6/14 Houston vs. Austin

[VioletCrown]

I'm not ready to turn my attention back to the league yet, but I'll post, since Saturday will get here before you know it.

This one's a prime opportunity for a road trip. Our closest away game.

We're at 19 points with a 7 point lead over Laredo and Baton Rouge. Houston, after coming out of the gate hot, languish on 9 points, all of them earned at home. Which means this will probably be a tough game. I've heard lots of good things about the field there.

On the plus side, the two teams that are closest to us are playing back-to-back games. Against each other! In Laredo.

On the stats side of things, Ezzy has dropped to 3rd place on the fouls chart. That's a good thing, I think. But he may not be going to Houston. He might have to sit out for yellow card accumulation. I don't know that for sure, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised.

And Gallardo is still atop the shutouts table.

The Open Cup is behind us now, time to set our sights on the Division Championship!

[TwoMeters]

I'd be in on that road trip for sure, if I weren't going to be out of town (out of state, in fact). :(

[bmantx]

Should be a good matchup. The Leones were just starting up when I left Houston. They play in Richmond at a brand new facility that was 100% financed and built by the owner. He was a home builder I believe. It seats 4,500 and is and is supposed to be top notch. I'm curious to read a review of the place if someone is making the trip. Could be the way to go for the Aztex in the future. Controlling all revenue streams would be really nice.

[FrogHammer]

Me too, if anyone goes please take a couple pictures of the stadium and post them here, if you get a chance. If the Aztex build one like it they may want to leave room for expansion, at least up to 5,000-7000 seats for big games.

[TwoMeters]

Please note: the game in Houston has a 5:00 start time on Saturday (not 7:00, as incorrectly listed on the Aztex site's calendar until today).

[VioletCrown]

Please note: the game in Houston has a 5:00 start time on Saturday (not 7:00, as incorrectly listed on the Aztex site's calendar until today).

What an odd choice.

...oh, wait. All their home games are at that time. That means they don't have any lights there.

Well, I guess, them having built the stadium themselves, I can understand not having lights yet. Here's hoping that's in the budget sometime. Though with attendances of 500, ?, ?, and ?, I would expect not.

And, if we're going to build a stadium for a USL-1 team, it better have lights.

[FrogHammer]

And, if we're going to build a stadium for a USL-1 team, it better have lights.

I completely agree. Bud Lights and Miller Lights at the very least. I also like Shiner Lights.

[mgrayscale]

I'm going down for the match and will take the camera to get some shots. I'll then post them at the Flickr site we've used and put the link in here.

[duality72]

I completely agree. Bud Lights and Miller Lights at the very least. I also like Shiner Lights.

It would be great if they had beer, too. ;)

[VioletCrown]

Last night's games, home team first:

Laredo 3-1 Baton Rouge
El Paso 1-1 DFW

Oh, and from Wednesday:

Mississippi 1-1 New Orleans

Standings look like this:

19 Austin
15 Laredo
12 Baton Rouge, New Orleans
11 DFW
9 Houston, El Paso
8 Mississippi

Laredo's trying to pull away from the pack and keep pace with us. With the games tonight, they could pull away. If we don't win to night, and they do. they'll be one point behind us.

Looking forward to seeing some reports!

[mgrayscale]

Unfortunately, I had a write up that I just tried to post, but server traffic killed the connection as I was posting. Yep, you guessed, all was lost. So lets try this again...

The Aztex beat the Houston Leones tonight in Houston 2-0 in what will be a memorable match. The first goal was a cracker by Jamie Watson, who drilled it in the first half. The second goal was a PK in the 44th minute by Andres Cuero.

The bad...

During most of the match, we still seem to have challenges in moving the ball quickly and accurately amongst players. We are amazing at getting the ball, but then seem to lose it too much of the time with underpower passes, or by trying to put too much flair on the ball.

Additionally, we had another "John Terry" incident where the same Leones player who spat on Jamie Watson in the home match did it again this evening. This time, the official saw it, and sent the player off (although initially, Jamie was sent off, which makes one wonder how you can be sent off for spitting on yourself). That did not rest well with the Leones players, as half the onfield team immediately went after the official, literally, who then had to have 2 county sheriffs deputies come ON TO THE PITCH to protect him. All the while the Leones coaches doing their best to keep things stirring. I'm still amazed that no other Leones player or coach was sent off.

Although we'd heard wonderful things about the stadium, I was disappointed at the state of it. I have pictures that I'll post tomorrow, but as you'll see it's small and spartan. They do have real grass, but it appears to be so dry and comopacted that you might as well play on concrete (not sure what it actually felt like as I didn't get on it).

The good...

The Aztex were able to face another physical team and come out on top. The guts and determination they showed, even when getting pushed in the back during a dead ball (as happened to Josh Alcala) or getting your head stomped on with cleats, thus drawing blood (as happened to another player whose name escapes me).

