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Game ball for his first NBA points.

Make sure...that you read the entire post.....you will be super happy to read the last thing that I typed Xavier looked like a good soccer team when they played Akron tonight, Xavier played Butler . Butler was 0-5-0 in the league Butler beat the snot out of Xavier tonight. Butler with a 5-1 win St. Johns moved into a first place tie atop the east division with a 1-0 win over Seton Hall U Conn came into tonight with a 3-1-1 league record Providence had a quality 2-1 win tonight over a good UConn team Congratulations to the Big East Midwest Division Champions....the mighty Akron Zips !!! Big East standings Midwest Akron 6-0-0 18 Marquette 2-2-2 8 Creighton 2-3-1 7 DePaul 1-3-2 5 Xavier 1-3-2 5 Butler 1-5-0 3 East G'Town and St. Johns both 4-1-1 13 Providence 3-1-2 11 UConn 3-2-1 10 Seton Hall 2-3-1 7 Villanova 0-5-1 1 Saturday games Providence at Villanova noon DePaul at Georgetown 1 pm UConn at St. Johns 2 pm Butler at Creighton 4 pm Seton Hall at Xavier 7 pm Akron at Marquette 8 pm...........................game will be on FloFC saving the best part for last at 9;42 PM.....the zips are showing as #21 in RPI https://rpiupdatemenssoccer.blogspot.com/search/label/RPI Rank

Outstanding team effort tonight. I am so happy to see the zips score a rebound goal tonight. Victor Gaulmin deserves to be in the post game press conference. Victor probably had his best game as a zip. He made some outstanding passes. The zips midfield of WKWK, Matt Dreas and Victor Gaulmin controlled the middle of the field in the last 80 minutes of the game Jonas Buechte really was fantastic in the 2nd half. He anticipated very well and he totally shut down Creighton on Jonas's half of the field. Chad Welker was bragging on Josh Hardin at the end of the game. Josh Hardin deserves a ton of credit. He was a highly touted junior and did not have much impact as a freshman. The young man has worked very hard and is now an excellent right back. The coaches have done well to make adjustments after the 1-3-3 start. What I love to see about the team is how they have multiple guys attacking the goal when there is an opportunity. Emil J. is obviously a gifted goal scorer. But, Emil also has great vision and he is a very unselfish passer. Dyson, WKWK, Victor, and Malik know that if they attack the goal, Emil will almost always see them and good things will happen. Finally, I do not know whose job it is........to promote Emil J. for the Hermann Trophy. I assume that is the job of the soccer SID. That person better be working super hard to promote Emil J as the player that should win the Hermann Trophy. Emil J. is a true team player. His work rate is off the charts. He has spectacular vision and is a great scorer/passer. 15 games - 18 goals and 7 assists. Spectacular.

Saturday, November 9th. Home tournament game! Nothing better than November akron soccer

Pretty cool for a debut, one in which he could have gotten zero playing time, ended up with 2 points in 7 minutes. Way to go 'Rique! 😊

Man, they have been looking sharp ever since Big East play started.

Enrique is on the board

I believe we may have a Herman Trophy finalist on our pitch!

Two years ago Creighton's Forward Duncan McGuire won the Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy. With Jaaskelainen being head-and-shoulders ahead of anyone else for Big East POY, I would expect him to receive support from within the conference. Hopefully the UA athletic department will/can work with the Big East to help promote our conference's candidate.

A Big East Champs banner would look nice.

Maybe those will cause others to underestimate these Zips. 😊 Emil is now tied for 9th place all time in most goals in a season, Pete Milich at 31 is probably out of reach, but Louie Nanchoff at #2 with 22 is within reason.

Freeman playing over Furphy and others... Pretty awesome.

I'm old but I didn't realize I was Freeman was born in 2000 old. 🤣😂

Gaulmin's pass on the 3rd goal was expertly weighted and executed. That's the kind of pass that can be the difference in a game. Hopefully many more of those to come!

I wonder when the Akron Beacon Journal is going to start covering this team again. It is disappointing that Chad Welker is the only one asking questions. The Beacon Journal needs to do an article on the Zips and their 8 game winning streak. The Beacon also needs to recognize the Big East Midwest division champions.

