The Austin Aztex made a splash last week by announcing English Hall of Famer and ex-Premier League coach Adrian Heath as their head coach. This week they covered the home bases by tabbing local coaching legend Wolfgang Suhnholz as their Under-23 coach; Bobby Murphy, director of the St. Stephen’s School Soccer Academy, as his assistant; and Ron Dennie of Austin United Capitals, as player liaison manager. Suhnholz – who has coached the U.S. U-20 National Team, in addition to many local squads – will jump right into it: Tryouts for the Aztex U23 squad are March 8-9 & 15-16 (see www.austinaztex.com/u23 for info), and the season opener is a bare six weeks after that.
Aztex affiliate Stoke City extended their win streak, and their league lead in the English second division, on Sunday, beating promotion rivals Ipswich, only to lose to bottom-feeders Preston North End on Tuesday, falling back toward the pack. With 11 games to go in the nine-month-long season and 10 teams still in reach of the three golden rings – promotion to the Premier League – it looks like it’ll go down to the wire.
Champions League Round of 16 return-leg games are March 4-5; ESPN2 has Milan-Arsenal on Tuesday and Chelsea-Olympiacos on Wednesday, both at 1:30pm.
This article appears in February 29 • 2008.