Austin – Texas where it all began for Orlando City Soccer
A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to head out of Orlando to go and watch the first ever Major League Soccer match that Orlando City Soccer played away from home. Fresh from all the excitement of the opening day draw at the Citrus Bowl with New York City, Orlando headed to Houston hoping for a good performance and a good result. I’ve previously posted a match report here that showed the goals and described the action as Orlando recorded their first ever win in Major League Soccer. It was a great historical night and I was delighted to have been able to be there.
After the Friday evening game in Houston, I had a couple of days to kill as my flight home wasn’t until the following Monday morning. It was my plan to take a look at Texas and to visit the sites where Orlando City Soccer was actually born around Austin, some 160 miles away. Before that though, I noticed that the Austin Aztex were playing reigning NASL Champions San Antonio Scorpions on Saturday evening in the Hill Country Derby. What could be better than seeing another city and taking in a game?
So it was that I traveled the 200 miles to San Antonio along Interstate 10… a truly awful road that desperately needs converting to three lanes all the way. I arrived at Toyota Field and immediately noticed what a neat little set up the Scorpions have. A nice compact soccer specific stadium (pictured above) that can house around 8,500 fans in its current state.
The game itself was a major surprise. Going into it I thought the NASL team would comfortably beat the Austin Aztex who are just about to join USL PRO. I was wrong. In fact after 30 minutes with the score at 3-0 to the Aztex, I could only see a cricket score mounting up such was the dominance of the away side. Professional pride did eventually come into it though and the Scorpions stopped further damage until the 60th minute mark when they conceded a penalty to go 4-0 down. The game eventually finished 4-1 and Aztex Head Coach Paul Dalglish will certainly be a happy man heading into the new season based on that result. As for the Scorpions, the only highlight of the night for them was, despite the scoreline, the superb support from their fans as they chanted and sang all night. Impressive!
Sunday was the day devoted to retracing the history of Orlando City Soccer and it was time to make the relatively short 80 mile journey to visit Dragon Stadium in Round Rock, Nelson Field and House Park, both in Austin.
The first stadium was where it all really began, Dragon Stadium (pictured above). The stadium is part of Round Rock High School and is about 30 minutes north of Austin. It has a capacity of approximately 8,800 and has a running track around the outside.It officially opened in 1974 but it became home to Austin Aztex FC in 2008 as the team played its first games there.
In 2009, the team moved to play at Nelson Field (pictured above) in Austin. The multi use stadium is located to the east of Austin and today serves as the home stadium for LBJ High School, Anderson High School, Eastside memorial High School and John H. Reagan High School. It opened in 1965 and has a capacity today of around 8,800 spectators. In many ways, it is similar in nature to Dragon Stadium.
The final port of call was House Park (pictured above). This was the stadium the team played in right up until they announced they were moving to Orlando in 2010. The stadium is owned and operated by the Austin Independent School District and opened way back in 1939. The stadium is the home for Austin High School as well as Anderson, McCallum and Lanier High Schools and notably, this stadium does not have a track running alongside the field.
The stadium is also home to the new Austin Aztex and will once again see USL PRO soccer this season.
So, this is where it all began. Players that started in Texas and then moved to Orlando were:
Miguel Gallardo (pictured above in his Aztex days), Mechack Jerome (who came on in the second half for the Scorpions vs Aztex), Wes Allen, Ian Fuller, Kieron Bernard, Yordany Alvarez, Maxwell Griffin, Lawrence Olum, Sean Kelley and Jamie Watson.
The above photos are team photos from 2008 and 2009. These players managed to finish 10th in 2009 in the USL First Division and 2nd in the hastily formed USSF D-2 Pro League in 2010. The average attendance they achieved at Nelson Field in 2009 was 2,974 and 3,733 at House Park in 2010.
The above photo is from an Austin Aztex trip to Stoke City in 2010.
Many thanks to Phil Rawlins and Miguel Gallardo for their help in producing this article.
