Mississippi Brilla FC Falls to the Austin Aztex in the U.S. Open Cup

June 9, 2009 – Austin, TX

The Austin Aztex hosted Mississippi Brilla FC in the first round of the 2009 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on Tuesday night at Nelson Field in Austin, TX.

The game started brightly for PDL side Mississippi. Willie Hunt narrowly missed putting away a bouncing ball in the Austin penalty area in the first five minutes of the match. In fact, most of the first ten minutes were controlled by Mississippi before the USL-1 Austin team settled down and started to connect passes and create chances of their own.

The Aztex would find the back of the Brilla net in the 18th minute when Jeff Harwell received a pass from Zach Pope and knocked it by Mississippi goalkeeper Josh Pantazelos.

Instead of discouraging Mississippi Brilla, the goal energized them again and they started to string together some possession and create even more chances.

Halftime would arrive and when the match resumed, it was more of the same: Both teams exchanging opportunities to score without either looking particularly dangerous.

Austin would find another goal immediately bringing on playmaker Yordany Alvarez in the 64th minute. The Cuban would be involved in the build up that would see Harwell assist Eddie Johnson to put Austin up 2-0.

Instead of allowing the second goal to kill the game, Brilla pushed forward and continued to threaten the Austin net. Austin goalkeeper Sam Reynolds would be called on several times to make saves, included an acrobatic double save on headers from Willie Hunt and Jacob Lawrence.

The Aztex would ride out the pressure and hang on to their 2-0 victory.

The official stats would show that Mississippi truly put up a fight. Brilla outshot the Aztex 10-7.

Austin coach Adrian Healey would comment, “It was one of those games I always thought we were going to win, but at no stage was it comfortable.”

Mississippi head coach, Dave Dixon, was pleased with the team’s effort.

Said Dixon, “I am very proud of our guys tonight. We showed that we are capable of playing at this level. We made two mistakes that were punished by a very good professional team. I hope this experience gives our guys a lot of confidence as we return to league play this weekend.”

Mississippi Brilla FC will continue their push for the PDL playoffs this Saturday as they travel to Panama City to take on the Pirates at 7:00 PM.