The Aztexan

Time to start taking a closer look at other expansion teams in the Aztex universe. Let's start in the PDL, with the first new team to join the Aztex U23s in the Mid South Division: Midland's West Texas United.

The team was announced on Sept. 15.

United Soccer Leagues announced Monday that the ownership of the Midland RockHounds minor league baseball team unveiled plans to bring a new level of soccer to West Texas with a Premier Development League franchise. The team will begin play in spring of 2009 at Grande Communications Stadium next door to the home of the ‘Hounds at the Scharbauer Sports Complex.

The full name of the team is yet to be announced, and will be the result of a name-the-team contest (I think leaving it at just "West Texas United" would be cool, but maybe modern day sports marketing forbids such subtlety).

The "primary" name for the new soccer team is derived from the largest youth club soccer organization in the Permian Basin: West Texas United Soccer Club.

Utilizing the name for the new PDL team was a joint decision. The PDL team is not "taking over" the youth programs. Instead, the two will work jointly to create and advance the best possible atmosphere for the sport of soccer in the Permian Basin.

An interesting aspect of this organization is their existing sports-business experience: they also own the minor league baseball team Midland Rockhounds. The Rockhounds play in the Double-A "Texas League" (not in the higher level Triple-A league the Round Rock Express play in).

The club will be operated by RockHounds co-owners Miles Prentice and Bob Richmond and staffed by the existing baseball front office. RockHounds general manager Monty Hoppel says that, although the sports share the same playing season (spring / summer), the two will make an outstanding combination.

“We think the soccer team will compliment the RockHounds season, rather than compete with it,” Hoppel said. “The (eight) soccer home dates will fall when the RockHounds are on the road so, really, we have the best of both worlds.”

The Rockhounds management seem to know what they're doing on the baseball side of things; the team was recognized as the top minor league baseball franchise in the nation in 2007. Time will tell if they can run a soccer team as well.

The new club's experience doesn't stop there. They've also named Jesus Enriquez as head coach.

The native of Delicias, Chihuahua, Mexico brings a decade of coaching experience to the new franchise, nine of those seasons coming with the El Paso Patriots of the USL. Enriquez served as an assistant coach with the club from 1998-2002, and was named head coach in 2003, guiding the Patriots to a pair of division titles in four seasons. His 2005 team reached the PDL championship game, falling in overtime (6-5 on penalty kicks after a 0-0 draw in regulation time) in the title game.

...Enriquez’ playing career included two stints with the Patriots in El Paso (1991-94 and 1997), twice being named the team’s captain. He also played for USL clubs in El Paso (the Gallos) and Phoenix, as well as the Mexican First Division, and was a member of the 1985-86 Mexican University National Team which competed in the World University Games in Kobe, Japan.

One aspect of the new Midland team that was known from day one — earlier, really — was where they would play. They'll be at Grande Communications Stadium, the football-field half of the Scharbauer Sports Complex (Citibank Ballpark being the baseball-field half). Here's the Google Maps satellite view. It looks like a beautiful facility, though it's clearly built for throwball, and the 15,000 seats might look pretty empty for PDL games.

A hearty welcome to our new Mid South rivals. I imagine El Paso is happy to have a team practically next door (only 4 hours away; that's "next door" in west Texas terms, right?) In future posts we'll take a look at the newly-promoted USL-1 side Cleveland City Stars and the other Texas PDL expansion team, the Rio Grande Valley Bravos.

Labels: rivals, U-23, USL-1

I went down to get a first-hand look at our new stadium today. And I took my camera: here's my 36-picture Nelson Field photo set on Flickr.

One slight difficulty in getting a view of the place was the fence. There's chain link fence around the stands, of course, and everything's chained up, as you'd expect. But the entire rest of the field is surrounded by a green, 8-foot-high, solid metal fence. You simply cannot see anything through it at all. I wondered if it was just for construction, but it looks pretty permanent to me. I'm not kidding when I say that a shorter correspondent would not have been able to get some of these pictures of the field. But, while not pretty, maybe this Green Monster will have a silver lining, if it keeps in all the home field noise of the crowd.

