Muchos líderes en nuestra comunidad han escogido una misión al cambiar las tendencias negativas para garantizar el bienestar de los latinos, aunque ellos no sean latinos por nacimiento. . . Concluimos el Mes de la Herencia Hispana con un gesto de gratitud a quienes adoptamos como “Latinos de corazón”.

#18 Invertir en futbol: Phil Rawlins » El empresario inglés nacionalizado estadounidense fundó Austin Aztex en 2008, donde juegan el cubano Yordany Álvarez y el mexicano Miguel Gallardo. Aztex organizó un partido contra futbolistas de Haití para ayudar a las víctimas del terremoto; dona equipo deportivo; e impulsa programas de ejercicio en las escuelas del área. Aztex también aboga por traer partidos de equipos mexicanos a Austin.

Read it all in Spanish, or translated by Google:

Many leaders in our community have chosen a mission to change the negative trends to ensure the welfare of Latinos, although they are not Hispanic by birth. . . We conclude Hispanic Heritage Month with a gesture of gratitude to those who adopt it as “Latinos at heart.”

#18 Investing in football: Phil Rawlins » The English-born American entrepreneur founded the Austin Aztex in 2008, where they play the Cuban Yordany Alvarez and the Mexican Miguel Gallardo. The Aztex organized a soccer match against Haiti to help earthquake victims, donate sports equipment, and encourages exercise programs in area schools. Aztex also calls for parties to bring Mexican teams to Austin.

Nice work by Austin, up almost 26% thanks (in part, I would guess, ERic could set me straight) to the move from a high school football stadium to a better high school football stadium. Now the NASL (tee hee) says they’ll have a team in San Antonio in 2012, which would be a great carrot to try to get Austin to align with them if only (a) it was 2011 and not 2012, (b) we had a reasonable expectation that there’d actually be a team in San Antonio in 2012 and (c) we had a reasonable expectation there will be an NASL in 2012. Or 2011, for that matter.

Includes stats and (funny, snarky) commentary for teams across the league. Read it all.

The show will focus mainly on our Aztex, but also have some information on the Houston Dynamo and FC Dallas. There may possibly be one more episode this season during the playoffs, but we’re really looking forward to launching this show for the entire 2011 season!

The show will air on Time Warner Cable channel 888. To see the schedule of broadcast times, read it all.

Update: For people (like me) whose channels don’t go that high, the Lonestar Soccer Report video is also available on YouTube, in 3 parts.

• Segment 1 (8:55)

• Segment 2 (6:11)

  
  

• Segment 3 (7:00)

• In The Mixer, Chantico’s Army — “Join Matthew and Eric weekly as they discuss the Austin Aztex, USSF Division II and the world of soccer with guests from around the globe.” They’ll apparently invite anyone on this one; for example, I’m one of the guests on this week’s episode. But it’s pretty good anyway. Also available for free on the iTunes store.

• Futból en Vivo, KOOP 91.7FM, Tuesdays at 1:00 PM — “A bilingual soccer program with a first half hour in Spanish and the second one in English. A program with news and events related to the sport around the city (Longhorns soccer, Austin Aztex, Austin city league) and the world. It will include analysis of the World Cup in South Africa, listener participation and commentaries about how soccer explains the world.” Also available for free on the iTunes store.

• Aztex Coach’s Show, AM1300 “The Zone”, Wednesdays at 6:30 PM — I don’t have a link or a web-ready blurb for this one; I guess AM radio stations aren’t on the cutting edge of Interweb high technology. It’s a half hour of chat with head coach Adrian Heath, and it’s a real gem. He’s a real sports junkie, and a natural on the mic. He talks Aztex (of course) as well as soccer around the world. (The killer for me on this one is that I never remember to listen to it when it’s on. Thankfully it’s recorded and MP3′d for members of Chantico’s Army, available on their site, logged-in members only. Don’t tell anyone.

Best 2010 Aztex Comeback Player: Jamie Watson — Watson’s become a big fan favorite, and his penetrating pace on the left flank is one of the big reasons for the team’s surprising success this season.

Best 2010 Aztex Newcomer: Maxwell Griffin — the Aztex’s youngest starter burst out of UCLA to become the league’s third-leading scorer at press time (and second on the team, after last year’s player of the year Eddie Johnson).

Read it all.

This was the Cosmos of Pelé, Beckenbauer and Chinaglia (and Shep Messing in goal – I’m not sure he’s quite the legend that those guys are, but he’s still around American soccer today, so that’s pretty cool). It was the Sounders of, well, nobody you’ve heard of unless you were a NASL fan in the late 70s.

