Schedule apologies

Apologies once again for the lack of a schedule - it is done but the USSF won't release it until all the teams have met certain terms and conditions. I'm also still hoping against hope that House Park will be ready in time - I am the eternal optimist - but reality tells me that we will probably play our first few games back at Nelson.

The coaches and office staff are preparing for the tryouts next weekend - there is always a sense of anticipation and excitement that a 'diamond in the rough' will be found. Come out to Stassney Fields next weekend and see for yourselves.

Tomorrow marks Tony Pulis's 300th game in charge of Stoke City.
He was first appointed manager in November 2002 and, after having prevented the Potters from slipping into the football league's third tier, he was sacked after falling out with the club's Icelandic owners. Pulis had refused to play two Icelandic players on the roster who had been brought in by the owners, stating that they just were not good enough. His stance ended in a parting of the ways but just a year later, after the Icelandic owners were bought out by Stoke City chairman, Peter Coates, he was back. It's been a success story ever since, promotion to the top flight in 2007/2008, an impressive 12th place last season and a mid table spot so far this season. Well done Tony and thank you!

The players, staff and I have had lots of fun lately going out to school career fairs. I love the thank you letters we receive:
" I think being a soccer player is an awesome job. You are getting paid while playing soccer. That's amazing. Hearing you explain your job that you travel around the globe to compete makes me want to be a pro player. I remember you saying that you had 30-40 games in a year. I for one think that's a lot. Thank you for taking time to come to our school, it shows our community is willing to get involved with our campus"

Tomorrow, players and staff will be at Feria Para Aprender 2010 (the Learning Fair) at the Travis County Expo Center. This is an event run in conjunction with Austin Partners in Education. One of the aims is to help families learn about the transition from high school to college or career. They are expecting more than 10,000 parents and kids with more than 100 exhibits - should be fun!

Kay

Aztex Alliance

This week saw the launch of the Aztex Alliance and it seems to have been well received. We did a lot of research and listening to fans - having a say in the decision making of the club is something fairly common in Europe but I think only the Seattle Sounders have undertaken it here in America. (I'm prepared to be corrected!)

Last night, the Aztex staff, players and coaches were guests of the Austin Toros who are on a winning streak at the moment. They won again last night but the highlight of the evening was our very own Kieron Bernard taking part in a dance competition! Despite our very enthusiastic cheers, he was beaten into second place, hopefully not a sign of things to come! The players dutifully went straight home whilst the staff went and let off a little steam at Pete's Duelling Pianos.

Lastly, Phil was at a team owners meeting this morning and finally the schedule has had it's last nips and tucks and will be published on Tuesday to fanfares all round.

Kay

Hopes for Haiti

The end of the week and the images from Haiti continue to dominate the news. We have heard that Vaniel Sirin and Ednerson Rayman, who were part of the group that travelled to England with us last October, are safe but we are still waiting to hear if Jean Alexandre's father has been found. It's hard to imagine what the families there are going through - if you are able, donate to any of the worthy non-profits who are directing their relief efforts to Haiti. One of the easiest ways is to text 'HAITI" to 90999 - $10 will be donated and added to your cell phone bill or log on to www.redcross.org

On a lighter note, we have received the first draft of the 2010 schedule so we hope to be publishing it next week - let's hope some of the more notorious 'leakers' from other teams can keep it to themselves until it is written in stone. I know you are dying to know and we are dying to tell you but it's just not quite ready yet! We will also be releasing details of a new signing - I LOVE this time of the year!!

Congratulations to Austin da Luz on being drafted by the New York Red Bulls in the first round and also to another Aztex PDL player Euan Holden who got picked up by his brother's team, Houston Dynamo.

Lastly, we watched the Stoke v Liverpool game this morning - the fans were in great voice as usual but I'm afraid Sorenson didn't do his transfer chances a lot of good. Flapping at the ball to allow them to score and some pretty dodgy clearances too - he's definitely OUT of my fantasy team now!

Kay

Return to 'normal'!

Finally, the office is returning to something akin to normal. It's been hard to focus on the upcoming season with all the shenanigans but common sense finally prevailed. The good news (and I know I am biased) is that Phil is one of the team owners selected to be on the Executive Committee for the new league along with Merritt Paulson of Portland Timbers, Jeff Cooper of St Louis, Pete Medd of Baltimore and Dan Flynn of US Soccer who will serve as Chairman. I obviously know first hand the role that Phil has played in this whole process and I am inordinately proud of him.

The office today has been a little deserted - we have signed up to the Partners in Reading scheme and are mentoring in various elementary schools around the city. We have also been invited to participate in Career Days at both elementary and middle schools - always so much fun. The kids come up with some great questions and love being able to talk to 'real life' soccer players. We are also once again involved with the AISD middle schools, helping them to raise their levels of cardio-vascular fitness through soccer.