As you may be able to tell, I just walked all the way around the stadium — clockwise starting on the west side, if you're looking at the satellite view — snapping away as I went.

One thing you'll notice immediately is that the lovely grass soccer pitch visible in Google Maps' satellite view is no more. We knew that had been replaced in recent years with Field Turf, but you can see it in full color here, down to the bright white throwball lines. The track surrounding the field is all new, too, not that it makes much difference what color the big separator between the pitch and the stands is.

The bottom line, in my opinion, is that it's more or less like Dragon Stadium, where the U-23s played this year. It is, after all, a high school football stadium. Granted that I didn't get a very close look. And, the field surface is new, which is good. But otherwise it doesn't seem either especially great, or especially terrible.

That's the stadium itself. The location is definitely an improvement, being much more central (obviously) than Round Rock High School was last season. Hopefully it will be that much easier for lots of folks to get to. As you can see in the pictures and the satellite view, there's a good deal of parking right around the stadium. I don't know if that's enough parking for a capacity crowd, but it's certainly got House Park beat on that count.

As visible in one picture, there's a Capital Metro bus stop right on the edge of the parking lot. It's for route 300; I don't know whether people will use that for game-day transportation or not.

There's still some scouting to be done to find the best nearby watering hole (Nomad Bar, about a mile and a half away, seems promising). And there's an El Regio stand very close by, too. You haven't had truly excellent chicken until you've had El Regio chicken (available in 2 sizes: half or whole).

For this post, I just wanted to make a quick fact-finding run and see it in person. What I found was about what I expected: a quiet, empty high school football stadium. Not anything awesome, but that's perfectly okay. We all know this isn't the ultimate home of the Austin Aztex. Look no further than the very announcement, in which the possibility of a future at House Park is already hinted at.

And even that, hopefully, isn't where our Aztex will wind up playing forever. Someday we'll have — Chantico willing — our very own stadium, just for our sport and just for our teams. Until then, Nelson Field will be more than fine.

The Aztex have a house; it'll be up to the team and the fans to make it a home!

Labels: stadium, USL-1

I caught the following short (less than a minute) Aztex story on News8Austin last night: Head Coach Adrian Heath talking about the new stadium.


Speaking of Coach Heath, here's a nice story in The Echo, the Liverpool evening paper, on his immigration to Texas: Everton legend Adrian 'Inchy' Heath's big Texan dream.

"The difference [in US soccer] between now and when the likes of Pele, Bobby Moore and George Best came over, is night and day. It was almost like a circus then, with players at the end of their careers, but everything is geared to the future now.

"The potential is world class."

There is clearly potential in Austin, too. Heath is not one for making bold declarations but the team he put together this summer to see what he had to work with captured the imagination of locals... "We’ve got some decent kids here and word is starting to spread."

"We just want to try and build something that we have had at home, and in a few years we’ll have a thriving academy and the players who have passed through will be making a name for themselves.”

Last (and probably least), I was flipping through the latest issue of the free, by-mail Community Impact paper (Northwest Austin edition), and saw this. It was in their section on new area businesses. They seem to think it's a store, but bad press is better than no press, right?

Labels: media, stadium, USL-1

Announced in today's Statesman: Aztex set to play at Nelson Field. They acknowledged not getting the location most fans were hoping for, House Park, but that's still not ruled out in the future.

"We always wanted to play as close to downtown as we could," Rawlins said.

But the stadium closest to downtown, House Park, will be unavailable to the Aztex in 2009 because of ongoing locker room renovations.

Rawlins says a multiyear deal with the Austin school district gives the team an option to move to House Park in 2010, but Nelson Field, adjacent to Reagan High, will be the team's home when it begins play April 18.

It doesn't specify, but presumably both the USL-1 and PDL teams will play there. The article also has this hint about players moving up from this year's PDL squad:

Rawlins expects up to six members of the Aztex PDL club to be promoted to the USL-1 team. The rest of the roster will be filled in the USL draft of college players and by signing free agents.