Emil is the best striker I have ever seen at Akron. I don’t have the history some of the others do on here but I have had season tickets since 2013 and watching him play, shoot and pass is impressive. I went to 3 home games this year (the Guardians took priority). Ohio State, I can’t even remember the other game (it was that unmemorable) and tonight. This is a different team than vs Ohio State. I dare to say this reminds me of another run to the College Cup when we got hot and Marcel Zajac played out of this world……..let’s keep it up. We still have a lot of work to do.

Solid win! 3-0 by score, 17-4 on shots, 5-2 on corners...dominant by all superficial metrics.

And at the very least Big East player of the year!

This team is quickly rounding into form. Whatever Embick and co. told the guys - it's working. Unbelievable second half of the season so far.

Jaaskelainen with his 18th of the season!

Also nice that the home games now appear to be on ESPN+.

Leipold inherited a program that made it to back-to-back national championships. I wouldn't exactly say he rebuilt anything. He did certainly improve on what had a solid foundation already. I don't think there is any magical formula for guaranteeing success. Short of backing a Brinks truck up to Saban's house to tempt him to take the Akron job (sarcasm). Successful G5 coaches have come from all kinds of different backgrounds.

Z.I.P. has a good post .... I certainly did not understand the process of how the Hermann Trophy winner is selected. Emil sadly was not on the pre season watch list https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/2024-mens-hermann-trophy-watch-list-announced/ here is a good article about the selection process Sadly, the Akron soccer SID Sean Palchick did not energize the Akron Fans to nominate Emil. https://www.machermanntrophy.org/selection Timeline Mid-August – Men’s and women’s Preseason Watch list is released (Approximately the top 40 males and top 40 female Division I college soccer players from the previous season) Early October – The “Candidates We Missed” campaign. College SIDs can energize their fans to nominate a player who did not make the Preseason Watch List to make the ballot in November. Mid November – The semifinalists (top 15 men and top 15 women) are announced. The voting of Division I coaches begins. Mid December – Top three women’s finalists announced at NCAA Women’s College Cup; Top three men’s finalists announced at NCAA Men’s College Cup. Early January - The men’s and women’s winners are announced at press conference and honored at MAC Awards Banquet. I sure hope that Sean Palchick is very active in mid November.......in making the various Division 1 coaches aware of why Emil should be the Hermann Trophy winner Near the end of the collegiate regular season, 15 players whom the committee considers the best in Division I soccer are announced as semifinalists for the award. That list is then voted on through an online voting process by men's and women's Division I soccer coaches whose teams are current NSCAA College Services members.

Sublime!

Thus proving the saying that even a broken clock is correct 2x per day. But Akron Football is never correct..

It is certainly a part of it. Yes, find a special coach and things could get better, but there are basic population dynamics that affect college athletics in states and regions that are oversaturated with universities and colleges as Ohio and other nearby states certainly are. College enrollment in Ohio is stagnant except for Ohio State and Cincinnati. I know, OU and BG had larger freshman classes this fall. Sustainable? We'll see. Working in secondary education, I see that the yearly cohort of college-viable high school graduates is shrinking as well, especially among males. The decline in participation in high school football is also playing a role in this problem. Up a bit in the last two years, participation in high school football is down nationwide by about 13-15% since 2006. That's not insignificant; the pool of candidates is shrinking and this affects not Ohio State but the mere mortals of CFB.

Louis Nanchoff was simply unguardable.

Are you not entertained!?!?

What a great game!!! So happy for our team for the turnaround and roll they are on. Hope they can keep this momentum going for some time to come.

0-6 Kennesaw State beats 5-0 Liberty.

And of course his very first points come on a hustle play - scrambling for a loose ball.

Goooooaaaaaal. 3-0 Zips!

Jaaskelainen with his 17th of the season.

Dobrijevic.

Good to see Emil up. Would have liked to see him take the PK.

Tonight Sam Houston State beat FIU to get to 6-2 on the season. This is just their second year in FBS and are already going to a bowl game. Last year they went 3-9. I know it is tough for Akron to build up a program, but I mean look at a team like SHSU. Even in todays state of college football it is possible to improve greatly over a short time, why not us?

So happy to be a Zip fan. We may not have won an NCAA game but we have a Zip in the NBA. Amazing trip to the NBA.

Thanks to all the Zips student athletes who were honored at halftime for significantly increasing the attendance. 😀