Austin Aztex open tryouts took place this weekend; head coach Adrian Heath said he was happy with the turnout of nearly 140 players and that he hopes to invite several players to a March training camp. That’ll be none too soon – the Aztex have a preseason exhibition against the Houston Dynamo Sunday, March 14, before opening their regular season April 11, hosting the defending champions, the Montreal Impact. As of now, the Aztex have 10 players on their roster; here’s what they look like, by position, from the back:
• Goalkeeper: Miguel Gallardo-Aparicio is a rock; he’ll be a player-of-the-year candidate every year he’s here.
• Defense: We have two big, strong, proven central defenders in Kieron Bernard and Jay Needham, but the wings are wide open. Those are critical spots on any team, where the play was very up and down last year. It’s hard to find good wingbacks; could popular locals A.J. Godbolt, Josh Alcala, and/or Zack Pope get another look?
• Midfield: This looks like a strength; Kevin Sakuda, Michael Callahan, and Cuban wunderkind Yordany Alvarez worked well together last year, and newcomer Lawrence Olum has been a top scorer with the St. Louis Lions and Minnesota Thunder.
• Forward: Sullivan Silva, Eddie Johnson, and Jamie Watson have all proven themselves in Austin as dangerous strikers, and their styles are different enough that they could be very effective together.
European Champions League play started up again this week, highlighted by Manchester United‘s 3-2 win at AC Milan; former Man U idol David Beckham created an opening goal for Milan just three minutes in; Wayne Rooney got two in the second half for the winners. Under the new knockout round format, there are now two games most every Tuesday and Wednesday at 1:45pm, most of them on Fox Soccer Channel. Next Wednesday’s highlight: José Mourinho‘s Inter Milan hosts his old club Chelsea. No hard feelings there. Nah.
This article appears in February 19 • 2010.