Update: Phil Rawlins was also on AM 1300 with the stadium news this morning. I can't find a link directly to their post, but go to AM 1300 The Zone and look for "Soccer in Austin!!", dated "Friday 12-05-2008 8:33am CT"

Labels: stadium, U-23, USL-1

The Austin Aztex FC have announced a new partnership with Mexican Primera División (first division) team Club de Fútbol Monterrey. Monterrey is commonly known as Rayados, "the striped ones", due to their blue and white striped kit.

A summary of the alliance between the two clubs:

• Players: Aztex FC will scout Central & Southern Texas for talent for Monterrey, and be a feeder club for them. Aztex players may be loaned to Rayados, and Monterrey will provide up to 2 players to the Aztex


• Travel: Monterrey will come to Austin to play exhibition games, and the Aztex will be able to go to Monterrey for pre-season training. Also, an Austin-area youth team will be hosted by Monterrey for a week each year


• Knowledge: in addition to sharing "best practices", Rayados coaches will participate in Aztex summer soccer camps, and Aztex coaches will have the opportunity to go to Monterrey and "shadow" their coaches for a week each year

Aztex FC worked with Monterrey earlier this year, when they hosted a round of youth friendlies in Austin which included the Stoke City U18s, Rayados 92/93 and the Lonestars. It seems that event was a better basis for partnership than the exhibition game in June against Monterrey's other club, UANL Tigres. Though the tremendous turnout at that Aztex v. Tigres match — tickets were $30 & $35, remember &mdash demonstrated the value of such a partnership.

So, who is Monterrey? Here's the little bit I've learned so far. The 2008 "Apertura" season (one of 2 seasons played each year in the Mexican league) is currently in Liguilla (playoffs). The Rayados, however, didn't make it that far this season. Nor did they quality for Mexico's InterLiga, unfortunately, which will be played in Dallas, Houston & Los Angeles. The next season, Clausura 2009 will start Jan. 16.

Personally, I'm pretty excited about this partnership. Now Aztex players will have avenues not just to English soccer, via Stoke City, but also to Mexican football. And in addition to such direct benefits, as listed above, a deal like this is just cool. Being international is part of what makes soccer so interesting. Contrast a deal like this with the global connections of the Round Rock Express or the Austin Wranglers (hint: there aren't any, and there never will be).

It instantly creates the possibility for cross-team fandom: now I have a Mexican team to follow. And hopefully, some Rayados fans, whether in Monterrey or here in Austin, will feel the same way about the Aztex. Just take a look at the view from their stadium!

(Or for that matter, from that same blog, take a look at the view inside their stadium... ;-)

I hope it works out well for all involved, and stays vibrant. Aside from the annual Rio Grande Plate, FC Dallas' partnership with UANL Tigres doesn't seem to have amounted to all that much. Regardless, here's looking forward to lots of good cross-border excitement between the red striped ones and the blue striped ones!

Labels: Rayados, U-23, USL-1

I've been seeing a good deal of "USL vs. MLS" talk lately. Stuff like:

• "How does MLS get away with stealing USL's markets?"


• "If MLS is the top level league, why are they getting their butts kicked in the CONCACAF Champions League while USL teams are cruising through?"


• "How did a lowly USL-1 side like Charleston Battery almost knock off powerhouse DC United in the US Open Cup?"


• "What role did MLS expansion plans play in the demise of the Atlanta Silverbacks?"

If you're looking for answers, you've come to the right place. I'm here to give the definitive solution to the real question that underlies all these:

How should these two American leagues relate to each other?

But first, let's step back and get some perspective. A good place to start is the fine 3-part series PotomacSoccerWire.com ran recently: Thriving in the shadows: The survival, and success, of the United Soccer Leagues. That short introduction includes links to all 3 parts, which are worth reading in full.

Part I: DC United exes find greener pastures in Vancouver

"I think players-wise, there should be more loaning back and forth," [Vancouver Whitecap Jay Nolly] said. "At the end of the season MLS should be looking [at USL] — the USL players have a lot more experience than going and getting a guy out of college. I almost think the USL should be more of a feeder system than a lot of the college system."

