Soccer Watch

Alexa Adams scores one of her four goals.

The UT Longhorns are making their tough early-season schedule pay off in Big 12 play; they beat Iowa State 2-1 on Friday and TCU 3-0 on Sunday, getting a pair of goals from Alexa Adams in each game. Her game-winner Friday night made SportsCenter's Top 10 Plays of the day. And Abby Smith's 29th career shutout on Sunday tied Dianne Pfenninger's school record. The Horns are on the road this week at nationally ranked Texas Tech, before finishing the regular season with three home games: Oklahoma on Fri., Oct. 23, Baylor on Sun., Oct. 25, and Montana on Fri., Oct. 30.

Pundits are calling it Black Saturday for coach Jurgen Klinsmann's U.S. National Team program: His first loss to archrival Mexico came in a game that mattered, for the right to play in next year's Confederations Cup tournament in Russia, and while three overtime goals made for an exciting game, the U.S. performance was really poor; they looked tentative and passive throughout, let Mexico dictate the pace, and were lucky to still be in the game at the end. And if that weren't bad enough, the U.S. Under-23 team laid an egg earlier in the day, losing to Honduras in the semifinal of the qualifying tournament for next year's Olympics. They rebounded Tuesday, beating Canada in a consolation game to keep their Olympic chances alive. Not so the senior squad, which lost its third straight game on Tuesday, 0-1 to Costa Rica... Elsewhere during the international break: The Euro16 qualifying groups wound up Tuesday, with England finishing a perfect 10-0, most of the favorites advancing to the finals next summer in France, but Holland crashing out ignominiously.

Now it's back to club play, and the European Champions League next Tue.-Wed., Oct. 20-21 at 1:45pm; four games air live each day on ESPN and Fox Sports. CONCACAF Champions League group finales are Tue.-Thu., Oct. 20-22, as well; Fox has selected games those evenings... The Under-17 World Cup kicks off this Sat., Oct. 17, with all 52 games live on NBC Deportes. Opening-day coverage includes USA-Nigeria at 2:30pm.

The St. Edward's men lost their first game of the season, falling 3-2 to second-ranked Midwestern State last Thursday in Wichita Falls. The Hilltopper women notched a pair of shutout wins to move back into the top 20; they have seven shutout wins in their 8-2 record.