Although passing was off in the first 3/4 of the match, with the coaches guiding them (aka yelling), the lads really moved the ball well in the last quarter of the match. Quick passes that were spot on, controlled and purposeful meant that the Leones players were very tired. It was the typed of movement that I believe would've generated a different result last Tuesday night if it had been there.

There were about 100 Leones fans in the arena, and 30 Aztex fans. We continually drowned all of their cheers out (with the exception of the announcer). At one point with about 5 minutes to go, the Leones side started chanting, "Austin sucks!!" (what class) which was quickly silenced by an Austin chant of, "Scoreboard". Nuff said.

I do have some pictures that I'll post tomorrow along with the link. They're mostly of the stadium as a number of folks here wanted to see it.

[MBean]

Headed down to Richmond with my daughter for the game today... only to find that when I showed up at 6:00pm the first half had already been played... and by that time it was already 2-0 Aztex. Unfortunately, the Houston Leones website sucks. Instead of having "Game today at 5:00pm!" plastered all over the front page of the website, they have links to Cruz Azul (Mexico) and to their local sponsors... and a roundabout way to link to an embedded USL website schedule that has (I finally see it NOW) the times for the matches in Texas listed in Eastern Standard Time. I guess the good news is... I saved $16 on tickets since they let us in for free at halftime... although I don't see how a crappy website that brings potential customers into the stadium an hour late is going to make the Leones enough money to stay in business longer than any of the other minor league soccer teams that tried to make it in Houston. And apparently... although I won't name any names... I wasn't the only one who showed up at halftime either... thinking the game was scheduled for 6:00pm.

On the stadium:
There were no lights in the stadium... though they did have lights in the practice fields around it(?). It's pretty darn big for what it is. The west stand extends all the way from goal line to goal line, has a pretty nice looking press box, and is comprised of about a dozen rows of concrete terraces. In the middle of the field (where most of the fans were) they had folding chairs (tied to each other) on top of the concrete terraces for people to sit in. Although it looked pretty bare, the concrete terraces (minus the folding chairs of course) are exactly what I'm hoping they put behind the goals in the new Dynamo stadium for the Texian Army and El Battallon. I bet the west stand has about 3,000 capacity. The east stand (facing the sun) is also a concrete terrace, has no press box, runs from goal line to goal line, and is maybe 25% shorter than the west stand. With the west stand not nearly filled... nobody was sitting over there today. My main gripe with the stadium was the placement of the covered players benches that obstructed some of the view of the field. However, with lighting, permanent bench seating added to the terraces (except in whatever area would be reserved from a proper supporters group of course), and a legitimate concessions stand or two to go along with the taqueria outside, the beer tent, and the dude pushing the ice cream cart... I think it has the potential to be a really, really, really nice venue for a USL club and a pretty intimidating place to play if you could just get a couple thousand non-catatonic fans to show up. Unfortunately though, from what I saw of the relatively small and completely sedated crowd today (and given the fact that we've already got the Dynamo in Houston)... I just don't see what kind of future this club has in Houston* if it wants to be any bigger or better than what it already is. In fact, my experience today... except for the nicer venue... reminds me exactly of going to a couple of Houston Hurricanes games in the 90s. With the Dynamo in town... I doubt I'll ever be going back to Richmond to see the Leones play unless it's to take on the Dynamo reserves or something in a friendly.

On the match:
Like I said up top, I missed all the scoring since I didn't show up until halftime... so my observations only cover the second half. First, the Aztex looked like a better team than the Leones. Not alot better, but each Aztex seemed a little more skilled on the ball than did most of the Leones... and the Aztex seemed to move the ball around better as a team. Neither team could string very many passes together... but Austin was more likely to than Houston. Scoring chances weren't all that aplenty for either team... with the Aztex probably creating 2/3rds of them that I saw. The most exciting thing to happen on the pitch in the second half was when a couple of local law enforcement officials needed to move onto the field of play to help ensure that order was restored after one of the Leones was red carded and to ensure that the said party properly exited the field afterwards without further incident. That little episodes explains pretty much all of the 6 minutes of stoppage time added at the end of the half. Without a program to refer to, with the announcer at the stadium apparently not knowing the Austin player's names either, and with my 5 year old daughter gobbling up some of my attention (especially when the ice cream bar melted all over her)... I didn't watch the game closely enough to notice any players really standing out or anything. Just from what I saw, though, I would hope (for your guys sake and for the growth of our sport in our state) that most of the guys who make the roster for your USL1 team next season aren't the ones I saw playing today for either side.

Anyway, good luck with the rest of your season... and maybe someday you'll get your own stadium and we (the Texian Army) will make it out there when you play the Dynamo in the US Open Cup or something.

[MBean]

Yeah, I thought the pitch looked pretty rotten too. I've been to a number of high school games in Brenham and to a number of Texas A&M games in College Station... and both of those pitches blow away this one in quality. There were times when the ball took 2 or 3 tiny bounces toward a player... and then somehow manged to pick up enough momentum (without being touched or without a big gust of wind coming by) to bounce 3 feet off the ground on bounce 4 or 5 (reminded me of the little foam footballs bouncing around the metal pitch in electric football).

