Soccer Watch

The U.S. Women beat Canada in a penalty-kick shoot-out in the CONCACAF Olym­pic Qualifying final last weekend in Juárez, Mexico. With both finalists already qualified for Beijing, the U.S. played several youngsters and performed very well. Still, the draw broke up a couple of perfect records for the U.S.: They're now 27-0-1 all-time in CONCACAF competitions and 10-0-1 under first-year coach Pia Sundhage.

It was a good weekend for the DFW Metroplex at last weekend's state high school tournament, as McKinney Boyd, Lewisville Marcus, and Southlake Carroll all won state titles. (The other winner was El Paso Del Valle in boys 4A, their second title in three years.) It was the third title in four years for Marcus; even more impressively, three different McKinney high schools have won the girls 4A title in the last four years.

Just two weeks until the Austin Aztex kick off their inaugural season in the USL Premier Development League. They played their first exhibition game this past weekend, beating St. Edward's University, 2-1. Three more exhibitions are planned for the next couple of weeks: The times and locations are "secret" but not very much so; if you want to catch one, look for hints online.

Meanwhile, the European season builds to a climax; notably, Champions League semifinals are April 22-23, live on ESPN2: Liverpool vs. Chelsea, Tuesday, 1:30pm; Barcelona vs. Manchester United, Wed­nesday, 1:30pm.