The Austin Aztex play their next-to-last home game of the season this weekend – hosting Miami at 7:30pm Saturday, Aug. 29 at Nelson Field – and while they’re all but out of the playoff hunt, they have a few things to celebrate. The organization made three pretty big announcements this week:

  • First, “as part of the on-going rebuilding process for 2010,” they made two key roster moves: signing 19-year-old defender Salif Diao-Jimenez to a two-year contract out of the Stoke City Youth Academy (he’s the cousin of Senegal captain and Stoke midfielder Salif Diao) and bringing back forward Jamie Watson, a popular and effective scorer for last year’s Premier Development League Aztex, and the top scorer in USL-2 this season with the Wilmington Hammerheads. Both players will be on hand for the game Saturday.
  • Second, they announced a “working arrangement” with the PDL Victoria Highlanders, which will include a Sept. 15 game in British Columbia (just after the season finale in Vancouver).
  • And third, they just made the long-awaited official announcement that they’ll be playing at House Park next season (and thereafter). The Aztex will make that official at a public press conference event at House Park tomorrow (Thursday, 8/27 at 2pm).

    This article appears in August 21 • 2009.

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