UAZipster0305

https://www.ncaa.com/news/soccer-men/article/2018-07-13/9-best-places-watch-college-soccer-according-fans Pretty cool, especially when you narrow it down knowing that several other stadiums only host women's programs.

It's been a busy couple years for me, and I seem to have lost track of our recent results in those series. The trends are still largely true though. Thanks to you and skip-zip for the historic factual corrections. The standards here are obviously high, and I spouted off like a PCCC graduate. Thanks again for putting me back in line.

I don't know how many times we lost close games to near even or better competition under KD when they primarily played zone or switched to it mid-game. I feel like there have been many. However, but I don't have specific examples in mind. Apologies.

Here are a few certainties with Zips men's basketball: 1) We own WMU to the tune of about winning about 9 games out of 10 since KD started as head coach. Good to see only a small blip on that trend for Groce. I bet Dawkins hated facing us. 2) We ALWAYS own BUGS even when they are the better team or should win the game. What is it 27 in a row? 3) We ALWAYS lose in Canada. Most of the current UA students were probably in diapers the last time we won up there.

We've struggled against the zone for more than a decade!

It was a testimony to passion, not numbers. The evolution process of northeast Ohio fans that I cited in the original post has taken a toll in terms of our numbers.

I am not going to argue over semantics, Zip_ME87. I agree with nearly everything you say, and the differences are not worthy of discussion. I think Porter believed in himself AND Akron. His attitude with anything regarding tOSU is why we all love him...that in your face attitude of we are gonna kick your ass any time, any where. Lolla believed in only himself and was mentally checked out of Akron after giving it everything he had. So be it. I just seem to be more indifferent about it than you do.

To the FAU fans checking-in here, we are a northeastern Ohio fan-base. As such, evolution determines that those of us who remain have a chip-on-our-shoulder and are prepared to fight to the death advocating for our teams. Fan is short for fanatic for a reason, and there are no better true fans than those in northeastern Ohio. The Zips (and their fans) will show up in force in Boca Raton. Be prepared for a battle.

I think Lolla was justified in making his comments and departing. What precedent was there for an Akron team winning a National Championship? What about any other MAC school? Answer: Zilch. And this just after we had been undefeated nearly all of the 2005 season and got screwed in seeding for the NCAAT. Can you blame him? I don't. If you can't even be recognized as a top four team after being nearly perfect, why would that change going forward? Expecting otherwise would be the epitome of insane. It required a change in leadership to make that happen, and miraculously, it did. Even with arguably one of the best NCAA men's soccer teams of all-time in 2009, it still took Porter another year to win it. The 2010 men's soccer team remains the only Akron and MAC program to win a National Championship. KD said the exact same thing about getting an at-large NCAAT bid (i.e. "The only thing that matters is the MACC."). Though I vehemently disagreed with the statement, I didn't see anyone coming for him with pitch forks. Quite the contrary, many fans seemed content with the 20+ consecutive win streak, an appearance in the MACC, and annual flame outs in post-season tournaments. I don't blame KD for leaving either. The common denominator for both Lolla and KD is that if the bars were National Championships and NCAAT wins, respectively, neither were the men for the jobs. Porter proved that, and I think Groce will too. In that light, those statements aren't too disparaging about UA, but rather reflective of their limitations as coaches. That says it all. We are much better without both. AND Lolla is yet to beat Akron when it matters after having two opportunities, so there's no need for the negative feelings on our side of things. I do like the attitude of having a chip-on-our-shoulder. It is necessary to survive as a northeast Ohio sports fan. However, it's important to keep perspective. I guess some people just don't know how to channel all the energy of so much winning. (<-- This is definitely not intended as political commentary! )

I found it interesting that one the commentators for the Louisville-Akron game was Bob Valvano, brother of NC State Men's Basketball 1983 National Championship coach and founder of the V Foundation, Jim Valvano. The game was played days after I watched the beautiful, moving, and entertaining, 30 For 30: Survive and Advance, which chronicles the story of the 1983 NC State team and the amazing person Jim Valvano was. I recommend it to all ZNO faithful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Valvano https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Valvano https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982–83_NC_State_Wolfpack_men's_basketball_team

I don't understand the negative feelings towards Lolla. He hasn't made any disparaging remarks about UA, and his teams are yet to get the best of us when it matters in the NCAAT, quite the opposite. Lolla was burnt out and frustrated here. Why would we want him to stay if he no longer believed in the program and/or university? Besides, his leaving made way for Porter to take the program to new heights. As with KD, it was just Lolla's time to leave. Such transitions don't have to come with harsh feelings, and both programs are better off because of the leadership changes. Now, if you make the argument that playing and beating Louisville is interesting and exciting because of the story-line involving Lolla, I get it. I just don't see it as personal.

