The Aztex had an eventful start to their 2-game trip in Portland on Thursday night. Though they gained a point, they lost some personnel for the trip to Vancouver. First Lawrence Olum injured his hamstring in practice, then both Kieron Bernard and coach Adrian Heath were ejected from the game, which of course earns them both a ban from the Vancouver match (at least).

Before I get to the match reports, allow me a moment to rant about the video. It was disgraceful. The amount of video buffering we had to endure, and the time delay that the buffering caused, made the game simply unwatchable. I was actually glad we didn’t have a bunch of new fans join us for this mid-week, late-night watch event, because it would have been about the worst first impression imaginable.

For all of the standards that the USSF is cooking up, here’s a humble suggestion for whoever runs the Division 2 league next year: make the teams’ video not totally suck.

These free broadcasts are clearly not intended to attract new fans; the quality is so poor that if anything, they would have the opposite effect anyway. Therefore they must be primarily watched — and given the quality, I honestly don’t know how much watching is actually happening — by hardcore supporters. For our sakes, I’d almost rather not have any video at all, than these broadcasts that would embarrass a middle-school audio/video class.

Here’s a rundown of other post-match coverage:

  • box score — USSF

  • Aztex Steal a Draw at Portland — AustinAztex.com

    In the 56th minute, the tide changed in favor of Portland after Bernard was given a second yellow for a tackle on the Aztex defensive half of the field. Following the card, the Aztex defense tightened up and absorbed the plethora of shots to close out the remaining 30 minutes and improved to 1-2-2 against Portland all-time.

  • Austin Aztex 1, Portland Timbers 1 :: Match Report — Chantico’s Army

    Sullivan Silva, who was making his first start in quite some time, seemed to take a giant leap in a return to form. Silva has had a hard time coming back from a knee injury early in the season, and although getting time in many matches, has done so coming off the bench. His touches have seemed uncharacteristically heavy, and his magic with the ball absent. However, on Thursday night he seemed to have some of that “Brazilian Samba” back, as he was able to break past Timbers defenders on multiple times. Finally, in the 27’, Silva took the next step in his recovery when he scored his second goal of the season, the first since the July 31 match against Miami FC.

    [Note: Chantico's Army gaffer Matthew Gray attended the game in person; don't miss this in-depth report.]

  • 14,985 Witness a Wild One At PGE Park — Dropping Timber blog

    Suddenly, Aztex manager Adrian Heath is given a red card and ejected from the match after an exchange of words with an official on the sideline. Heath would then walk off the field and head towards the North End, first passing by Gavin Wilkinson and shaking his hand, then walking up into the stands, finding a seat in the rafters, leaning back with a dejected-look smeared across his face and proceed to watch the match amongst the fans. Strange. Simply bizarre and I’ll admit, also kinda awesome. Eventually, Heath was escorted back to the locker room.

    [Note: That blog post is also very lengthy, but I can summarize it for you: 'boo-hoo, the Aztex did exactly what every team on Earth would have done when they went a man down on the road at the beginning of the second half, boo-hoo, we like to think Portland is a great team this season despite all evidence to the contrary, therefore Austin must have cheated or been unsportsmanlike or something, boo-hoo.']

  • Video: Aug. 26, 2010 Highlights vs. Austin Aztex (4:27) — TimbersFC on YouTube

The next game for Austin, just 3 days after this one, will be the Vancouver Whitecaps on Sunday, kickoff at 6 PM CT.