... Another common view is that USL players are typically just biding their time before an opportunity to move up to MLS presents itself. But Nolly and Moose offer a striking contrast to that idea as well: both men are happy with the Whitecaps and eager to help the club defend its championship in 2009.

So here are two seemingly contradictory statements: "MLS should be more interested in recruiting experienced USL players" on the one hand, and "some USL players are perfectly content to play at that level indefinitely" on the other. But that's not contradictory, that's perfect. There is (or could be) a path for advancement to higher league play, but there's also an acceptable and satisfying level for those who don't follow that path.

Part II: Season of success cues bullish outlook

"MLS clearly approaches [the Open Cup & Champions League play] differently — 'we'll get by one way or the other,'" adds [USL President Francisco] Marcos. "But guess what? The difference isn't enough for them to be able to take that attitude. We go to those games like our life depends on it — our reputation, our credibility depends on it. The results speak for themselves."

Those results have added lots of fuel to the "USL vs. MLS" fires. But some of the conclusions jumped to don't stand up to scrutiny.

For one, it's the nature of these kinds of competitions, especially the Open Cup, to result in upsets. Look at England's Carling Cup: as of the 5th round, 3 of the 8 teams left are from the 2nd division, and European superpower Chelsea was eliminated by Burnley in the most recent round. But does anyone argue that the Championship rivals the Premiership? Of course not.

Secondly, as in every league in the world, there are disparities between the teams that dominate year after year and those that always seem to languish further down the table. That is, just because the a league's best teams do well, that doesn't necessarily mean the whole league would be competitive at a higher level.

Part III: MLS expansion leaves United Soccer Leagues wary

"They have named five out of seven markets for possible expansion that are our markets, three of which are our clubs themselves," said USL President Francisco Marcos in an interview last week. "Are we flattered by that? Yes. But we can't eat flattery. Are we happy about it? Absolutely not. Can we do a whole lot about it? Not a lot."

..."There's other things that we're going to be demanding because we don't just want to become just simply the feeder, the testers of MLS grounds such as Rochester, which didn't happen. Montreal, which may happen. Vancouver, which may happen. Portland, which may very well happen," he noted. "Places that MLS would have never thought about if we weren't there."

I have a lot of respect for Marcos and all he's done for soccer in the U.S., but I'm afraid he comes off as a bit of a whiner in this piece. He hints that the USL may already be hip to my Grand Theory (coming up here in another thousand words or so), but I wish he wouldn't play the poor victim. Though what do I know? Maybe the USL is indeed the poor victim, and they've been majorly screwed by Major League Soccer. Either way, I couldn't agree more that it isn't fair for MLS to take advantage of USL's work.

Okay, that does it for PotomacSoccer.com's series. Our last exhibit is this piece by Mitch Howard on Major League Soccer Talk, USL Needs to Compete Directly against MLS.

The United Soccer Leagues has been a doormat to the MLS for too long. They have allowed MLS to walk all over them. MLS has taken multiple cities from the USL to put into their league and have not suffered any kind of legal troubles or image issues.

... History shows that the USL should compete directly against MLS. In both the history of football and basketball in the U.S., leagues have merged and absorbed each other.

Howard is taking the dramatic viewpoint here, casting MLS as the villain and USL tied to the tracks, feebly crying for help. Yet despite this difference in power, his proposed solution is a merger similar to those of the American Football League and the American Basketball Association.

The first argument (and the only one needed, really) against the head-to-head league idea is that FIFA prohibits it. FIFA countries are simply not allowed to have competing first division leagues. It's as true today as it was in 1967, when the NPSL and USA merged to become the NASL.

But even apart from that, the arguments against such a competition are legion. Soccer is an international sport, while American football and basketball aren't (and were even less in the 1960s). Once upon a time, those sports could get away with competing leagues, for a while at least. They could tweak the rules, snipe players from each other, etc., and it was all in a kind of U.S.-only vacuum. With our modern soccer leagues already dying to woo fans of "real" soccer abroad, such tactics are unthinkable.

