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Stoke City fans storm the pitch following the 0-0 tie with Leicester City that clinched their promotion to the Premiership (by Photo: Austin Aztex)

Stoke City, Austin's partner team in England, got their biggest result in a quarter-century on Sunday, as a 0-0 home draw against Leicester City guaranteed the Potters a second-place finish in the English League Championship, and their first-ever promotion to the English Premier League next season.

Overall, Stoke have a storied past, dating back to 1863 and the earliest beginnings of association football. And they were in the top division for 20 of 22 years between 1963-1985. But they hadn't been back in the 23 seasons since then, so they've never been in the Premier League, which was formed in 1992.

As it turned out, the draw was a killer for Leicester City, who dropped into the bottom three in the final standings, and are demoted to the third division for the first time in their club's history.

The promotion is a huge and somewhat unexpected boon for the nascent Austin Aztex, who just saw their partnership with Stoke go up in value tenfold. The Aztex, ironically, had played the first game in their history just about 12 hours earlier in El Paso, also a 0-0 draw.

With the Patriots' video feed not working, a small gathering of Aztex supporters at Mother Egan's was reduced to a couple of text messages from El Paso, and a couple of phone calls to England, where Stoke/Aztex owner Phil Rawlins' party was up at 4am to follow the game, and get in the spirit for the 2pm Stoke kickoff.
But averaging a few various accounts of the game, it sounds like the draw was a pretty fair result, with both sides getting their chances. The official stats had El Paso with a 6-1 edge in corner kicks, and the Aztex whistled for 33 fouls to the Patriots' 18 (though the Patriots did have a player sent off with a straight red card in the 82nd minute).

The draw also counts as one of the Aztex' four U.S. Open qualifiers. Only one of the eight teams in the PDL Mid-South Division will qualify for that national tournament, open to all pro and amateur teams, from the MLS all the way down to adult rec leagues.

Next up: the Aztex home opener against the Houston Leones, this Saturday, May 10, 7:30pm at Round Rock High's Dragon Stadium, just off I-35 and FM 620. $8, $5 for kids 12 and under. The Leones are a new club as well, though they already have their own stadium, Soccer World Center, in Richmond, 30 miles southeast of Houston, and an affiliation with Cruz Azul of the Mexican first division.