Lareado Heat News Release - www.laredoheatsc.com
Saturday, June 14, 2014
LAREDO, Texas – The curtain will raise Saturday in Austin as the pressure in the Mid-South Division will be at a paramount peak with a rematch of the 2013 Southern Conference Final between the region’s fiercest rivals. The four-time PDL finalist Laredo Heat will seek revenge against the team that eliminated them last season: the defending division, conference and national champion Austin Aztex.
The match will kick off at 7:30 p.m. and be live streamed by the home-team Aztex at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PnwmF6AJZg.
After a heartbreaking 1-0 fourth round elimination from the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup by Major League Soccer’s Houston Dynamo on Wednesday, the Heat (2-1-2, 8 points) will now shift their focus entirely to the Mid-South Division. They lead the Mississippi Brilla on goal differential and trail the Aztex (5-0-1, 16 points).
The unbeaten Aztex were last defeated by the Heat on July 3, 2013 by a 1-0 scoreline in Laredo. Since the Aztex joined the PDL in 2012, they barely edge the Heat in head-to-head matchups (4-3) in the regular season.
Both sides offer more similarities than differences, through their primarily possession-based and oft-attacking offenses. The opposing backlines lay the foundation for those precision passes by coolly evicting the ball from oncoming strikeforces. All in all, Laredo and Austin rank Nos. 2 and 3 in the PDL, respectively, in goals allowed.
Laredo’s 20-year-old goalkeeper Jorge Ortega mans the net in front of the league’s best goal-preventing team, seeing just a pair of goals bulge the net. Both goals came against the Houston Dutch Lions, while Ortega ranks 12th in the PDL with two shutouts – he’d have three if he weren’t substituted out of the Heat’s 4-0 thumping of Houston on June 3.
Austin offers a near-duplicate keeper in Devin Perales, a student-athlete at Coastal Carolina University. He’s featured in all five victories for the Aztex, allowing just three goals.
Team play and scarce goals appear to be in order as the chase for the Mid-South crown and the division’s two playoff spots will steepen depending on Saturday’s result. If Laredo claims all three points, it will leapfrog Midland-Odessa Sockers FC (3-3-1, 10 points) for second place; if Austin wins, it will accelerate to nine points clear with seven matches to play. A draw won’t change the standings, other than adding a point apiece to each team’s total.