The Aztexan

Amid the continuing troubles engulfing the USL's 1st and 2nd divisions, the league is busy organizing their extensive lower divisions' 2010 season. Last week they announced the 2010 "alignment" of the Premier Development League (PDL).

The PDL is made up of amateur teams (with a few pro exceptions), and college-age players (with a few older exceptions) who are, well, developing. At this lower end of the American soccer ladder, teams come and go and get shuffled around fairly regularly. Last season, for example, saw the addition of the West Texas United Sockers and the Rio Grande Valley Bravos, which moved former Austin rivals New Orleans and Mississippi from the Mid South to the Southeast division.

Looking at the 2010 alignment announcement, though, gave Austin Aztex U23 fans a surprise: the team isn't listed under the Southern Conference's Mid South Division. In fact, the team isn't listed at all!

Chantico's Army tracked down the explanation, getting the following statement from Aztex owner Phil Rawlins:

"We have not registered to play in the PDL in 2010, although we continue to reserve the rights to the franchise for coming years and will continue to review our decision of whether we play in the PDL in future years. Our hope had been to replace the U23 team with a U20 team in the Super 20 League. A Texas division was being formed and we felt it was a long term better fit for the Aztex. At the last minute a couple of teams dropped out of the Super 20 League and without a viable core the Texas division was put on the back-burner for another year. By the time the decision was taken, the PDL registration window was long closed."

(According to Wikipedia, the USL's Super-20 league is "an American-Canadian soccer league for players 17 to 20 years of age. Introduced in 2006 it took the place of the U-19 age bracket in the Super Y-League.")

I wondered what this turn of events meant for the U23 coaching staff (head coach Wolfgang Suhnholz, assistant coach Ron Dennie & goalkeeper coach Alex Parra), but found via followup with Phil that Suhnolz and Parra were only on staff part-time during the season (they're both still listed as staff with Lonestar Soccer Club), and that Dennie is now working with the Austin United Capital Soccer Club.

Speaking of area youth clubs, Phil also made the excellent point that if a Texas Super-20 division had gotten off the ground, that would have served as a better stepping stone than a PDL team for bringing youth players into the Aztex fold.

I'm sure I was not alone in wondering, lastly, whether the ongoing turmoil between USL-1 and its breakaway teams, and the uncertainty that situation has created, had anything to do with these plans falling through. Phil, however, assured me that the decisions of the last-minute dropout teams were purely financial.

So, although I remain hopeful that the top-tier Aztex team will find some way, somehow, to play somebody in some league (despite continued brinkmanship), this sad fact is certain: there will be no amateur Aztex team this season.

Labels: coaches, U-23

It's been kind of slow for the Aztex lately, news-wise. To tide you over until we hear something about the U23 roster, here are a few miscellaneous tidbits (apologies to readers who keep up on BigSoccer's Aztex forum, as neither of these will be news to you).

First, Playing Through, a nice write-up in the Austin Chronicle about local soccer hopefuls Marcelino Uriarte & Wes Allen:

It's a tale of two center midfielders.

Both are smart and versatile. Either would be a cornerstone of the Austin Aztex's Premier Development League team, a squad starting up from scratch a few weeks before the 2008 season opener on May 3 (home opener May 10 vs. Houston Leones, 7:30pm, at Dragon Stadium in Round Rock).

Second, here's a BBC Radio interview with Aztex owner Phil Rawlins. You can listen to the full, hour-long show in original RealAudio format, or just the 7 minutes of Phil's interview in MP3 format (which occurs about 42 minutes in to the full show). Apparently Phil, along with Head Coach Adrian Heath and USL President Francisco Marcos, was preparing for a Stoke City fan meeting of some kind, to discuss all things Aztex.

Phil (& Adrian, presumably) will also be at Brittania Stadium tomorrow night to watch Stoke beat Crystal Palace, the lucky dogs. I'll post an update to the Championship League table after the game, but I'd like to thank Bristol City for their 0-2 loss to Southampton yesterday. Keep up the good work, lads!

