Aztex Draw Two; Host Cleveland Saturday
After a couple of draws in their inaugural games, the Austin Aztex host the Cleveland City Stars on Saturday.
By Nick Barbaro, 7:29PM, Wed. Apr. 22, 2009
The Austin Aztex started their season this week with a pair of 1-1 ties, coming back from a goal down each time. Brazilian winger Sullivan Silva assisted on both goals, and that's no coincidence. When he was out of the starting lineup for the opening game against Minnesota, the offense could never get untracked. Under Adrian Heath, the Aztex will always play a tactical, short-passing-and-diagonal-runs kind of game, and that's a fun style to watch. But these guys don't know each other yet, the timing's not quite there, and they never did get into any sort of flow. But when Silva came in with 26 minutes to go, along with defender Zack Pope behind him on the right wing, the game turned completely around. Beating defenders one-on-one, and using Pope's overlapping runs to open up space, Silva created openings that hadn't been there all night. The equalizer came within five minutes, on defender Lyle Adams' blast from 20 yards, and the Aztex continued to create chances through the rest of the game.
I had to miss Tuesday's game, but reports are that again the Aztex played much better in the second half, after defending champs Vancouver pretty thoroughly dominated the first 45 minutes. A Gifton Noel-Williams header off Silva's cross provided the equalizer, in a chippy, ill-tempered match that reportedly ended with Whitecaps coach Teitur Thordarson refusing to shake Adrian Heath's hand.
Two draws in their first-ever games – against two playoff teams – is a pretty decent start to the long, 30-game season. But with a schedule heavily front-loaded with home games, the Aztex probably need to put some wins in the bank soon. Which brings us to this Saturday, and the Cleveland City Stars, fellow newcomers to the league, and if it's not a must-win, it's at least a game the Aztex feel they should win. Saturday, April 25, 7:30pm, Nelson Field, Berkman Dr. north of U.S.290. $18-22.
Below: Euro news …Aztex affiliate Stoke City had a big weekend as well; a 1-0 win over Blackburn just about guarantees that they'll stay up in the English Premier League next season. That makes it three wins and a draw in the last four games, all against direct relegation rivals. And with five games left to play, Stoke now sit 12th in the league, eight points clear of the drop zone. Well done, Potters.
UEFA Champions League semifinals the next two Tuesday-Wednesdays, April 28-29 and May 5-6. All four games (Barcelona-Chelsea, Arsenal-Manchester United) are at 1:30pm, live on FSC… The CONCACAF Champions League final (Atlante vs. Cruz Azul) is Wednesday, April 29, 9pm, live on FSC.
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