Zipsrifle

Attendance record. 2,473! So, how many seats go in the new stadium????

OSU throwing in the towel with 20:00 left in the match!!! Put in 5 subs! WOW!

Getting ugly....and I LOVE IT!!!

Man, the OSU guys have to be very frustrated. Akron just keeps pounding these guys. Akron is always around the OSU goal!

GGGOOOOOOOAAAALLLLL!

End of first half, Akron 1, Columbus State 0

Interesting difference in strategy. When the goalkeepers get teh ball, OSU likes to kick it all the way down the field. About 60% of the time UA will get the ball on this. Akron likes to roll the ball to a UA player deep in their own end and work the ball upfield, which they are very successful with.

Field looks to be in rough shape.... lots of what appear to be ruts.

Anyway, close call, Buckeyes had a few shots on goal, but the Zips cleared them.Anyway, for the fight, the ball was rolling down the south end of the field to the East. The OSU guy was jogging after it and the Akron guy came charging up from behind and they collided when both reached the ball. Then there was a bunch of shoving but apparently no fouls.

Close call. Buckeyes have had a few shots on goal....OH, FIGHT!

I haven't watched a soccer match since college, but it really is amazing how much we control the ball on our end of the field. Just had a shot on goal that the OSU keeper had to save....

GOOOOOOAAAAALLLLLL! Zips score on a penalty kick!!

Penalty Kick for the Zips!

You would think they would have the camera on the Zips end of the field as we keep the ball about 90% of the time.

Watching the video through ZipsZone. It isn't that good, but I guess we at least have video. Does anyone know if they switch ends after the half??

Anybody watching online?

Here is what I'm going to do......tomorrow starts a new season for me. I can sit here and cheer all I want, or whine all I want, but it isn't going to do any good. We've got 2 weeks to prep for OU, and if JD says there is going to be big changes, then damn it, show me some changes! We have one goal left ahead of us, MAC East. Lets Start Over.......

They are 42 days behind schedule from what my inside sources tell me. NO way they will be ready to move into at the beginning of next year!!

I was nosing around on the CMU boards last night and it seems they have a few injuries. Any idea where??

Answer: Bringing in good players year after year. Stadiums, tradition, etc. do not win games. Good players win games. Our soccer team brings in one good player after another year in and year out. Coaches come and go, but the talent remains high. Our soccer stadium has yet to win a game...the players do.Fans love football, m & w basketball, but some MAC schools get good at a sport like soccer at UofA or hockey at Miami and they really focus on those sports. Miami has gotten to the point where they use their horrible football team to fund the athletic department. They play three BCS teams and one top team in Boise State with no illusions of having a winning record. At this point, I doubt they care whether or not anyone even comes to the football games. They don't play a game on campus until October....do they really think anyone is going to drive out to Oxford to watch an 0-4 team play. They pump that BCS money into the athletic department and support a top ranked hockey team with it.UofA needs to decide what it wants to be great at. Getting great at everything at a MAC school is unrealistic. Is it football? Is it basketball? Or is it easier to maintain a top ranked program in soccer rather than "growing" the other programs that may never become top ranked.OK, then for you GP1, what brings in good players?

You can try to caravan, but I have to warn you, it may be more than you bargained for.....

DOAH!!! I was really counting on the match on Oct. 10th.....oh well. Hey, at least the day of the Can't State game I can take in a Match and a beatdown of the Golden flushes....it will be a great day for ZR!

What contributes to a winning legacy of a program or programs at a school in the MAC? Here are a few thoughts:Tradition: Goes a long way in the MAC, a conference with little national coverage. Someone who just misses a BCS school will likely want to win to make it to the next level. Miami has it in FB. BG, NIU, and CMU have some in FB too. Can't in BB along with OU. Akron in Soccer.Campus: Lets face it, nobody wants to go to a place that looks like Crap. I think this is a big factor in Miami's success. OU on the other hand also has a very nice campus but has come up short in FB for some reason. WMU has a good thing going on too. I've been to CMU's campus and I don't know why anybody in their right mind would want to spend their 20's in Mt. Pleasant????Facilities: Nice stuff always lures kids, but that can't explain everything. Why is our Soccer team so good when their field, lets face it, is eclipsed by many small HS football fields? I think ICS will make an impact...just how much??Continuity: I think this has a lot to do with setting up a good groundwork. Miami had a string of promoting coaches for quite some time, and I think that allowed them to build a winning program. How long was Amstutz at Toledo and Novack at NIU? CMU on the other hand has had more coaches in the past decade than Akron has? KD is an excellent example of this at Akron. I think many of us feel he is here to stay and I hope we are right. This has to be a big factor for kids knowing they will be working under a successful coach.This was just something that popped into my head today and I wonder what others think.

Great post STZ, here are some thoughts.JD knew what he was getting into when he took this job. It sucks to neglect everything else that means so much to you to be successful at one thing, but that is his decision. Keep in mind that he is being well compensated for his efforts. Many people make similar, or greater sacrifices (military) and get paid much, much less. I believe he realized how tough a situation he was getting into, and if I remember correctly, he didn't wait for a search comittee to find him, he went after this job. I'm not going to feel sorry for him for his decisions as frankly, we need this type of dedication at this position in our program.As for the players, remember they are still young and these are learning situations. I can remember a somewhat similar event (non athletic) when I was in college. At the time things were going down, there were a lot of 21-22 yr olds who felt very, very strongly about the situation. Some others in the group understood what was going on, they had been exposed to these situations before, and thankfully they took us in the right direction. Looking back at the situation a year or so after it happened, things were very clear as to why my feelings at the time were wrong. I still look back at that situation, and many others over the years and, realize the magitude of the ultimate decisions.The last paragraph is great, HOF in my opinion. 99% of the time you read the same stuff on this board, just restated in a differnt way. 1% of the time you get a great perspective on the situation. Nice job.

At this point, our Easy game is behind us. We've got a battle every week, unfortunately.