The MLS draft takes place tomorrow and one of our 2008 PDL players is in it:

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Austin da Luz

Comments: Toronto needs help on the wings in a bad way and da Luz is a far better player than this draft position indicates. He drops because he isn't very versatile and other teams have solid players on the left wing.

We wish him every success!

Kay

2010 League

At times over the past few months it has felt like I may never get to post this blog but with the agreement reached last week between the USL & NASL teams we look like we can finally start to plan for the 2010 season! It has been pretty wearing, at times infuriating, over the past 12 months watching team owners arguing and disagreeing with each other over pretty fundamental issues. Especially frustrating as this is a time when soccer in the US is more popular than ever and in a World Cup year when the sport will get tremendous recognition and coverage.

I genuinely hope that the opportunity to play in 2010 will give all-parties a breathing space, a time to reflect and agree priorities and direction. There is still much to agree for 2010, schedule, season length, play-off format but hopefully we can get through that process relatively quickly and publish the schedule that I know you are all waiting for.

For the Aztex staff we now have to get down to the serious business of completing sponsorship deals, signing players to new contracts and selling season tickets. The delays over the past few months have been costly to our organization and I have to say had the dispute gone on much longer it may have proved fatal to several teams, including the Aztex. But we are in good shape and have an incredibly dedicated and talented team in the front office, led by new CEO Djorn Buchholz. They are eager to get going and I know you will support them over the next couple of months as we prepare for the new season.

Thanks again for sticking with us through what has been a difficult period. Let's all pull together in the next few weeks to make 2010 at House Park a huge success for Austin pro soccer.

Phil

Winter Wonderland!

Phil and I flew to the UK on Monday for a mostly business trip that happily coincided with 2 Stoke City games! We knew the UK had been taking a bit of a battering as far as the weather goes and packed accordingly. The first setback was having to land at Gatwick instead of Manchester but we made it up to Stoke in time for the game - and what a game it was! Stoke went in 3 up at half time and looked to be having the better of the challenging conditions. Under soil heating meant the pitch itself was in good shape but the snow was swirling for most of the game. Fulham brough Dempsey on in the second half and he proved to be the catalyst they needed, scoring a contender for goal of the season. One of our summer interns, Scott Burleson, was at the game with his mates and spoke with Dempsey after the game. They have been having a grand old time in the UK and have seen lots of games including Chelsea/Fulham, Millwall/Derby, Arsenal/West Ham and Hayes &Yeading/AFC Wimbledon (look it up!!)

Hopefully, the end of this week will see a solution to the USL/TOA situation and we can all move on with our lives. Phil has already been busy working on our pre-season games - more to follow soon!

I'd like to extend a warm welcome to Brian Pederson and his wife Stephanie as they join our Aztex family - he brings a great deal of experience in running successful and exciting camps and clinics.

We will be back in Austin on Sunday after hopefully seeing Stoke win away at Burnley (temporarily managerless) and also weather permitting.

Kay

Aztex mailings

The office this week resembles a mail depot as the ticket sales team parcel up the scarves and backpacks to get them to their recipients in time for Christmas. There is still one day left if you want to take advantage of the special offer.

We've also received some lovely gifts of the edible variety so it's just as well that the staff have started playing indoor soccer of an evening - it certainly burns a few calories! We just need Miguel and Yordany back in the side so that results can improve!

I was sad to read this week how the blogs and message boards descended into ugliness over the USL/TOA situation. The USSF has asked everyone to not comment until a decision has been reached. As soon as we know something concrete, we will certainly report it.

Thank to our Big Soccer posters for keeping us up to date with developments at House Park -

"Things are moving along very quickly. There's something resembling the beginning of walls now. I got to drive home in daylight last night (being at work at 6:30 am helps make that happen) and I'm getting excited about getting to watch the Aztex at House next season and watching the teams come out of those locker rooms."

While on the subject of Big Soccer, there was a post a while back about Adrian applying for the job of Port Vale manager. Let's be serious for a moment - Port Vale!!!! Never mention those words in front of any self-respecting Stoke City fan. Adrian did not apply for the job, it was a figment of Port Vale's imagination!

I had a quick chat with Adrian this morning - he was up in Carolina for the Final Four. He thought there were some very promising players there and he had a great deal of sympathy for Akron who were 23 games undefeated and then fell to Virginia on penalties in the final in front of 5,679 fans.

Congratulations to Nick Noble for securing a contract at Swedish Superettan club Ljungskile SK - we wish him the very best.

Kay