Mon. Mar. 5, 2012
Austin, TX

“It was a really difficult decision to accept Portland’s offer. Eddie has become a firm favorite amongst the Aztex fans and is a leader both on and off the field for our club,” Aztex President Phil Rawlins said. “However, in consultation with Coach Adrian Heath, we both agreed that this was a move in Eddie’s best interest.”

He’s one of just four announced so far, and the only one that’s not already a Timber. Read it all.

“Yohance did quite well getting thrown into things quick,” Galaxy coach Bruce Arena said. “He did a decent job and played with a lot of confidence. He’s going to be a candidate to be in our First XI Friday.

“He was with us all last year and he returned to us from Austin as a better player. I know he’s going to help contribute to our team for the remainder of the year.”

Read it all.

Football shares a few parallels with life in general. One of those parallels is a significant one: Getting a chance to prove yourself isn’t always a given.

For Yohance Marshall, it’s a parallel he knows very well. Standing tall at 6’2″ (1.88 m), this defender from Trinidad & Tobago has yet to shine on game day for the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Currently, he is playing for the Austin Aztex in the USSF Division 2 Professional League on loan from the Gs. One day, his experience playing on the back line at House Park will translate to many memorable matches at the Home Depot Center.

Read it all.

Inevitably, this feeling reminds me of the end of the 2006 World Cup, when I really fell in love with soccer. I’d gotten hooked on the daily dosage in the group stages, they were a gateway drug to the bigger and bigger games, and then: the end. It’s over, cold turkey. What now? Where’s my fix?!

I still remember heading to The Google with a question that seems absurd now, and will strike regular readers of this blog as silly, as well: “Do they play soccer in the U.S., too?”

If you wondered the same thing, and your search brought you here, I have good news: Indeed they do play soccer in the U.S. They play it at all levels, and in lots of cities across the country. They even play soccer right here in Austin!

Here’s a quick overview of what’s on offer here in Austin, elsewhere in Texas and elsewhere in America.

Major League Soccer (MLS) — This is the top level of U.S. soccer, the best of the best. Like any pro league, it features players from all over the world, not just Americans. David Beckham (LA Galaxy), for example; you might have heard of him. He’s on the injury list at the moment, but there are other relatively famous players plying their trade in MLS: Mexico’s Cuauhtémoc Blanco (Chicago Fire) and Sweden’s Freddie Ljungberg (Seattle Sounders) to name a couple. They’ll be joined later this month by France’s Thierry Henry (Red Bull New York).

Some of the guys you saw play for the U.S. men’s national team also play in MLS: Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake), Edson Buddle (LA Galaxy) and — last but certainly not least — Landon Donovan (LA Galaxy).

There are 16 teams in MLS this year, with 2 more (Portland and Vancouver) next season. That includes 2 Texas teams: FC Dallas and the Houston Dynamo. Dallas is “my” MLS team, the one I landed on after my search four years ago. To this day that’s who I follow, including a trip or two per season to Dallas to see them in person.

Division 2 (USSF-D2) — As is pretty obvious from the name, this is the second level of soccer in the U.S. It was formerly called “USL-1″, but due to some ownership and league drama that I won’t go into here, it’s being run this year directly by the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF). Like MLS, it’s a league of paid professional athletes. The 12 teams are in smaller cities, and the players aren’t as famous (yet), but the play can still be very good.

This is where Austin comes in: the Austin Aztex are a USSF-D2 team. (In fact, so far this season, they’re the best USSF-D2 team.) The Aztex franchise launched here in 2008, and now I can go to a lot more games, and without road-tripping four hours up I-35 first.

Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) — This is a new league, in just its second season. Despite some growing pains (two teams have been added, but two others have folded since last year), the quality of play from these 7 teams is also excellent. Some of the very best women players in the world play in WPS. These include U.S. national team stars like Hope Solo (Atlanta Beat), Abby Wambach (D.C.’s Washington Freedom) and Natasha Kai (New Jersey’s Sky Blue FC), as well as foreign stars like England’s Eniola Aluko (Atlanta), France’s Sonia Bompastor (Washington) and Brazil’s 4-time FIFA Women’s Player of the Year, Marta (San Jose’s FC Gold Pride).

Premier Development League (PDL) — Broadly speaking, most of the more than 70 teams that make up the PDL are college players getting game time on their summer break. So, their season is short (May to July), and many of the teams are amateur. The Aztex fielded a team at this level in 2008 and 2009 (the Aztex U-23s), but not this season.

There are other leagues, USL-2, PASL, MISL and W-League, not to mention college teams, but these are the ones I’m most familiar with. Hopefully this overview will get you started in your search for soccer closer to home than Johannesburg.

In addition to the jumping-off point that I hope this list of leagues, teams and players will give you, I’ll add this editorial, free of charge.

You may have heard, or will hear, that soccer in the U.S. isn’t as good as soccer in England. Or Mexico, or Italy, or Spain, or the 63rd moon of Jupiter, or wherever. In some cases that’s obviously true. The West Texas United Sockers are a decent PDL team, but they’ll never hold a candle to FC Barcelona. In other cases it’s less clear-cut: the LA Galaxy on a good day would give most Premier League teams a run for their money, at least.

But even supposing for a minute that it’s a fact that U.S. soccer is somehow inherently inferior than Fox Soccer Channel’s marquee match of the week, I still urge you to find a local team and go to a few games. (One game isn’t really enough. If you watched enough World Cup you already know that sometimes, matches between even the best teams can be less than thrilling.)

