Soccer Watch

The U.S. soccer community has come out vocally in opposition to President Donald Trump's travel ban, in strong statements from U.S. men's national team captain Michael Bradley, the MLS Players Union, and, notably, from a number of individual national team players, including Sacha Kljestan. His own father fled Yugoslavia, he told FourFourTwo, and "came to the U.S. illegally himself and built himself a life here. America is the land of opportunity, and I don't think we're the type of country that should shut our borders to anybody. I think we should welcome everybody here to our soil to live the American dream."

As expected, Spurs Sports & Entertain­ment submitted its application for Major League Soccer's expansion process before this week's deadline. San Antonio is one of 12 cities in the running for four next-round expansion slots to begin play in 2020 or thereafter. The Spurs, who currently own second-division San Antonio FC, issued a statement thanking "Bexar County, the City of San Anton­io, our corporate partners, and all of our supporters for their collaboration." See their video presentation, which includes the Austin market prominently, at www.sanantoniofc.com.

SAFC also announced their 2017 USL regular season schedule this week; they'll open at the Rio Grande Valley FC Toros on March 26 before the home opener at Toyota Field on April 1 against LA Galaxy II, the first of 16 home games, continuing through Oct. 14.