Soccer Watch

The Austin Aztex continue their preseason preparations, leading up to the season ­opener May 11 in Oklahoma City. They won a pair of games last weekend – 4-1 over South­west­ern, and 2-1 over St. Edward's – and conclude the exhibition season by taking on the UT men's team this Friday evening, April 26, 7:30pm, at the Whitaker Fields (UT Intramural Fields), at 51st & Guadalupe... This tweet just in: Kris Tyrpak, the Aztex's top scorer last year, says he'll join the team for this scrimmage; it'll be good to see him back in uniform.

Eberly's Army, the primary Aztex supporters group, will hold their Annual General Meet­ing at 2pm this Sunday, April 28, at the Tavern (12th & Lamar), just down the block from the Aztex's home field, House Park. The meeting is open to all soccer fans, but only EA members will be allowed to vote in the officers' elections. Come. Meet. Join.

A pair of shockers in Germany this week, in the Champions League semifinals, as Bayern Munich crushed a proud but overmatched Barcelona 4-0 on Tuesday, and Borussia Dortmund followed suit Wednesday with a 4-1 thumping of Real Madrid. Much of the talk in the first game swirled around the hobbled and obviously subpar Lionel Messi, but indeed, the Germans seemed better than Barca at just about every position. Wednes­day's game was more competitive in stretches, but four goals by Polish striker Robert Lewan­dow­ski left Madrid with no answers. The return legs in Spain this next week (1:45pm, Tue.-Wed., on FSC and Fox Deportes, respectively) are likely to be merely a formality, as the German Bundesliga lays claim to having become the top league in the world... World Soccer magazine has already made that call in the issue that just came out; they also rank MLS as the seventh best league in the world – just behind Mexico's Liga MX, but ahead of France, Holland, and Argentina – based on factors including level of play, attendance, and facilities.