[mgrayscale]

I've uploaded the images from last night to the Austin Aztex Flickr Pool (http://www.flickr.com/groups/aztexpix/pool/). The original purpose was to show everyone the stadium, although I got pseudo lucky with the 44th minute PK (#5 stepped in at the last minute to block the ball view).

[VioletCrown]

Additionally, we had another "John Terry" incident where the same Leones player who spat on Jamie Watson in the home match did it again this evening. This time, the official saw it, and sent the player off (although initially, Jamie was sent off, which makes one wonder how you can be sent off for spitting on yourself). That did not rest well with the Leones players, as half the onfield team immediately went after the official, literally, who then had to have 2 county sheriffs deputies come ON TO THE PITCH to protect him. All the while the Leones coaches doing their best to keep things stirring. I'm still amazed that no other Leones player or coach was sent off.

Well. In lieu of having an intense rivarly with San Antonio, I guess Houston will do.

It's incidents like that that support the idea of videotaping every game.

So, I guess we won't have Jamie for the El Paso game in a couple weeks. Too bad. It looks like he's starting to settle into being one of our regular goalscorers.

Glad to hear we had so many fans make the trip down there. Too bad that some of them showed up late.

One big plus (I guess), besides the winning -- that's the last time we'll see Houston this year.

[mgrayscale]

So, I guess we won't have Jamie for the El Paso game in a couple weeks. Too bad. It looks like he's starting to settle into being one of our regular goalscorers.


Just to clarify, Jamie did not get the red card. The referees were able to get things clarified and they sent the proper Leones player off (#59, Acevedo). Additionally, Jamie did not get any cautions, so unless something else occurs, we should see him against El Paso on the 27th at 7:30 p.m. CDT.

To Jamie's credit, he did a good job at keeping his cool when Acevedo spat on him again. Unfortunately, he almost got a caution from the near side linesman later after being subbed for complaining on a play. Still, he and the rest of the players are learning to focus that passion correctly on the field.

[VioletCrown]

The other games last night (home teams first):

Laredo 3-0 Baton Rouge
El Paso 1-0 DFW

So the win was indeed very important. The standings now are:

22 Austin
18 Laredo
12 El Paso, Baton Rouge, New Orleans
11 DFW
9 Houston
8 Mississippi

We have off next weekend, so others will appear to catch up with us. But after next weekend, we'll have games in hand on others, so as long as we keep winning, we'll be fine (how's that for a truism?:))

There's still plenty of season left, and by the looks of things, Laredo is coming on strong (they scored 3 goals in both games against Baton Rouge).

Assuming no slips by either team, Thursday, July 3 looms large in terms of who finishes first. I assume that the first place team hosts the division playoff.

Oh, VERY interesting (http://www.rsssf.com/tablesu/usa07.html) (scroll down). In fact, if things go like they did last year, VERY VERY fun.

Last year, the winner of our division played the runner up in the Southeast Division. And our runner-up played the Southeast Division winner.

If things continue just like they are (http://www.uslsoccer.com/standings/8630213.html), we'd get to play... Atlanta Silverbacks U-23s!

I couldn't possibly predict how likely things are to change, but I'm starting to feel confident that we're in a good place to win the MidSouth.

How poetic would that be?

[bmantx]

Thanks for the pics and the reports. Good win. Sounds like the Aztex have really put a nice team together. Dissapointing to hear the field was not good. I knew the stadium was kind of bare bones (I read it cost $500,000) but I heard the fields were nice. A friend who went to an early game was impressed. I agree with M Bean wondering what their future is. The Dynamo are so rock solid in the area now, whats left for the Leones? Anyway It does look like it has the makings of a decent stadium, I wish them well. Maybe renting out the fields is more lucrative than we know.

[VioletCrown]

Just to clarify, Jamie did not get the red card. The referees were able to get things clarified and they sent the proper Leones player off (#59, Acevedo). Additionally, Jamie did not get any cautions, so unless something else occurs, we should see him against El Paso on the 27th at 7:30 p.m. CDT.

To Jamie's credit, he did a good job at keeping his cool when Acevedo spat on him again. Unfortunately, he almost got a caution from the near side linesman later after being subbed for complaining on a play. Still, he and the rest of the players are learning to focus that passion correctly on the field.

Excellent! I checked the lineup on the USL website (http://www.uslsoccer.com/stats/2008/657467.html), and it looks like we had yet another different look, with Willy getting a full game, and a 3 forward lineup? And did Miguel really have ZERO saves?

[mgrayscale]

I don't think I would agree with zero saves, but it's feasible. There were a couple of balls that got through Beto, Josh, Jamie (Scope), and Kevin that Miguel had to pounce on, but I think they were far enough out to not be a "save".