7/19 El Paso - Austin

[VioletCrown]

Final game of the season. It goes so fast in the PDL.

Second place race:

24 El Paso - 2 games left: @ Lar, Aus
22 Laredo - 2 games left: EP, @ NO
19 Baton Rouge - 2 games left: @ NO, Miss
18 Mississippi - 2 games left: @ BR, Hou
18 New Orleans - 3 games left: BR, Laredo, DFW

The Laredo - El Paso game is on Wednesday. If El Paso wins that one, they will have secured 2nd place, and the game against us will be meaningless to them as well, other than it being a mental prep for the playoffs... and the right to say they're the only team to have a winning record against the division champions (we're currently 1-1-1 with them).

Looking over the tiebreakers, Laredo has to win that game to have a chance at the playoffs.

And Laredo (and everyone else) is counting on us to keep El Paso out.

We're on a two game losing streak (what?!?), but our road performance still looks better than everyone else in the division. But El Paso is really hot right now -- on a FIVE game winning streak. And the teams they beat in that streak include Mississippi, Austin and Laredo.

This will be a very tough game. I'd really like to see our boys wrap the season up on a positive note.

[Blackburn]

I'm just hoping we've gotten the losing out of our systems for the rest of the season. I'll take 2 losses now for a deep playoff run...

[VioletCrown]

Forgot to mention. As discussed in another thread, there are plans afoot to gather to watch the game. El Paso webcasts its games. We're looking at gathering at Mother Egan's. The hope is to hook up a computer to one of the TVs for general viewing.

[TwoMeters]

I won't be joining you guys at Mother Egan's this time. Because I'm planning on going to the game!

My son's scout summer camp is way out west, only ("only"! ha!) 2.5 hours east of El Paso, and I'm driving him out there on Saturday anyway. So I'll skip out from the troop that evening and push on to see the game in person.

So they damn well better win!! :D

Anyway, I've seen where other people are bringing their laptops, but for the record, my (Windows-emulating-when-necessary) Mac won't be there to help. Best of luck to you all in hooking that up this time.

[EPVox]

I won't be joining you guys at Mother Egan's this time. Because I'm planning on going to the game!

My son's scout summer camp is way out west, only ("only"! ha!) 2.5 hours east of El Paso, and I'm driving him out there on Saturday anyway.

Fort Stockton? Monahans?

[TwoMeters]

Fort Stockton? Monahans?
Buffalo Trails Scout Reservation.

[EPVox]

Cool. Hope your son enjoys it.

[VioletCrown]

Laredo 3-1 El Paso
New Orleans 2-3 Baton Rouge

Laredo gives El Paso their first loss in the past six games, and do what they need to do keep themselves alive.

Same with Baton Rouge, but they're hanging on by a thread.

Second place race:

25 Laredo - 1 game left: @ NO
24 El Paso - 1 game left: Aus
22 Baton Rouge - 1 game left: Miss

Actually, now that I look more closely, I'm pretty sure Baton Rouge is out. Laredo has beaten them three times this year, so Laredo has the tiebreaker if BR wins and Laredo and El Paso lose.

It's more complex if BR wins, Laredo loses and EP - Austin ties. If it were even games, then I could make sense out of it, but BR has tiebreaker over EP (2-0 in BR), Laredo over BR (3 wins in both places), and EP over Laredo (2-1, all home wins).

OK. I see. According to this (http://www.uslsoccer.com/aboutusl/rules/index_E.html), head to head is skipped because of unequal games. In that case, it goes to #2 - total wins in league games. So, I believe if BR wins, Laredo loses and EP ties, Baton Rouge would go through with 8 wins.

So, after all (assuming I have things right) Baton Rouge is not eliminated.

However, Laredo could settle things simply by winning. On the road. Something they've only done once this year. Oddly enough, against Baton Rouge.

[VioletCrown]

On the stats front, Ezzy is now down to #8 on the fouls table, and since he'll be sitting out our last game of the season, he's likely to end up out of the top 10. Ironic. Because he sits for accumulating too many yellow cards, he won't appear in the 'most fouls' table.