The other side of this international coin is that the U.S., in both national team competitions and the club-level transfer market, would be held back by such domestic squabbling and rivalry.

Which brings us, at long last, to the big answer to the big question: 42. No, wait, that's a different story. This big answer is: admit to and formalize USL's role as the minor league.

First, the admitting. For all the giant-killing USL teams have done this year, and for all the markets that MLS has stolen or wants to steal after being built up by the USL, it's clear that the USL is the minor league. Exhibit A in this claim is the recent crumpling of the Atlanta Silverbacks USL-1 team, as previously discussed. This is simply not the kind of thing that happens in major leagues. Teams may have financial trouble sometimes, but when do they ever simply pack up their ball and go home? And this isn't an isolated incident. There's been steady turmoil in the USL for years: the Richmond Kickers dropping from USL-1 to USL-2 in 2005; the Virginia Beach Mariners folding after the 2006 season; the California Victory's one and only season in 2007.

Exhibit B: compare and contrast the league final games in USL-1 and MLS. As I wrote at the time, the meeting of the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Puerto Rico Islanders in the USL-1 final was quite an understated affair. I couldn't even find a way to follow the game live, and I was actively looking for it.

Meanwhile we have the MLS Cup game tomorrow. It may not be the Super Bowl or the World Series, but it will be on network TV (ABC), it's covered in mainstream media outlets like USA Today, and their national sponsor, Volkswagen, has produced VW Road to MLS Cup, a series of event-specific commercials (which are pretty funny, imho). At the very least, the league has a dedicated section of their website for the match.

So, USL is the minor league. But despite what the word "minor" might do to one's ego, there is not a single thing wrong with that. In fact, it's an essential role in the American soccer ecosystem. Without USL, there are a lot of players who wouldn't be able to play league ball (i.e., with crowds and fans and everything). Without USL, MLS would have only colleges to draw from for young soccer talent in this country. And most importantly to me personally: without USL, Austin would never have a pro soccer team.

The next step is to formalize this situation, and eliminate the unfairness and friction that exist today. Both leagues benefit from the existence of the other far more than they threaten each other. That needs to be acknowledged and agreed to more explicitly. There are lots of ways that this could work; here are just a few ideas off the top of my head.

• MLS should augment its reserve and youth systems with USL teams


• Even if MLS teams don't directly partner with USL teams, their reserves or youth should compete with them
  


• MLS and USL should promote each other's games. Most Aztex fans I know also support either Houston Dynamo or FC Dallas. Why on earth don't all three teams' marketing departments leverage that?


• There should be, as Marcos mentioned, fair compensation to USL when MLS expands into one of their cities. If MLS cherry-picks the USL's best markets and drives USL out of business, it's going to hurt them, too.


• Movement of players between the leagues, such as the DC players in the PotomacSoccer.com article or the Red Bulls acquiring Mac Kandji from the Silverbacks, should be as easy. (In fact, this could be a lucrative deal for USL by itself)

Whew, okay, this post got a lot longer than I thought it would (congratulations on making it this far). I better wrap it up; here comes my inspirational conclusion.

Despite the perennial naysayers and their circa-1985 anti-soccer jibes, soccer is here to stay. It's not yet on the same level as baseball or basketball, and there are missteps and mistakes sometimes, but it's not going to disappear in a puff of smoke, either. There's still a lot of unrealized potential in the American sport, both within our borders, and on the world stage. The sooner Major League Soccer and the United Soccer Leagues acknowledge the realities and start working in concert, the better for everyone.

Labels: deep thoughts, media, MLS, USL-1

The Silverbacks website says "Silverbacks Men Sit Out 2009 Season." But given what a struggle it is to build and keep momentum in the world of pro sports, I bet that this is the end of this USL-1 team in Atlanta. Imagine if they were to try to start back up again in 2010, how many fans they'd have lost, due to this "sitting out" season.

