Soccer Watch

As the last pages of this issue go to press, I'm already Downtown at House Park, cheering on the Austin Aztex. This is the biggest crowd of the season, and they're enjoying the Aztex's fifth win in seven games, over division rival Tampa Bay Rowdies. It's going to be so sweet to march out of the stadium to the chant of "top of the table" again. Of course, I'm writing this well before the game has begun, but you can't blame an Aztex fan for dreaming big these days. The boys are indeed in first place in D2 (and the top-scoring team in the league as well), so we did get to chant "top of the table" after the 2-1 win over Baltimore Sunday. Life is good, even if it is just six games into a 30-game season. Things will heat up soon for the Aztex, who get a week off before a road trip to Miami and Baltimore, May 26 and 29. The next home game, June 5, starts a grueling midsummer month of two games a week – up to 11 games in five weeks – including U.S. Open Cup action starting June 15.

Meanwhile, the finale of the European season is Saturday: The Champions League Final, Bayern Munich vs. Inter Milan, May 22, 1:30pm on Fox Sports in HD (network TV coverage!). Both teams will be gunning for a triple, having won their league and national cup titles... Chelsea doubled as well, adding the FA Cup to their league title... Barcelona got only one trophy this year (down from six in 2009), but it was a sweet one: the Spanish league over rival Real Madrid, with a record 99 points.

And now all attention turns to the World Cup (except Major League Soccer and Women's Professional Soccer play through, inexplicably), kicking off June 11 in South Africa. A lot more on that starting next week.

Germany captain Michael Ballack is out of the World Cup after suffering an ankle injury late in Chelsea's FA Cup Final win – on a tackle by Kevin Prince Boateng, whose Ghana will face Germany June 23 in group play... The Daily Mail on Sunday last week published excerpts of taped remarks in which the head of the English Football Association tells his former mistress and private secretary that there's a plot whereby Russia will help bribe WC referees in Spain's favor, in exchange for Spain supporting a Russian bid to host WC 2018. The public is outraged that Lord Triesman was having an affair, and he has resigned.