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 made the long-awaited official announcement that they’ll be playing at House Park next season (and thereafter).
The UT Longhorns dropped their season opener Friday, 2-1 to Texas Christian University, and with it went a 26-game home unbeaten streak, dating back to 2006. It was a disappointing performance – the Horns were outshot 14-7 and let an unheralded Horned Frog squad totally dominate for long stretches – but as I noted last week, this is a young team, and they’ll get better as the season progresses. Emily Anderson, the Horns’ second-leading scorer last season who was expected to lead the attack this year, played instead at left back, and, well, it wasn’t pretty. A horrible back pass to no one led to the first TCU goal, and she looked tentative throughout. Coach Chris Petrucelli clearly moved her back there to anchor a young and thin defense; it’ll be a learning experience. Biggest plus: Freshman forward Leah Fortune had a great game – a lot of good possession; a gorgeous, cheeky goal chipped over the keeper; and several dangerous runs. She’s going to be a star. The Horns host Houston this Friday, Aug. 28, at 7pm at Mike A. Myers Stadium; there are two ticket promos: Donate five canned goods and get a free ticket, or buy one, get one free.
New Jersey’s Sky Blue FC finished an unlikely run to the first Women’s Pro Soccer championship Saturday, beating the L.A. Sol 1-0. The WPS All-Star Game is 4pm this Sunday, Aug. 30, live on Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Sports Network.
This article appears in August 28 • 2009.