The Atlanta Silverbacks announced today that the Atlanta Silverbacks Men’s professional team will take the 2009 season off.

Due to the state of the economy and the potential of an MLS team coming to town, the men’s pro team has decided to sit the year out while the Silverbacks assess the landscape.

I'm fully in blogger commentary mode here (i.e., I know not of what I speak but I'm not letting that stop me). But I'll go on to claim that "the potential of an MLS team coming to town" is a red herring. As I say, I'm not in the loop on what bids have been made or are going to be made, but I haven't seen anywhere that Atlanta is at the top of anyone's MLS expansion list.

Besides, why would that possibility keep the USL-1 side from playing next year? The only reason I can think of is that they're losing money each season, and are afraid they'll be run out of town in the future, after they've become profitable. But we know for sure that MLS couldn't come to Atlanta until 2011 at the soonest (Seattle & Philadelphia announced for the next 2 years), so if that's the rationale, then their profitability outlook must be pretty bleak for several years out.

In any case, this can't be seen as anything but bad news for USL-1. Now, rather than remaining the same size next year when the Aztex join the league (effectively replacing Seattle), it will contract by one.

Labels: MLS, rivals, USL-1

The inaugural year of the CONCACAF Champions League continues on, with group-stage play wrapping up today through Thursday.

Focusing on teams from U.S. leagues (MLS and USL-1), we have two games today (Tues. Oct. 28).

First, El Salvador's L.A. Firpo play their first game against the Houston Dynamo (their September match was postponed by Hurricane Ike, and will be played on Nov. 26). Kickoff is 9:00 PM CT, televised only on Fox Soccer Channel (FSC).

Today also sees Mexico's Atlante vs. the Montreal Impact, both of which have already secured their spot in the quarterfinals. This game also starts at 9:00 PM CT. It will be televised live on ESPN International and Galavision (channel 76 on Time Warner in Austin), and delayed until midnight on FSC.

Tomorrow (Wed. Oct. 29) the action continues for U.S. league teams. USL-1 champions Puerto Rico Islanders play Panama's Tauro FC at 7:00 PM CT on ESPN Int'l (or delayed on FSC at 10:00 PM CT). A win for the Islanders sees them through for sure; a draw might do it, too.

Last but not least, poor DC United has to play Honduras' CD Marathón. Coming into the game with only one sorry point after 5 games, and having just missed the MLS playoffs, I doubt they'll have much invested in this game. But who knows? You can find out yourself starting at 7:00 PM CT on FSC or ESPN Int'l.

Actually, I think if I were Fox Soccer, I'd swap tomorrow's games and show the more meaningful Puerto Rico-Tauro match live, and delay the DC-Marathón game.

As usual, Wikipedia has good details, tables, etc. For complete TV listings, including the games I didn't mention, see the CONCACAF TV page and the Fox Soccer schedule.

Update: results:
LA Firpo 1-1 Houston
Atlante 2-1 Montreal (both advance)
DC United 2-4 Marathón (DC eliminated, Marathón advances)
Tauro FC 2-2 Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico advances)

Labels: CONCACAF, MLS, USL-1

The USL-1 championship game between Vancouver Whitecaps and the Puerto Rico Islanders I mentioned in the last post is taking place tonight.

But shhhhhh! Don't tell anyone, we don't want the secret to get out.

At least that's how it seems, since I don't have Fox Soccer Channel, where it's being televised. Other outlets one might use to follow the game, such as a match-tracker on soccernet.com, are nowhere to be found. Even the USLSoccer website doesn't make a big deal of the game, placing their pregame write-up as the 2nd of 9 rotating stories on the home page. And no match-tracker there, either.

I've seen — and participated in — various debates about whether USL-1 and MLS are equivalent, or competitors, etc. With the former's better performance in the CONCACAF Champions League so far, it might make you wonder. Then again, when the final championship game of the top tier of the league registers as less than a blip anywhere but one cable-only TV channel, maybe there's not much to argue there, after all.

Update: Whitecaps win the championship, 2-1.