But if you can watch the top teams from across the world play all weekend long on ESPN, why bother? For one thing, for the sport to evolve here to the level of those other countries (and moons), there needs to be fan support, butts in seats, tickets sold, nachos bought, salaries paid, etc. It’s a whole supply-and-demand kind of thing. Or demand-and-supply, or something. Look, this isn’t an economics blog.

But completely aside from any “for the good of the sport” sermon, live soccer is different than — better than — soccer on TV. It’s a hi-def, surround-sound, panoramic view and you don’t need special glasses to see it in 3D. Get to know your team, your players, at your home ground. Feel the glory of the wins, the crush of the losses and the everything-in-between of the draws, right there in the stands with your fellow fans.

Also, you may not realize what you’re missing watching on TV, where the camera naturally follows the ball most of the time. There’s more going on than where the ball happens to be at any given moment. There’s the flow, the formation, the positioning of the players. Not to mention the tension and excitement of the crowd around you. When you’re sitting in the stands, you can take it all in.

It’s a beautiful game. See you there.

[This post is not really related to the original Hi, America. Welcome to Soccer post in anything but title. In fact, it's aimed at a completely opposite audience. Oh, well. I started with wanting to tell the legions of new soccer fans that I'm sure now exist in Austin about the Aztex, but it kind of spiraled out of control. I also wanted to make sure search sites know I'm in Austin, writing about pro soccer, specifically the Aztex soccer team. Soccer. Austin. Catch that, Google?]

Update, 7/12/10: This post by photographer AustinPixels gets to the point I was originally after. It manages to do it with far fewer words, and without straying to Jupiter or WPS. In defense of my wordiness, he used pictures, and those are worth a thousand words each.

The Aztex’s 2010 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup run is over, halted once again by an MLS opponent. The team with the best record in USSF-D2 (9-2-3) went up against a team with one of the worst in MLS (3-9-1), but Chivas USA managed to get — and hold — a 1-goal lead.

There was no video broadcast of this match, so those of us that stayed up to follow the west-coast game did so via Twitter or the Scorecrow gamecast.

Here’s a rundown of post-match coverage:

• Chivas USA scores early, holds on for win in U.S. Open Cup — LA Daily News

  The Aztex created another solid scoring opportunity in the 67th minute when Eddie Johnson, who shares the same name as the former U.S. national player, had his point-blank header pushed out of play by Thornton.

  Johnson took advantage of a solid curving corner kick from defender Kevin Sakuda. Thornton’s save bounced back to Olum, but the former Missouri Baptist standout had a second attempt ricochet off a defender and out of play.

  Austin outshot Chivas 9-7, but the home team posted five shots on goal to four for the Aztex.

• Aztex Bow Out of U.S. Open Cup to MLS Competition — AustinAztex.com
  

  Chivas USA Head Coach Martín Vásquez, on tonight’s match: “I thought we did well against a good team. I like the way we approached the game. We were serious, we were disciplined, and we created some good chances. That’s all positive at this time where we need to reinforce and have something to build on.”

• Photos: Chivas USA vs. Austin Aztex photo gallery — Dentro del Rebaño (official Chivas USA blog)

The Aztex are now back in Texas, preparing to host the Puerto Rico Islanders this Saturday evening at House Park.

After defeating the PDL’s DFW Tornados and the amateur Arizona Sahuaros, the Austin Aztex get a change of both competition and scenery in the 2010 U.S. Open Cup on Tuesday.

With two straight home games to start the tournament in the books, the Aztex are finally forced to hit the road for the round of 16 matchup against the MLS’ Chivas USA.

The game will be the first of the U.S. Open Cup for Chivas USA, as MLS teams are introduced to the tournament in the round of 16. Austin reached this game by defeating the DFW Tornados, 3-0, and the Arizona Sahuaros, 3-1.

There’s no word yet that any video will be available for this match, which kicks off at 9:30 PM CT. I’ll update this post if I hear anything about video availability. In any case, if we can find anyone to send texts or tweets from the game, then you can follow the Scorecrow gamecast.

The team will keep its historic name – the Timbers – as it makes its ascent to MLS in 2011; the new primary mark embodies this monumental move to top-flight professional soccer, while prominently carrying forward elements of the team’s considerable history and paying tribute to the heritage and traditions that led to Portland becoming “Soccer City USA.”

The Whitecaps announced their logo just before Austin played Portland, and now Portland unveil theirs just before we play Vancouver. I like this one all right, too. It’s updated, but keeps the essence of their current crest.

“Today was a historic moment for our club, our fans, and our city. I believe our fans and our players will take immense pride in wearing the logo we’ve unveiled here today – and that it will set the tone for the many great years to come,” stated Whitecaps FC chief executive officer Paul Barber. “Having now shared the basis of our club’s new identity, I know our fans will be even more anxious to show their pride and see it come to life in the stands and on the pitch – so I’m also pleased to share the news that we are offering fans the chance to secure their opportunity to be there when we kick off the 2011 season.”

The Whitecaps are one of several to make the jump from USL/Division-2 to MLS. They become a Major League club next year, along with the Portland Timbers (who will unveil their new logo next week). Both clubs hope to see the kind of astounding success that their regional rival Seattle Sounders have had since they became an MLS franchise last year. And on the other end of Canada, the Montreal Impact plan to also join MLS in 2012.

Meanwhile, back here in 2010, the Aztex will host the Division-2 version of the Vancouver Whitecaps here at House Park on Saturday at 7:30PM.