AUSTIN
— Professional soccer arrived in the city of Austin with all the
necessary pieces in place to make the sport a smashing success.
The
United Soccer League’s newest expansion franchise — Austin Bold FC —
began this season with a beautiful 5,000-plus seat stadium built at the
Circuit of the Americas (COTA) and even had an instant rivalry ready to
go with nearby San Antonio FC.
Austin
also opened its inaugural season with plenty of rabid fans, which
witnessed the first win in club history in Bold FC’s sold-out home
opener against San Antonio on March 30. The lone goal of the 1-0 triumph
was scored by Kleber off an assist by defender Sean McFarlane.
Just
like that, Austin Bold claimed the opening leg of the Central Texas
Derby — a series between Austin and San Antonio that will continue
throughout the season. In addition to that prize, the Copa Tejas will be
up for grabs for the top USL team in the Lone Star State — a field that
also includes both El Paso Locomotive and Rio Grande Valley FC.
Austin Bold head coach Marcelo Serrano has already said he enjoys having such emotionally-charged matches on the schedule.
“When
you have a derby [rivalry] situation, one team doesn’t live without the
other,” Serrano said. “It’s like a brotherhood because one team pushes
the other to become the best.”
Serrano
has assembled a diverse roster of international players that includes
Brazilian forward Kleber, who tallied the first goal in franchise
history in a 2-1 loss on the road to Reno 1868 FC.
Also
present is team captain and midfielder Dario Conca, an Argentinian who
was named Footballer of the Year in the Brazilian first division in 2010
and Chinese Super League in 2013.
In
all, Austin Bold’s initial roster features players of 14 different
nationalities, many of which have worldwide pedigrees. Austin’s recent
performance has drawn praise from around the USL, including from San
Antonio FC head coach Darren Powell.
“They have an extremely talented group of players,” Powell said. “Several have played at a very high level.”
Bobby
Epstein, who owns Austin Bold and COTA, was thrilled to see his team
capture a victory over San Antonio in its very first home match, which
was also the first professional soccer match played in Austin since the
Aztex folded three years ago.
Serrano said it was a fitting start to an I-35 rivalry that will hopefully last for years to come.
“You
can see that they made our victory very hard,” Serrano said. “They came
for a derby game — they didn’t give us any options.”
The
USL is directly below Major League Soccer in the United States and is a
36-team league divided equally into two conferences. SAFC and Austin
Bold are both in the Western Conference alongside the other two Texas
teams.
All
USL clubs play a 34-game regular season schedule, both home and away
against the other 17 teams in their conference, stretching from March to
October. Playoffs follow for the 10 teams from each conference that
qualify, with the USL Championship match taking place sometime between
Nov. 10-14.