Soccer Watch

The Austin Aztex stretched their current unbeaten streak to five games on Saturday, beating AC St. Louis 2-0 on a penalty kick by Jamie Watson and a second-half goal by Max Griffin, assisted by Eddie Johnson. That trio has now scored 20 of the Aztex's 30 goals, and they're each among the top five scorers in the league. The Aztex pretty well dominated the game, outshooting the visitors 27-6. They're off this week – their only bye week of the season – then home the next two Saturdays: hosting Miami July 31 and Tampa Bay Aug. 7. After that, eight of the last 11 are on the road, a grueling stretch including: two trips to Puerto Rico; trips to Portland and Vancouver (who drew and won here in Aus­tin); home-and-aways against Carolina, a strong team that we've not played yet this year, and Tampa Bay, with whom we've drawn. And they end with a difficult final weekend of Friday night in Carolina, then Sunday afternoon in Montreal.

At the U-20 Women's World Cup, being played in Germany, the defending champion U.S. beat South Korea, 1-0, on Wednesday, to win their group and advance to the quarterfinals against Nigeria (11:30am, Sunday, July 25). Most of the attention on the U.S. surrounds star striker Sydney Leroux, who's playing in her third U-20 WC (!) and has scored five of the team's seven goals. But the defense isn't too shabby either: After giving up a goal seven minutes into their opener against Ghana, they haven't allowed another since. The quarterfinals (Saturday-Sunday, July 24-25), semifinals (Thursday, July 29), and final (Sunday, Aug. 1) will all be shown on ESPNU or ESPN2 and online at ESPN3.com.

It's been a big week for MLS signings: New York's Red Bulls are reportedly close to signing Rafa Marquez – perhaps the most popular and influential player in Mexico, and a huge coup on top of last week's signing of Thierry Henry. The Chicago Fire have signed Mexican international Nery Castillo as their designated player. And San Diego native Sal Zizzo also signed with MLS this week, after spending the last three seasons in the German Bundesliga.