Labels: coaches, media, players, Stoke City, U-23

I stopped by day 2 of this weekend's U-23 tryouts today. The weather was beautiful. I'm no scout, but even I could see there was quite a range of skill on display. There were three separate scrimmages going on at the same time, so I guess that means there were about 66 hopefuls in attendance. The Aztex expect about that many more for next weekend's tryouts (Mar. 15 & 16), too, so I'm sure we'll get a good strong team out of all these guys.

I'm also no photographer, but I took a few snapshots. You can see them in the new Flickr account I set up. I've also started setting up a Flickr group, so that others can share their amateur (or pro!) Aztex photos. (Note, as of this posting, no pictures are showing up in the group, apparently because Flickr hasn't completed their review process of my account yet.)

Speaking of the tryouts, there's a nice interview with U-23 Head Coach Wolfgang Suhnholz on the Aztex website (start on the main page; then read the rest):

Question: Will the Aztex Stoke connection mean a “British style of play?”

Suhnholz: There no longer is a British style, or German style, or Mexican style. That has all changed. Soccer is a global sport. You play with the players you have and what they can bring to the table. I am a big believer that a good soccer player can play with anybody and any style.

Soccer has changed. The bottom line is that you want to put a good winning product on the field. I worked with European, Hispanic, African players, people from all over the world. Even the English don’t play old English soccer anymore. Look at Adrian Heath who has played in the UK and in Spain. He will take the best from everything and play the style that will win. That’s what we intend to do.

Labels: coaches, players, U-23

The Austin Aztex have named their U-23 Head and Assistant Coaches: Wolfgang Suhnholz and Bobby Murphy, respectively.

According to his Lonestar Soccer Club bio, Sunholz has quite an impressive professional history:

He played professional soccer for 18 years in Europe and the US. During his three years with powerhouse Bayern Munich the club won two National championships. He came to the US as a player and assistant Coach in the NASL. He was named the 1976 Soccer Bowl MVP after capturing the title with [Toronto's] Metro Croatia. The following season he earned All-NASL First Team honors, joining legends Pelé, George Best, and Franz Beckenbauer.

As a coach he was instrumental in founding The Capital Soccer Club in 1985. In 1988 he led the Capitals U-19 team to Third in the Nation and was named USYSA South Texas Coach of the Year.

Wolfgang has been a National Team Coach for the US Soccer Federation from 1996 -2001; 1996 – 1999 as an Assistant Coach for the U-16 & U-20 Nationals Teams; Head Coach for the US U-20 Men National Team from 1999 to 2001. While coaching for the US Soccer he went to 2 World Cups and led his U-20 Teams to the World Cup in 2001 in Argentina.

The Lonstar bio for Stunholz's assistant, Bobby Murphy, lists him as Director of the St. Stephen's Soccer Academy, one of only four residential soccer academies in the country.

In addition to the U-23 coaches, the Aztex also announced that Ron Dennie from the Austin United Capital Soccer Club will be the "Player Liaison Manager" for both the USL-1 and U-23 teams.

Sunholz photo from an old Austin Chronicle story on area youth sports.

Labels: coaches, U-23

As rumored yesterday morning on the Aztex BigSoccer forum, Adrian Heath has been named Head Coach for the Austin Aztex.

Heath said, "I am overjoyed at the opportunity to Coach the Austin Aztex. I have had several offers recently to Coach in the English League but the chance to build something from scratch with Phil was just too tempting to turndown. I have followed US Soccer closely over the past few years and believe the game here is about to take-off and I want to be a part of that."

Heath is a manager and former player, having managed Championship sides Burnley, Sheffield United and Coventry City. As a player, most of his most notable achievements were during his time at Everton during the 80s, when they: won 2 League Championships, won the F.A. Cup and won the European Cup Winners Cup. Heath was top scorer for Everton in his first full season, and he scored double digits per year the rest of his time there.