Glancing at our (possible) playoff opponents, both Zak Boggs (Bradenton) and Carlos Araujo (Kraze) are on the goals and shots tables. But it helps to have the absolute worst team in the whole league in your division. Palm Beach has given up 61 goals now (though they have gotten a lot tighter here at the end, allowing Bradenton only one goal in each of the past two games), a full 20 goals more than the next worst team, the Springfield Demize (seriously, who names their team such a doomed name?).

Lots of things to contemplate for Miguel on the goalkeepers tables.

He (and our defense) will get the shutouts leader. There aren't enough games left in the season for anyone to pass him. He's at risk of losing the #1 spot on the Goals Against table (damn last weekend). He almost certainly won't get past #4 on the Wins table -- the guy at #3 is with Thunder Bay and they're a very good team with two games left. I'm not going to do the math on the Goals Against Average table, but he's probably in pretty good shape. We get another shutout in El Paso and Miguel will almost certainly finish #1 on three tables. But we have been poor on the road lately. It's tempting to suggest that Miguel's Keeper of the Year award is on the line this weekend, and I'd really like our defense to step up and make it happen.

[CR#7]

How does the team travel to away games? Do they take a charter bus or fly?

[mgrayscale]

How does the team travel to away games? Do they take a charter bus or fly?

I know that they took a bus to New Orleans and Baton Rouge, so I'm guessing this is the standard mode.

[Alejo]

Well my fellow Aztex

I don't know, I probably will not be able to make it to mother Es for the webcast, but damn if my heart is not right there with you guys and with the team in El Paso.

Soo Go Red an Whites

And Chantico be with us :D

[Alejo]

The Goddess Wills it

I WILL BE AT MOTHER E'S

By a serious of very fortunate events I will be their to finally meet my fellow Chanticos, and hopefully see an Aztex game, albight on a web cast, soo HUURAHHH

PRAISE THE LADY AND PASS THE TAX REBATE

HEHEHEHEHEEEE :p

[mgrayscale]

A report from Mothe Egan's at halftime, for those of you not able to join us or watch the match online (which is working).

El Paso is up 2-1 on the Aztex, with EP being awarded a penalty that many here believe was a miscall. We'll continue updates through the 2nd half, on this forum, however, if you can read this, then you can watch the match.

On a separate note, this game's impact for El Paso is pretty well done. They needed Laredo to lose and to win against Austin. About 10 minutes ago, we did get the report that Laredo was up 4-0 against New Orleans with 12 minutes left int he match, so El Paso is effectively, done.

[EPVox]

Thanks for watching, guys. Best of fortunes in Florida. Keep the title in the Mid-South Division, where it belongs.

[mgrayscale]

Bad news, fans. The Aztex have dropped the third match in a row, losing to El Paso 3-1 in the final regular season match.

On the brighter side, we have found a home for the "Unofficial" Aztex Supporters Group, and that home is Mother Egan's. I had several conversations with one of the owners, Will, and he has assured us that with advanced notice, he will make space and a home for us. We had about 20 folks out this evening to watch the match, and it was a blast (with the exception of the result).

We're working on finding out if there will be a webcast for the playoffs, and will communicate updates on this forum.

[mgrayscale]

Thanks for watching, guys. Best of fortunes in Florida. Keep the title in the Mid-South Division, where it belongs.

EPVox,

Thank you for your best wishes. All of us at the Aztex Supporters group appreciate it, and frankly, are amazed at the improvement that the Patriots showed in the second half of the season. And please take this the right way, we're glad we won't have to face you again this season. The Patriots are the only team in who has a winning record against us. We're going to have to figure that out before the PDL season launches next season.

If you're ever in Austin, give us a yell and we'd love to host you at our local for a pint or 20.

[kingqueso]

Thanks to Everyone who made the watch party possible and to Mother E's for the pints.

We need to do this again for the playoffs and get this bad taste out of our collective mouths with the sweet sweet taste of victory.

Cheers

[Alejo]

cheers to all, bring on the acadenics and

CHEERS MATES ;)

[Budaztex]

I wasn't able to make it to M. Egans, however I did manage to watch about 3/4 of the game at home, it was great (other than the result). I would like to specifically single out the announcer, he was great. He was fair, classy and wasn't a "homer", he was very knowledgeable about the players and his comments, I thought were spot on. He kept wishing the Aztex the best of luck throughout the match. Hats off to the El Paso Patriots organization.