Aztex Ally With Rayados of Monterrey

The Austin Aztex have announced a strategic alliance with Club de Futbol Monterrey – also known as Rayados (the striped ones) – of the Mexican first division. Among other things, Aztex players get a great shot to move up to top-division football, the team gets a chance to pick up top-level players on loan, and fans get to see Rayados and perhaps other top Mexican teams in exhibitions at the Aztex home field. Speaking of which, sorry I can't tell you where that home field's going to be, but by the time you read this, that agreement should be finalized, and it's good news; see this space for details as soon as they're released.

The Aztex' primary affiliate, England's Stoke City, crashed out of the Carling Cup quarterfinals Tuesday, losing at home to second-division Derby, 1-0, on a last-second penalty. Elsewhere, Burnley upset Arsenal, but Spurs and Manchester United make it two Premier League teams in the final four.

Dec. 15 is the early registration deadline for the Aztex' first-ever youth soccer camps, to be held Dec. 22-24 and Dec. 29-31. English soccer great and Aztex USL-1 Head Coach Adrian Heath will oversee the camps, designed for kids ages 5-14. Cost is $120; register at www.austinaztex.com.

Below: Women's College Cup live on ESPN; U-20 World Cup news, and more.

All four No. 1 seeds advanced to the Women's College Cup Final Four in Cary, N.C., and all three games will be shown live on ESPN2 and ESPNU. The semifinals are Thursday – Notre Dame-Stanford at 3:30pm, UCLA-North Carolina at 6pm – with the title game at 1pm Sunday, Dec. 7. Texas A&M lost at North Carolina in overtime in the quarterfinals. ... The NCAA men are down to the final eight; the quarterfinals are this Saturday, Dec. 6, with the Final Four the next weekend up in Frisco, north of Dallas.

St. Edward's senior Kelsey Yeatts and freshman Bethany Bennett have been named honorable mentions on the NCAA Division II Women's Soccer All-America Team.

The U.S. is into the semifinals of the U-20 Women's World Cup, after beating England, 3-0, in the quarters; they face Germany on Thursday, 1pm. The other semifinal is France-North Korea, with the final on Sunday, Dec. 7.

Euro Champions League group play concludes Tuesday-Wednesday, Dec. 9-10, with the unusual twist that 13 of the 16 places in the knockout stage are already decided. ESPN2 will show games live each day at 1:30pm, though they haven't announced just which games those will be.