The Aztex site also has an interview with Heath.

Q: What are you most looking forward to about coming to Austin?

Heath: I think it is just the newness and the freshness of it all. I’ve 25-30 years involved in professional football in Europe. In the previous four or five years we have been coming to America to play the game. We played BYU last year and the year before down in Salt Lake. So, I've come here and seen the newness of it all and the enthusiasm that’s coming with the game in America is something that really appeals to me.

I also came across this interesting bit by Greg Lalas on Goal.com from December of last year (emphasis added):

A few days ago, I found myself having lunch with a couple of interesting English cats: Mike Morris, an uber-agent who represents Alex Ferguson, among others, and Adrian “Inchy” Heath, a scout for Newcastle and former player best known for his years at Everton. They were in New York on business. Our conversation, of course, revolved around soccer, specifically, American soccer and whether the game will ever “succeed” here.

Morris grants that he knows nothing about American soccer, but that didn’t stop him from making bombastic pronouncements about American soccer’s lack of success and development. “I just don’t see any signs of progress in the last 30 years,” he said, sipping red wine.

I, of course, had my defense prepared, ready to bring up all the usual arguments about MLS’s growth, the USA’s international achievements, the millions and millions of kids who play the game, etc. But before I could launch into it all, Inchy put down his pint and piped up. “Thirty years ago, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” he said. “Now the American under-17s are beating Brazil.”

I was taken aback. It was amazing to hear a Brit, who nurtured on the hardscrabble pitches of Stoke City and who now made his living in the Eurocentric milieu of world football, come to the defense of American soccer. Hell, Inchy even knew the result of a youth international friendly played in Florida a month ago.

I'm sure there will be concern about this appointment from some quarters. Some may worry that Heath is being brought in from a foreign league, with little to no knowledge of the history here, or the dynamics of the PDL and the USL, or the cultural links to the hispanic side of U.S. football (er, "soccer"). And people who are afraid that the Aztex will be little more than a farm team for Stoke City may certainly raise their eyebrows. But I think it's great. I mean, we'll see how he actually does, of course, but I'm more than willing to give a guy with experience as both a player and a manager in the highest levels of world soccer the benefit of the doubt.

Welcome to Austin, Inchy!

Labels: coaches

Via a post by 'Liquidator' on the BigSoccer forums, this news on the Aztex site: Meeting With Austin Area Players.


It doesn't sound like the team is going to rely solely on their partnership with Stoke City:

Rawlins gave a presentation with graphics and spelled out the player opportunities that exists with the Aztex alliances. He also stressed plans to forge an alliance with a professional club in Mexico.

There were also good -- no, great -- words about their approach to finding a home pitch for the team. Er, make that, home pitches.

Rawlins also discussed stadium choices, saying that the club is looking for the best match of the team and season with a stadium. He said the U23 season and the Aztex First Division professional season may be played in separate stadiums to accomodate the specific needs of those teams. "We probably don’t want to put the U23 in a 20,000 seat stadium," he said. He explained that the club will be looking for the best stadium match for each season in order to maximize the crowd experience at the events. Rawlins explained that the organization is in contract negotiations that will soon result in an announcement of stadium choice. "Believe me, it will be for the entire season," he added.

As other BigSoccer folks noted, the "20,000 seat stadium" would just about have to be UT's Myers Stadium. The consensus on that forum seems to be that UT has never, would never and will never let anyone but UT teams use their facilities, but we shall see. In any case, I'm happy to see they're looking for a permanent home, at least for the duration of the season.

The team has also gotten a good bit of interest in their open coaching spots, receiving 30 applications for Head Coach, and almost 20 for Assistant. I thought this last bit about the U-23 Head Coach position was pretty interesting:

Rawlins told the local players that the head coach in the U23 season will be the same Head Coach that will direct the First Division season in 2009.

Labels: coaches, players, stadium