Labels: media, USL-1

This is a big week for the USL First Division.

First, there are two CONCACAF Champions League games tonight, featuring the two U.S. club teams who are doing best in the tournament so far. Not the MLS teams D.C. United or Houston Dyanamo, but USL-1 sides Montreal Impact and Puerto Rico Islanders. (Okay, so the teams aren't actually U.S. teams, but they both play in a U.S.-based league.)

Tonight in Trinidad, the Montreal Impact will to play Joe Public, and in Corona Stadium in Mexico, the Puerto Rico Islanders play Santos Laguna.

Then, in just 4 days, the Islanders turn around and play in the USL-1 Championship. They play the other Canadian USL-1 team (is there a pattern here?), the Vancouver Whitecaps.

Just think, next year we'll be watching the new Aztex team dominate both of these competitions.

In other USL-1 news, the Carolina Railhawks have gone through some big changes this week: President, General Manager & part owner Chris Economides is gone, as is head coach Scott Schweitzer. They also have some new ownership investment coming in, in the person of Bob Young. Young was formerly CEO of Red Hat Linux, and more recently the founder of the Internet self-publishing site Lulu.com.

Labels: CONCACAF, USL-1

Here's an interesting article by Greg Lalas about soccer salaries in the U.S.: "MLS getting what it pays for". Rather than wanting more millions to import marquee players from around the world, he's advocating that MLS teams pay more for "mid-tier players". And according to Lalas, that means MLS would become a better career choice for some of the players currently in the USL.

Simply put, USL teams are much better than MLS teams at scouting and finding talent. They look in places often overlooked by MLS scouts, such as Division II colleges and NAIA schools. Also, because the players are often youth coaches as well, they are dialed into the clubs and Olympic Development programs. This allows them to find and develop young talent.

If MLS is going to continue to grow and improve without always importing big-money Europeans and hit-or-miss South American and African youngsters, the clubs should start raiding the USL for their best. And they should be given the money to do it.

Labels: MLS, players, USL-1

Watching the Carolina Railhawks playing the Minnesota Thunder Friday night (beating them 2-1), I was struck by a kind of déjà vu when I saw Minnesota's home jerseys. Notice any similarities?

That grainy picture on the left is a screenshot of the USLlive video feed, because oddly enough, I couldn't find photos anywhere on the web of that Thunder jersey. All the pictures I found were solid blue, like this.


Notice the sponsor is different. Maybe that's the whole explanation right there?

In any case, the similarity between the blue and red striped jerseys isn't really that surprising. When you see the back, you might remember that Aztex sponsor & jersey provider Soccer USA has locations in another place besides Austin: the Twin Cities, Minneapolis-Saint Paul.

Labels: U-23, USL-1

Here's a follow-up to my recent post about where one could get one's soccer fix after the Aztex season finished. While I still miss the games out at Dragon Stadium, it's hard to argue there's not enough soccer to keep a fan busy.

• Stoke City — their season is underway, so there are games every weekend. Unless you have satellite TV, you'll probably watch these matches at a bar. For example: Mother Egan's this Saturday at 1:30PM to see Stoke City v. Aston Villa.


• USL-1 — I have been (casually) following the Carolina Railhawks, as I said I might. As part of this experiment, I paid for a month of video via USLlive.com to catch some of their games. The announcing is uneven but not terrible, the video quality I've seen is also uneven but not terrible. There have also been frustrating technical issues (video not starting, for example, or in one instance, the live stream being switched off "while we archive this video" before the game was even over!). It's pricey for that quality, in my opinion ($10/month or $50/year).
  
  I don't imagine they have zillions of subscribers. It's probably 98% avid fans who want to see their team at away games (e.g., like I'll be next season), so maybe that's just how the cost has to break down, but it's unfortunate. If it were cheaper — more like MLSnet's $20 (which just dropped to $10 after the all-star game) for the whole season — I'd just subscribe and catch the occasional game for fun. As it is, I won't continue past this month.


