...Ready to go for this weekend. Patriots vs. Shell Shockers in a pair, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. MDT. Possibility of Teamline.cc webcasts, but not confirmed yet.

Most everyone is back, though a couple of the bigger guns might be out until their seasons are done elsewhere.

We'll see how and if the goalkeeping situation is resolved this year. That was, perhaps, the glaring weakness, if only because the rest of the team was quite strong.

Maybe third time's the charm. (It'll have to do, because it might be the last...in the PDL.)

So the hibernation comes to an end.

So what's this about the possibility of the Pat's playing in their last PDL season? Are we talking about 2nd division or (gasp) 1st division? Either of these divisions would be quite costly for the Pat's. Has the revenue from playing in their own place finally enough to justify the jump up? Freaking Duke, you really got my attention. I was gonna answer you on the Bigsoccer thread, but that little nugget you left here changed my mind.

So anyways, who's playing elsewhere? My guess is in Mexico, but where exactly? Any rookies we should keep an eye on?

I'm headed over today to get background on the new boys. I think Frias is already here, but Larrosa is in Paraguay and Andrade is in the Emirates. Past that, I couldn't say.

Here's hoping they found a good keeper. I know that was a priority.

As for any jumps, I'm thinking First Division, but a transition period isn't out of the question. Thing is, Cervantes has continued to pay First Division dues just to keep his options open.

Think about it. Travel costs are not much less now than in First Division. The team still has to travel by air virtually everywhere. The Mid-South stretches from here to Tennessee. If they're paying the dues, why not?

The Emirates? Damn thats pretty cool.

I guess your right, it'd probably be the same cost to fly to 1st Div cities as PDL cities. Still I worry that the team will move up and f' it up again. I just hope they have changed their views towards the level of talent they'll see in the top division.

I wonder what would happen with their current team if they move up. Would they keep everyone and endure a transition period for our youngsters or would they drop some of them in order to upgrade?

BTW whatever happened with the supposed womens team they announced at their last game at Dudley? (IIRC)

The women's team never happened. One of the female officials was going to play on it, but money and time issues kind of fizzled the deal.

Part of the reason Cervantes took the team down was to see who among the youngsters had what it takes to move up. He is still about developing area talent in that regard. I think he wanted a respite from the top level to assess what both his franchise and the city could offer on and off the field before he moved back into the fray. Hopefully, everybody's a little wiser for it.

So it's a year later, how permanent is Pat's Stadium? When it first opened it seemed like it was a temporary thing.

Hey vox, any chance of getting Patriots games on MetroSports? I'd love to see replays, especially if I can't make a match.

Good luck on the season Patriots fans. Hopefully you can continue with last years success and makes the finals again (only this time you'll win it). It'd be great to have El Paso back up in the 1st.

heres a familiar face you guys might recognize


If your games will be available online to listen

please post the info.

Federiiiiiiiicooooo!

Good to see Freddy's up north and doing well. Hard-nosed player and a nice guy. I heard he'd been coming back to Las Cruces to coach a youth team in the off-season and run his local soccer shop.

PatsFan, there is talk of that of matches on MetroSports Southwest. Obviously not this weekend, but there is something in the works for later in the season. If you know businesses who want to sponsor, let me know.

As for the webcast, it will happen IF we get a phone line strung from the pressbox sometime today. IF that happens, there will be a link at the Patriots website (elpaso-patriots.com) that you can use. We're trying a new service so let me know how it works for you. My laptop is a little older and it'll be dialup at least for now so I won't be able to use a larger sample rate.

Cervantes has spent a great deal of money on Patriot Stadium. The best part about that for them is that they control the revenue. (There is added seating this year, though the way the seats are situated to start the season won't be the way they things look later. They'll be taking down that wall that dips down onto the field so they can move the seats back and fans will still have a view.) There are complete locker rooms for both teams now, too.

I still think if they move back up, sooner or later they're going to have to do something else. But who knows? They have a good atmosphere going there now.

No phone line = no webcast tonight. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not.