Soccer Watch

Iraq won the Asian Cup on Saturday, edging Saudi Arabia, 1-0, in the championship game. It was the first time Iraq had even made the final and obviously a tremendous feel-good story for the stricken country. But players and coach were relatively subdued, seeing as at least three players have lost family members recently, three people were killed in Baghdad by falling bullets after Iraq's quarter-final win, and suicide bombers killed another 50 during street celebrations after the semifinal win over South Korea. Coach Jorvan Vieira -- who did a miracle job with the team -- told Reuters it was "very sad. ... If we lose, people get killed, and if we win, people still get killed."

On the local scene, the Austin Light­ning's Premier Development League season is over, the summer rec season has been just about rained out, and everyone's pointing to the fall. Rec leagues are currently enrolling: men, women, and coed (www.austinsoccernet.com, www.awsl.org, www.acsasoccer.org), with play starting in about a month. And the Lady Longhorns kick off Aug. 24.

Longhorns Stephanie Logterman and Kelsey Carpenter both played in every game, as the U.S. Under-21 Women won the Nordic Cup last week, beating Sweden and Norway, each 1-0, and Germany, 4-0, in the final. -- Nick Barbaro