NYC ZIP

Exhausted players hanging on for all they’re worth make mistakes. Hope we get a spot on Monday

Akron loses 2-1

Maybe it’s just the tv feed or the weather but the Zips look tired and slow to me.

Prov wins in 2’ of extra time. Good for the Zips.

SJU / Providence going to extra time. They said Zips kickoff approximately 30 mins after conclusion of game 1.

SJU / Providence tied 1-1 at half.

SJU / Providence tied 1-1 in 30’ A Providence win is good for Akron to avoid SJU (rpi 73) stealing a bid if they win the tournament. Light rain. Field is holding up well so far it appears.

I think an important part of the gelling was very little lost time for the top 11. Beto missed two games after a dirty late tackle vs Ohio State and that was it. Ashton missed 2 games and Hardin missed one with red cards. I think that was it.

All this to say…. Let’s go Zips!!

More BE Conference stats: The entire conference has a record of 6-30-10 in rpi quad 1 games. Quad 1 games are home games against team ranked 1-30, away games against teams ranked 1-75. Quad 2 games (home vs 31-75, away vs 76-135) Conference record 12-18-6. Zips BIg East 2024 opponents: Quad 1 : 3-24-5 Quad 2 : 7-16-3 ( Gtown has 4 of the wins) Zips record vs: Quad 1 : 1-1-2 Quad 2 : 0-0-1 Quad 3 : 6-0-1 Quad 4 : 4-2-0

I’d say 2, they’ve really figured each other out. Emil, Victor, Beto, were new to Dyson, Malik, WKWK and Jonas. They are totally different now than in September. I do think #3 has some merit also. ND and WMU were not the same as 2023 and VCU was apparently a fraud, finished 4-5-7, and didn’t even make the A10 tournament. Not necessarily the abominations like Temple and IU Indy, when we couldn’t score, but our BE games this year we played a really talented but young Georgetown and didn’t get St John’s, Providence or Seton Hall. 5 of 8 of our BE opponents finished below .500. If you seeded the whole conference we played #4, 5, 7, 8,9, 10, 11, 12 with a combined record of 45-57-35 The next 2weeks will tell the story as the competition improves.

Will probably need a decent NCAA run for him to get the Hermann. Since 2009, only two winners were not on College Cup teams. The two were on teams in the final 8. Ten times since 2009, the nation’s leading goal scorer did not win the Hermann trophy. The longer the team plays, the better the chance of Hermann success.

I would also hope that best case, a win against Georgetown and a win against Providence may get the Zips a top 16 first round bye. If not, because the seeding outside the top 16 is based on proximity, we could possibly get Dayton, Dusquesne, Western Michigan, Michigan, or IU

So tomorrow, I expect DePaul to bunker in a 5-4-1, clog up the attacking half, and try to catch the Zips on a counter. Zips need to move the ball and not get frustrated. A win is a win

Why not tap into the community and try and get the students out? A buy one get one burrito from Chipotle for every Zip card holder at the game. Or a smoothie at Pulp, $5 off a Luigi’s personal pizza, anything tangible that a 18-22 year old might find motivating. I’m sure there is something that would prevent a Score Draft Room coupon, but food is almost as motivating. Especially post season where they will likely be charged for tickets.

From Big East Website:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DB4fIaQhDei/?igsh=ejF3ZmVneWw4eHlm

Zips still have work to do to lock up ncaaa spot.

First two rounds on Flo, final on FS2

Zips are really struggling to start the second half. When #21 doesn’t play the attack is really, really poor.

Devils advocate….why would any kid want to be the 28th non scholarship, tuition paying, player at Akron? You’re not going pro and your degree is debt free. Your parents can tell all their friends you’re on a full ride…..

It’s also possible that some of those schools decide soccer isn’t worth it and drop the sport altogether.

The power four conferences are required to fund up to the roster limits for all sports due to the NCAA lawsuit agreement. I can’t see a world where Akron can do that, remembering that Title IX still exists. 28 for men’s soccer means 28 for women’s soccer. This will greatly impact the ability to recruit against these schools. When every school was 9.9, you had a chance against big schools. Now it’s full ride in ACC, Big 10, Big 12 and SEC, which includes men’s soccer schools UCF (Big 12), Kentucky,(SEC) South Carolina (SEC) West Virginia (Big 12), and any other soccer school (Portland, James Madison, WMU, St Louis, etc) willing to invest. I guess Akron could possibly go to 12 or 15 and then cobble together depth players. I would also guess that some of the Akron players that were recruited by big conference schools prior to this, can hit the portal looking for a better financial deal. This, coupled with MLS Next Pro deals for 15 and 16 year olds, will be quite a challenge.

There will be a large pool of Power 4 conference players looking for homes next season when the 28 roster limit is imposed. Many schools have 35-40 players on their roster. There are already a large number of Class of 25 players announcing on social media that their verbal offers have been revoked and they are looking for a new school. It’s likely a safe recruiting pitch to say to them, that they could come to Akron and “heavily contribute” immediately. It would take some financial creativity because Akron will definitely not fund 28 scholarships, but finding enough for 2 or 3 power four level, attacking players would be worth the investment and effort.

Interesting that the East Division will likely have seeds 2-6, meaning that if the Zips get 1 or 2 seed they will have to play a Midwest division team for the second time this season in the first round. Hopefully Seton Hall and Providence can dispatch Xavier in the regular season. Don’t want to see them again.