As I'm sure we all know, today's a huge game for the Aztex. Win & they're in ... 1st place. Which means a long trip to the unwelcoming pitch in Puerto Rico on Thursday. Lose, and no first place, but the travel is easier. That's because they'll literally stay in Montreal until a first playoff leg on Wednesday. Prematch post, not much longer than this, on my blog: http://aztexan.net/2010/10/away-game-103-montreal-impact/ As always, we'll be at Mister Tramps on 183 at 1:00 this afternoon. Come on out and join us to witness franchise history! GOOOAARN YOU AZTEX
Disappointed with the play that I read about from the match tonight. Lack of control from the red and white, the sending off of Patterson, losing 2-0 to a team we'll face again on Wednesday... But therein lies the benefit of this. The guys get 2 days off with no travel to rest in Montreal. A good showing on Wednesday followed by a massive shellacking of the Impact puts us in the semifinals, and delays the Aztex Awards banquet another week (currently scheduled for October 11th for players, staff and Aztex Alliance members). Come on Aztex, SORT IT OUT!!
I was disappointed as well. With all the talk of 'we want to win the league' they clearly decided that the playoffs were more important, as we rested nearly our entire usual starting 11. From what I could tell, the only typical starters that were out there were Sakuda and Miguel. Needham was in, but I don't know if it was the whole game. And Max came in in the second half. Wow. Looking at the match report, Leonard Griffin came on for Sakuda. Now there's an odd substitution. And, once again, Austin gets an odd call. We get the foul... but get a player sent off. It was annoying, only getting replays on goals or near Montreal goals. If you're going to run replays, at least give replays of all key plays. My guess is that Randi misses the Wednesday game. Other than that, the slate's wiped clean. We should have everyone except injured players back, and that should, at this point, come down to just Stephan Campbell. Depending on what Kieron Bernard did that pulled him off the field for a bit.
With a second game in less than two days, I am fine with the Aztex fielding a second team for the Montreal game no matter what the circumstances. If they had won; great, we'd had gone to Puerto Rico for the first round of the playoffs. Since they didn't we stay in Montreal and get ready for the next go round with the Impact. The problem is that we haven't won on the road in a long time. Since June 26th. We've tied 4 times since then but every other game has been a loss. I hope we find our form for Wednesday's game and change that. If those Impact announcers are going to be in town next weekend, we should find them and buy them a drink before the game at the Tavern.
We started the game with 8 reserves and 3 regular starters if you inlcude Bernard as a starter. Kevin was not supposed to play but Jerome has visa problems and did not get into Canada. So, he and Leonard split that side. Jay came on with seven minutes to go when Bernard got a cramp. Don't know about Keiron's status for Wednesday. We should be full strength on Wednesday. I am also disappointed we didn't take the league title, but now the second season starts. Everybody is 0-0-0. Onward and upward. UP the RAW.
Matt word from the front office this morning is that the Aztex Awards banquet is on for the 11th regardless of whether the team wins or loses the series against Montreal this week... no pushing the date back if we get farther into the playoffs. I'm not crazy about the team having a season-ending awards banquet while (hopefully) the season will still be going on... but I am just the messenger and didn't have a say in the matter. - The Commish
It depends on the score of the two games... http://www.ussoccer.com/News/USSF-D...y-on-Oct-6-as-Playoff-Seeding-Determined.aspx
Oh I see. I remembered the part about not using away goals, but for some reason I was thinking that goals didn't count at all.
Thanks, Ed. I appreciate. I email Phil about this when I got the note this weekend. From a personal perspective, I'm disappointed that it's happening while I'm out of the country. This was a great event last year, and having less than 2 weeks notice is, in my opinion, another situation where we receive too short notice on Aztex events (not all, but more than I care to see). I absolutely understand the need to do this soon, as the players will leave quickly after the season is over. However, I've also made the decision to not start the voting for the Chantico's Cup until the Aztex season is over. Voting for the PotY (Chantico's Cup) is something that requires all of the matches to be played. I've seen PotY voted before a season is over, and they're frequently flawed. The Gaffer