Tickets to the inaugural ATX Pro Challenge, a four-team MLS preseason tournament hosted by the Austin Aztex, Feb. 13-15 at UT’s Mike Myers Stadium, go on sale this Friday, Jan. 9 at www.texassports.com. They start as low as $20 for a Friday Pass, $30 for a Sunday Pass, or $40 for the full, four-game Weekend Pass. The tournament will feature Aztex affiliate the Columbus Crew SC, four-time MLS champion D.C. United, and I-35 neighbor FC Dallas: Friday’s semifinals have Columbus playing Dallas at 5:45pm, followed by the Aztex making their pro debut against D.C. United at 8pm. Sunday will feature both consolation and championship matches (1pm, 3:15pm)… The Aztex have also extended their Early Bird season ticket window until next Friday, Jan. 16. Get savings up to half off the single admission price, plus discounted merchandise, invitations to special events, and various other perks; see www.austinaztex.com for more info.
The Aztex held their January Invitational tryouts this past week. Open tryouts are still to come, but the club must be getting close to settling their opening day roster; announcements will be forthcoming as the team gets official okays from the league. This week’s participants included former Aztex players Khiry Shelton, Kekuta Manneh, and Kris Tyrpak, who all came in to help out, and to prepare for the upcoming MLS combine.
Two familiar faces who will definitely be on that opening day roster are goalkeeper Devin Perales and left back Mikey Ambrose, each of whom is skipping their final year of college eligibility to go pro, while participating in the Education Program the Aztex are developing to “open the door for collegiate players that are MLS caliber to finish their college careers early and sign with the Aztex, while we still help them to continue their education, a very important mission for us to help them improve on and off the field.” Perales has been an Aztex fixture for the past two seasons; Ambrose has seen limited action here, but has been “easily one of the best fullbacks in the college game,” according to Ives Galarcep of SoccerByIves.
Perales will also be heading down to Brazil to train with first division powerhouse Coritiba in this preseason. There’s talk that this could help lead to a potential partnership, to include loan and exchange of youth players; that would put the Aztex in some pretty heady company: Coritiba’s current partners are Porto and Benfica of Portugal, Chivas Guadalajara of Mexico, Daegu of South Korea, and VVV-Venlo of the Netherlands.
Major League Soccer will gain two of the top English players of their generation later this year: The L.A. Galaxy confirmed the signing of former England captain Steven Gerrard, who will join the team in May, at the end of his 17th season at Liverpool. That’s about the same time Frank Lampard will come over to the expansion New York City FC from Manchester City.
The Houston Aces of the Women’s Premier Soccer League are conducting tryouts “for young women to play competitive soccer during their college off season and beyond.” The WPSL season runs May-July; Austin-area tryouts are Mon.-Tue., Jan. 12-13 at Texans Soccer Club, 303 E. Pflugerville Pkwy. in Pflugerville. More info at www.thehoustonaces.com.
This article appears in January 9 • 2015.