The Austin Aztex host the Laredo Heat Saturday night, in what could be the defining game of their inaugural season. Laredo are three-time defending division champions, and the national runner-up last year in the 73-team Premier Development League. The Aztex lead the division this season, but a pair of evenly-played draws last weekend against New Orleans (albeit with two different previously untested lineups) brought them back to earth a bit, after three earlier blowout wins, when everything looked so easy, and they were the ones applying pressure all over the field. They’ll need to get back on track in a hurry Saturday night, and one thing that could help would be the return of leading scorer Kekuta Manneh, out sick last week. Believe it or not, only four home games left this season. Saturday, June 9, 7:30pm, at House Park, 13th & Lamar. Tickets are $10; $50 for eight; kids 10 & under free.
The Euro2012 championship tourney kicks off this Friday, June 8, with every game live on ESPN at 11am or 1:45pm. Highlights from the first week: Group B openers Saturday – Holland vs. Denmark at 11am, Germany vs. Portugal at 1:45pm – with two of those Top 10 in the world sides going home early… Group C’s Spain vs. Italy Sunday morning (reports last week had Italy – with their typical flair for the dramatic – withdrawing from the tournament in the final days, due to the ongoing match-fixing scandal at top club Juventus; but apparently cooler heads have prevailed)… England vs. France Monday morning pits two teams with enormous expectations, enormous pressures, and, well, maybe not enough enormous talent… Group B again on Wednesday… and more. Group play runs daily through June 19; quarterfinals are June 21-24, and the championship final is Sunday, July 1.
The U.S. men open their WC qualifying campaign June 8 as well, hosting Antigua and Barbuda in Tampa (6pm, online only on ESPN3), then playing at Guatemala on Tuesday, June 12. Group play concludes with two games in September, and two more in October.
Three USL Pro teams advanced into the final eight of the U.S. Open Cup Tuesday night along with five from Major League Soccer; the supposedly second division North American Soccer League was shut out. Why might that be good for Austin? Find out at The Score blog, austinchronicle.com/sports.
This article appears in June 8 • 2012.