Soccer Watch

U.S. men shut out of Olympics: With a crushing 4-0 loss to host Mexico, the U.S. men's team was eliminated in Olympic qualifying Tuesday night and will miss the summer games for the first time since we boycotted the 1980 Moscow games. It's the second time in two months that a Mexican team has knocked the Yanks out of the Olympics; they KO'd the U.S. baseball team in December.

Many of those U-23 players will have little time to brood; several are on the full U.S. national team that's on its way to Amsterdam to play Holland next week. Catch that game live on ESPN2, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 1:30pm.

The U.S. women should have an easier time with their Olympic qualifying, which kicks off Feb. 25 in Costa Rica.

MLS champion San Jose Earthquakes has announced that flamboyant U.S. defender Alexi Lalas, a crowd favorite since the 1994 World Cup campaign, will be their new president and general manager.

The Mexican under-19 women's national team is in Austin to play three games this weekend, Feb. 13-15. Two of the games are at UT's Myers Stadium (off Red River): Friday evening at 7pm against the UT Women's team, and Sunday, 1pm against the South Texas U-19 Olympic development squad. In between, they'll play an Austin United girls team Saturday at 11:30am, at AU's Slaughter Creek complex – off Slaughter Lane just west of MoPac – as part of Austin United's Spring Rec League Opening Day ceremonies, complete with a moonwalk for the kids, lunch for the players, and an autograph session with members of the newly formed Austin Lightning professional men's soccer team.