• Olympic soccer — what can you say about the U.S. men's team? "You lose some, you lose some"? There's been some great soccer to see, though. And the U.S. women's team will get at least silver, which is great, though gold would surely boost next year's WPS launch just a little bit more. We'll find out tomorrow morning! (On Telemundo, USA network or online, if I'm reading NBC's website correctly.)


• FCD — they seem to be coming around, maybe. They've been wheeling and dealing, cutting and signing, including, as you surely know, our own Jamie Watson. Told you Dallas was classier than Houston, didn't I?


• miscellaneous other stuff from previous post — Stoke U18 games, check; no knitting, as predicted; haven't gone to the Mexic-Arte Museum yet (but I have until Sept. 16); no rumors on stadiums yet (there's plenty of time for that); and Juan Toja's move to Liga I Frutti Fresh hasn't gotten another 2 seconds of my time since I mentioned it. Sorry, Juan.


• one major soccer option I completely failed to mention — the University of Texas women's team. Among Aztex fans it seems that mentions of UT result in grumbling about (a) the total preoccupation of the Austin sports media (and fans) with anything and everything burnt orange, or (b) how unlikely it is that the Aztex could ever play at UT's Mike Myers stadium.
  
  What's perhaps forgotten, at least by me (though not by Nick Barbaro at the Chronicle), is that there's already a soccer team that plays there, and a darn good one at that. Ranked 8th in the country, expected to win the Big 12 this year, etc. Here's the 2008 Longhorn Soccer schedule; their first home game is Friday night at 7:00 vs. Samford. I might just go; I'll be the one in the Aztex shirt (I don't have any burnt orange anyway).

Labels: MLS, stadium, Stoke City, supporters, USL-1

The first excitement, as you've probably seen, was when Jamie Watson signed with FC Dallas. That was just over a week ago, but already he's traveled to Toronto for Dallas' 2-0 win over TFC (though he didn't see minutes in that game). Then this week, he played for the FC Dallas reserve team in a match against Real Salt Lake's reserves. Although Dallas lost the game 3-2, Jamie scored both the home team's goals, getting a little player revenge on RSL, his former MLS club.

The excellent FC Dallas blog 3rd Degree had this to say about Watson's Hoops debut:

Jamie Watson was terrific against RSL with two goals. He was a bit lost through about 30 minutes until he scored and then raised his game after that. Obviously his nice performance might have been motivated by a team that dropped him. Still a good start for the kid. He combined well, took some guys on. He still needs to learn a bit of the role in Schellas’ 4-4-2.

"It was nice to see Jamie pick up two goals. He’s only been with us a short week and this game means something to him cause he was dropped by Real. So I think he had some internal motivation. I thought he did very well today, but I thought he faded also at the later part." - [FCD Head Coach] Schellas Hyndman

Also via 3rd Degree, a metric ton of fan photos from that reserve game. I went to the trouble of skimming through all 242 of them to find the decent ones featuring our man Jamie: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30.

Last but not least in this Week of Watson is this nice long story on him for MLSnet.com: Home sweet home for Hoops' Watson.

Ellinger, who is Hyndman's top assistant with the Hoops, is happy to have Watson playing for him once again.

"It's positive to have an extra addition to the team with what he brings. One thing I have always liked about him as a player is that he's always had that chip on his shoulder and isn't afraid to work. He feels that he can have a positive impact in any game whether it's an assist or a goal," Ellinger said.

Update: one last bit, a post by Watson himself about this whirlwind signing on The Original Winger, Damn It’s Been Awhile.

And though he hasn't gotten quite the press Watson has, the second big pro-signing news is for the very first member of the Aztex USL-1 team: goalkeeper extraordinaire Miguel Gallardo. Gallardo was also named by United Soccer Leagues this week as the PDL Goalkeeper of the Year, no real surprise given that he had the best GAA and most shutouts league-wide. It's hard to imagine a better nucleus around which to build next year's top-flight team.

Congratulations to Jamie, and welcome Miguel! Now, who's next?

Labels: alumni, MLS, players, U-23, USL-1