Which I was not. I don’t remember hearing or seeing the slightest bit of soccer of any kind back then, when I was a kid. I therefore have zero nostalgia for the original NASL. I’m interested in it, fascinated, even; I have both seen and read Once In A Lifetime. I’m not knocking NASL nostalgia, I’m just putting it out there that I have none of my own. (One bonus this afforded me: I didn’t know who won this match.)

Nevertheless, watching this DVD was an absolute blast. The soccer itself is fun to watch, and it’s certainly bizarre to see those legends play a full game. And of course it’s not “just” a regular-season game, it’s the championship, as well as Pelé’s last game as a Cosmo (excepting the farewell match vs. Santos). This is the match that Brian Phillips wrote about on Run of Play during his recent “Pelé Week”. So it’s epic, but I’ll be honest: it was the retro aspects of the broadcast, the short shorts, the big mustaches, etc., that really made it for me.

These screenshots are a bit fuzzy — they’re not exactly from an HD broadcast — but I think they’ll give you a flavor of the game.

Title Screen!

U.S. National Team Coach Walt Chyzowych, right
(yes, really, the right)

Hey, who’s that guy?

At halftime, they showed the presentation of league MVP Franz Beckenbauer with a brand new Celica liftback. He was “very happy to drive so beautiful car.”

League MVP and Celica liftback owner Franz Beckenbauer gets a yellow card

Pelé again. Beckham sure wasn’t the first to get an inordinate amount of camera attention in his U.S. games

The commentary that accompanies this game is great, too. Like the game itself, it’s pretty good overall, but has quite the retro quaintness (quaint retro-ness?). Like the announcers explaining that the player can go out of bounds but the ball can’t, for example, or just the same kind of corny chit-chat that we hear today, but rewound a few decades.

And there are commercial breaks! The actual commercials are edited out (which from a time-capsule standpoint is unfortunate), but there are clear breaks. There’s even a goal scored during one of them.

I highly recommend checking out at least one of Dave’s videos. You’ve seen clips and plays and highlights of these players on YouTube, but seeing a full game, whistle to whistle, is a whole ‘nother thing. The site is davebrett.com. You can email Dave for ordering info; I believe he charges $20 per disc. It’s worth it; chip in with a few buddies if you want to lower the cost. (And speaking of buddies, if you know me in real life, let me know if you’d like to borrow this one.)

As you might guess from a site with “rumors” in its name, and which deals mostly in headlines with question marks at the end, they should be ignored. They’re trolling for page-views, and I’m not going to contribute by linking to them. (You can Google them easily enough, though I assure you: you’re not missing anything.)

Neither I nor anyone I know has heard the slightest hints of anything like this. Further, a fellow Aztex fan (thanks, Jeff!) sent me this statement, which he received from Aztex CEO Djorn Buchholz:

“I can assure you that the rumors you heard on MLSRumors.com are just that, rumors. This club has no intention of playing D3 soccer. Yes, the new D2 standards are quite strict, but our ownership group has assisted US Soccer in setting those guidelines and we meet them. I do appreciate your email and rest assured, we will play D2 Soccer for years to come.”

Update: Brian Quarstad at Inside Minnesota Soccer has more on this: Quelling Rumors – A USSF D2 Update. He adds a statement from Rochester Rhinos owner Rob Clark, and he has a good summary of what kind of shape all the teams, current as well as possible future, look like.

From the time the first whistle was blown, I was hooked. The Aztex completed their season sweep of Miami during the July 31st contest, with a final score of 3-1. Austin goals were scored by Eddie Johnson (assisted by Leonard Griffin) ; Lawrence Olum (assisted by Jamie Watson) and Kendell McFayden (assisted by Yordany Alvarez). The game itself was exciting, but what really made the experience special was how the players interacted with the crowd. After the game concluded the team opens up the fence and allows fans to go on the field for autographs. It was really inspiring to see the athletes interacting with the children especially.

Good story by D’Ann Faught, a football and hockey fan giving soccer a shot. Read it all.

(This story was also run on the Aztex website, so I’m sure they saw this, but hint hint to the Aztex front office: read her About page, and hire her.

I fell in love with soccer growing up in New York City in the 1970s. I was a fan of the New York Cosmos of the North American Soccer League (NASL). Fifteen years ago I started collecting videos of the original broadcasts of NASL games. I now have over 350 DVDs of NASL games, listed below.

In the late 1980s I started following the US National Soccer Team, and I now have about 250 videos of those games.

All of these games are the complete original broadcasts. I can record on DVD. I would prefer to trade for NASL matches. However, if you have nothing to trade, please e-mail me and I will send ordering instructions.

Dave has a truly amazing, one-of-a-kind archive of American soccer history. Check it out.