side that was just promoted to League One (one level below the Championship) this year — that shut them out, 2-0.

Last I wrote, star midfielder Liam Lawrence was expected to come off the injury list "in November". In reality, he just made his first appearance in last Saturday's loss to Hartlepool. Hopefully his return will help make up for striker Mamady Sidibe's injury on Dec. 14, which is expected to keep him out until February.

Meanwhile, there may also be "problems in the dressing room", as they say. Ricardo Fuller was sent off in the 55th minute of the match against West Ham on Dec. 28, after slapping his own teammate, captain Andy Griffin (video).

So there's Stoke City FC, a little over halfway through their first season in the top flight in more than 20 years. There is still lots of time for the team to pull themselves out of the danger zone. As it happens, they have the same one-point-per-game average they had after 10 games. If they keep to that average, or even bump it up a bit, they should be okay.

The Potters will launch into their 2009 league games this Saturday, when 1st place Liverpool come to Britannia Stadium. The game will be broadcast live on Fox Soccer Channel at 11:30 AM CT.

Labels: Stoke City