Soccer Watch

Tough weekend for the home teams, as the St. Edward's women lost their first game of the season on Friday, 1-0 to Colorado School of Mines, while the UT Longhorns dropped a pair in Florida, losing 2-0 to both Central Florida and South Florida.

The Horns are back home this weekend; they'll host the top-ranked, defending national champion UCLA Bruins at 7:30pm Friday, Sept. 19. It's Texas Traditions Night: Bevo XIV and Smokey the Cannon will be there. And as always, the game will be shown live on the Longhorn Network.

Meanwhile, the Big 12 conference schedule looms, and it's looking tougher every week. Texas Tech (whom the Horns host next Friday, Sept. 26) is 7-0 and ranked seventh in the nation after knocking off unbeaten California in Berkeley, while Kansas, Oklahoma, and West Virginia are all in the top 20 as well.

Orlando City lost to Harrisburg in the first round of the USL PRO playoffs Saturday, ending the regular-season champions' bid for a third USL PRO title before it moves to MLS in 2015. The club wasted no time cleaning house, announcing on Tuesday that it had released all but six players from the current squad. Popular Austin goalie Miguel Gallardo, who will turn 30 next month, was among those cut.

USL PRO, of course, is where the Austin Aztex will be next year, and there's plenty of action going on in that league – off the field as well as on. Real Salt Lake just announced plans for a new USL PRO team, while the Houston Dynamo is looking at launching a team in McAllen. The Aztex are expected to form an affiliation with an MLS team as well; I've been sort of rooting for Houston, where Aztex coach Paul Dalglish won two championships as a player.

The European Champions League group stage started this week: No huge surprises, though Arsenal's comprehensive 2-0 loss at Dortmund may portend some serious slippage by the English clubs.