Make This Weekend an All-Soccer One

Okay, I’ve got your all-soccer weekend all planned out for you: Friday and Saturday it’s the Austin Lightning, who need to keep their unbeaten home record alive if they hope to climb back into the Premier Development League Mid-South race, after a tough two-loss road trip last weekend at Baton Rouge (3-2 on Friday, despite Nick Torres’ two goals) and Mississippi (2-0). Friday: the league-leading Laredo Heat, whom the Lightning fought to a 1-1 draw a few weeks back; Saturday: Baton Rouge for the second weekend in a row. Both at 7:30pm. NB: All remaining home games have been moved to Vista Ridge Stadium in Cedar Park (off Highway 1431, between 183 & Parmer).

Sunday: Road trip! Houston’s Reliant Stadium hosts the CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinals, with a 2pm/5pm doubleheader. Guadeloupe is in the first game; Costa Rica in the second; opponents still to be decided at press time, among Mexico, Panama, Honduras, and Cuba. The U.S. men cruised through group play with three shutout wins. They’re in Boston at 3pm Saturday, opponent unknown, following Canada-Guate­ma­la at noon. Semifinals are Thursday, June 21; all games live on Univision or Telefutura.

Random news: The Copa Libertadores final is June 13 and 20: Gremio of Brazil vs. Argentine giants Boca Juniors… Spain, the only country still playing in Europe, finishes this weekend, with Real Madrid, Barce­lona, and Sevilla all still in the hunt for the title… Three clubs with a lot of history will rejoin the Italian top flight next year: Promoted are Juventus, sent down to Serie B in last year’s match-fixing scandal, plus Genoa and Napoli, traditional powers who’d fallen on hard times recently… San Lorenzo clinched the Argentine Clausura title, with just one game left to play.