The Austin Aztex‘s oldest and youngest players – Zack Pope and Kekuta Manneh, respectively – were named to the PDL Southern all-conference team this week, along with top scorer Kris Tyrpak, making the Aztex one of only three teams to land three players on the all-star squad. The Carolina Dynamo host Forest City London Saturday night for the 2012 PDL Championship.
The U.S. Women continued their tear through the Olympics group stage, scoring eight unanswered goals after giving up the first two of the tournament in their first 15 minutes against France. After winning their group with a perfect record, Abby Wambach and company move into the quarterfinals Friday against surprise qualifier New Zealand (8:30am, NBCSN). The winner plays the Canada/Great Britain winner Monday, Aug. 6, 1:45pm, with the gold medal and bronze medal matches at 7am & 1:45pm Thursday. The big surprise on the men‘s side was that world champion Spain was eliminated after two games – shutout losses to Japan and unfancied Honduras. Co-favorite Brazil breezed through their group, and they look like a good bet to lift the only football trophy they’ve never won. Those quarterfinals run all day Saturday, Aug. 4, with semis on Tuesday, and the gold medal match on Saturday, Aug. 11, 9am.
Hope Solo can’t seem to keep her foot out of it – ripping star-player-turned-TV-announcer Brandi Chastain after game two for what was really a very mild on-air criticism of the U.S. defense. I guess that’s what the best goalkeeper in the world needs to psych herself up; after having little to do in the team’s dominating first round games, she’ll likely be called on to prove that title in the games that really count.
Also on TV: The LA Galaxy takes on Real Madrid in one of the last games of the MLS World Football Challenge, 9:30pm tonight (Thursday, Aug. 2), on ESPN2.
This article appears in August 3 • 2012.