Austin Aztex News Release - www.austinaztex.com
Monday, October 19, 2009
STOKE-on-TRENT, ENGLAND – USL First Division club Austin Aztex finish their offseason tour of England with their third and final friendly of the trip Tuesday when they face Championship side Sheffield Wednesday. They won their opener 1-0 over the reserves of the English Premier League’s Stoke City, an affiliate of Austin, and downed Accrington Stanley of League Two, 2-1.
A day after their victory over the Stoke youngsters last Wednesday, and less than 48 hours after arriving in England, the young Aztex squad won their second consecutive contest, holding on to defeat Accrington in a match that meant more off the pitch than on it.
Accrington, who was coming off a 4-0 win against Cheltenham Town the previous Saturday and is trying to stay afloat despite financial troubles (www.saveourstanley.com) to which the proceeds of the match went to, fielded a strong team that included several first-team players in the line-up. The Aztex once again used the game as an opportunity to allow all the players who made the trip to get some quality time on the pitch.
In a very lively first half, the Aztex had most of the possession and laid siege to the Accrington Stanley goal, hitting the post on four occasions and having one goal disallowed on an offsides call.
Eventually the goal did come at the 30-minute mark when Nicki Paterson met an out swinging free kick into the penalty area with his head and planted the ball wide of the Stanley keeper into the net. It was no more than the Aztex deserved for their quick movement and attacking play.
At the other end, Aztex keeper Nick Noble did very well to tip an Accrington free-kick over the bar and preserve the shutout. At halftime the Aztex held a 1-0 lead.
In the second half, the Aztex made wholesale changes to its roster inserting goalkeeper Miguel Gallardo, as well as Kevin Sakuda, Ednerson Raymond, Ryan McMahen, Jean Alexandre, Theo Stair and Vaniel Sirin.
The first 15 minutes of the second half the Aztex controlled possession as it had done earlier in the contest. Eventually the possession resulted in a goal when Stair sent in a ball to the far post that Sirin half volleyed into the net for a 2-0 lead for the visiting Aztex.
In the final 30 minutes of the match the Austin players looked tired, and understandably so, considering it was their second game in 24 hours. Accrington pressed forward and eventually capitalized on a poor back pass from Sakuda to Gallardo and put the ball into the empty net. In the final 10 minutes of the game the Austin defense, led by Kieron Bernard, played strong and finished off the 2-1 victory.
The Aztex starting line-up was:
Nick Noble, Tynan Diaz, Gareth Evans, Kieron Bernard, Michael Dello-Russo, Sullivan Silva, Michael Callahan, Nicki Paterson, Jarius Holmes, Eddie Johnson, and Jamie Watson
On Friday the players had a day off from training. More importantly, all are healthy with no injuries to report. The club watched their affiliate side Stoke City defeat West Ham 2-1 on Saturday at Britannia Stadium. The final game of the UK tour comes on Tuesday, October 20th in a contest against Sheffield Wednesday.
The Aztex will play not be playing the first team as the mid-table Owls side will be in action that evening against Preston North End, who are currently sixth in the Championship. Since dropping their first two Reserve League games of the year, the Owls have posted a win and a draw.
