Aztex Draw 2-2 With New Orleans; Rematch Tonight

Tough outing for the Austin Aztex Friday; they were unable to impose their will on the game, as they had in their first two home wins, settling for a 2-2 draw that left them atop their division, but delivered notice that the rest of the season may not be the cake walk we might have imagined. It starts tonight, with a rematch against the same New Orleans Jesters.

Part of the problem for the Aztex last night was the Jesters themselves – they were the first team that's looked able to match the Aztex's team speed, and their tactics seemed to put the home side off their game: two forwards buzzing around constantly pressured the Aztex defenders, kept them out of their comfort zone, and disrupted the buildup that had led to 13 Aztex goals in the first two games. And part of it was a radically changed Aztex lineup: Several players were out with minor injuries – most notably leading scorer Kekuta Manneh and influential midfielder Tony Rocha – and several more were seeing their first action of the season.

And if there were no glaring weaknesses or botched assignments, there also didn't seem to be much flow to the Aztex attack. For whatever reason, there weren't a lot of the open looks that the boys in blue had enjoyed in their first games. The two goals they did get were hardly things of beauty: Jesus "Chuy" Cortes banged one in off a goal area scramble midway through the first half that might have been ruled an own goal, and substitute Pedro Pereira (one of the Aztex debutants) converted a penalty kick with about five minutes to go to close the scoring and earn the win. In between, repeated New Orleans counterattacks had given the Jesters a 2-1 lead, and put the Aztex in jeopardy of their first home loss.

In the end, a 2-2 draw seemed a pretty fair result; and it puts some urgency into tonight's rematch for both teams: The Aztex now need a win to restore a little gap on the rest of the PDL Mid South field, while the Jesters need a result just to stay in the hunt. That's 7:30pm, Saturday, June 2, at House Park. Tickets are $10 ($50 for eight), and kids 10 and under are free. www.austinaztex.com.