Aztex Make Coaching Moves, and More

The Austin Aztex made a splash last week by announcing English Hall of Famer and ex-Premier League coach Adrian Heath as their head coach. This week they covered the home bases by tabbing local coaching legend Wolfgang Suhnholz as their U-23 coach; Bobby Murphy, director of the St. Stephen's Soccer Academy, as his assistant; and Ron Dennie of Austin United Capitals, as player liaison manager. Suhnholz has coached the U.S. U-20 National Team, in addition to many local squads (here's a 2005 Chronicle story about him). He'll jump right into it: Tryouts for the Aztex U23 Premier Development League squad are March 8-9 and 15-16 (see the Aztex website for info), and the season opener is a bare six weeks after that.

Aztex affiliate Stoke City extended their win streak, and their league lead in the English second division, on Sunday, beating promotion rivals Ipswich, only to lose to bottom-feeders Preston North End on Tuesday, to fall back toward the pack. With 11 games to go in the nine-month-long season and 10 teams still in reach of the three golden rings – promotion to the Premier League – it looks like it'll go down to the wire.

Champions League Round of 16 return-leg games are March 4-5; ESPN2 has Milan-Arsenal on Tuesday, Chelsea-Olympiacos on Wednesday, both at 1:30pm.

For the full schedule and first-leg results …

Champions League Round of 16 Results
First Leg: Feb. 19-20

Tuesday
Schalke 04 1, FC Porto 0
Liverpool 2, Inter Milan 0
Roma 2, Real Madrid 1
Olympiacos 0, Chelsea 0
Wednesday
Arsenal 0, AC Milan 0
Celtic 2, Barcelona 3
Fenerbahce 3, FC Sevilla 2
Lyon 1, Manchester Utd. 1

Return leg games are March 4-5:

Tuesday
Arsenal at AC Milan
Celtic at Barcelona
Fenerbahce at FC Sevilla
Lyon at Manchester Utd.
Wednesday
Schalke 04 at FC Porto
Liverpool at Inter Milan
Roma at Real Madrid
Olympiacos at Chelsea