While my opinions about soccer in the pandemic wouldn’t shock anyone that frequents this website, I can’t pretend I’m not a tiny bit excited for the UWS to be center stage. The league announced late last week that a National Cup would be help in Round Rock, Texas, July 9-17. As of the time of this article, the confirmed total of 7 teams will be participating, with 3 clubs from outside the state joining 4 Texas clubs. The 7 clubs are: Bat Country FC, CTX Hornets, Dallas International, FC Austin Elite, Lancaster Inferno, Santa Clarita Blue Heat, and Worcester Smiles.

I approached Danny Woodfill, GM of FC Austin Elite, about his plans for the Cup his team will be hosting. First off, why Austin? “Round Rock and Williamson County were much more lightly affected by the COVID Pandemic and as we considered playing this Summer, we thought we’d be able to and there probably teams across the country in lightly affected areas that might want to play. We have the facilities and more favorable conditions, so I thought we had to do something.”

The players will be dormed at Concordia University Texas which has a newer campus that is currently closed to outsiders, just the kind of environment needed to sequester and protect the health of the players involved. And the chance of sickness is a real thing, but Woodfill highlighted the UWS’ focus on the safety of every player. “You can never fully insure the safety of players, soccer is a game of risks; however, we have worked very hard to minimize risk. We’ve worked with our medical director, Dr. Pyron and her Medicine in Motion staff to make sure that we put in strong standards and we reduce risks. We will sequester travelling teams in dorms so they minimize their exposure to regular travellers. Additionally the city of Round Rock is fully committed to helping maximize safety and minimize risk, so we feel we can do this safely.”

The league’s press statement outlined the details of the competition: “a 9-day tournament format of three games, semifinals, and final. The tournament will be held without fans, and games will be live-streamed.” Woodfill mentioned that his goal is for the live-stream to be HD. “It’s expensive, but we want as many people to watch as possible.” The league is currently looking for sponsors to cover the cost of streaming.

Registration for the tournament is open for all teams (UWS or otherwise) until Friday. Until that deadline is reached, the UWS can’t finalize lineups, format or matches. So we’re expecting next week to bring more details on the tournament.

- Dan Vaughn