Soccer Watch

The Austin Aztex have been tabbed to host this weekend's PDL Championship tournament, Friday and Sunday, Aug. 2 & 4 at House Park (13th & Lamar). The semifinals are Friday (Thunder Bay (Ont.) Chill vs. Victoria (BC) Highlanders at 5pm; Aztex vs. Ocean City (NJ) Nor'easters at 7:30pm), with the winners meeting Sunday at 7:30pm in the championship final. Tickets are $15 for each day, with kids 10 and under free; unused regular-season tickets may be redeemed at the box office for $10 off the ticket price.

The Aztex advanced by beating the Laredo Heat Saturday night, 2-0, in a rough physical game between what were clearly the top two teams in the Southern Conference... The Aztex were the only PDL team to land four players on all-conference teams: goalie Devin Cook, defender Max Gunderson, midfielder Tony Rocha, and forward Kris Tyrpak, who makes his second all-conference appearance, and was also named to the all-league team.

The U.S. men ran their record winning streak to 11 games in winning this year's Gold Cup, the continental championship, with Landon Donovan named the tourney MVP... The overnight TV rating for Sunday's Gold Cup final on Fox was 1.7, beating out major league baseball games on Fox and ESPN, and earning the highest rating for any soccer match this year... Mexico disappointed once again, losing twice to eventual runner-up Panama, but officials announced that embattled coach "Chepo" de la Torre will keep his job, at least through the end of World Cup qualifying in October.