Regarding the banner at the College Cup, does anyone have an interest in writing to the NCAA and requesting that it be given to UA? Now that the College Cup is over, it may otherwise be disposed of, which would be tragic. It could also be an awesome addition to someone's man-cave!

FIFY, thanks.

Lots of great observations and thoughts here, many of which I share. These are mine: 1) Being there in person allowed me to see how amazing Stanford was at getting into our passing lanes. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. Same with their relentless pressure for 90 minutes. This is how you beat the Zips. Don't allow them to play their game and get into a rhythm. If that can't be done by intercepting passes and winning one-on-one battles, foul. 2) I normally don't think a referee makes a difference in the outcome. Quite the contrary on Friday night. Stanford's ability to press and take away any technical advantage we had was fully enabled by the referee not awarding a free kick or giving a yellow card for persistent misconduct.The no-call near the beginning of the second half on the soft pass-back to the keeper where our player was in on goal and clearly held from behind was absolutely horrible. It should have resulted in a red card and penalty kick, which likely would have tied the game and changed its entire dynamic. Had our player ended up on the ground, I think the call would have been made. 3) The field was close to frozen and a bit choppy. It too took away from our technical advantage leading to many missed touches and errant passes. Stanford had the same problem, but possession is not their style, so it affected their game much less. 4) Although Embick did well to make changes in the second half with Holthusen and Gainford wide and Egbo up top, it was clear we were uncomfortable playing the ball long or through rather than working lots of combination passes. We were way out of our comfort zone and have no experience being forced to play more directly. 5) Egbo gave us a chance up top and did a wonderful job beating a player and taking a shot. The Stanford GK did well to make the initial save and smothered the rebound. This was another potentially game-changing moment that didn't go our way. 6) #'s 1-5 above were a perfect storm for the Zips to lose and be dominated in a way that I had never seen before. A game against UCLA a few years ago may be the last time this happened, but I missed that game. 7) Stanford clearly deserved to win, but I had hopes that we'd get a goal back after which anything could have happened. In soccer, the better team often loses, but Stanford just knows how to win. They are a very complete and experienced team. Stanford is the best in the country, and I think today will again prove that. 8) Zip_ME87, I had no problem with Stanford's first goal celebration in front of the Rowdies.The goal was on the Rowdies' side of the field. Had it been us scoring and being in the face of their fan group, I would have loved it! Besides, one of my best Zips soccer memories was against Stanford at home in the NCAAT - Elite 8, circa 2010, right when Tiger Woods' personal problems were blowing up in the media. Bunbury scored on a header to the near post then ran to the corner where I was standing. A teammate held the flag like a caddy and Bunbury simulated a putt, walking towards it and fist pumping just like Tiger. Absolutely classic! 9) MDZip, I had the same observation regarding our banner. I walked the concourse and found every one but ours. After asking several staff members on my way out, I was told it was near the media entrance, which was restricted to fans. The staff member was kind enough to escort me and allowed me to get a few pictures. If you'd like a copy, PM me your email address, and I'll pass it along. 10) In asking around for our banner, I spoke to the Tulsa coach who was wearing an NCAA badge. He was wonderful...had nothing but respect and praise for our program and said he'd personally look for and inquire about our banner. He gave me his personal phone number and said he'd let me know if/when he found it and where it was. Interestingly enough, Tulsa won 2-0 at Stanford this season; he seemed surprised that I knew that. Great guy. I am now a supporter of Tulsa, except when they play the Zips. 11) I agree with MDZips and Zip_ME87, the stadium was wonderful, but this event should not be held in December in a cold climate region. It's unfortunate because such playing conditions take away the technical aspects of the game, thus forcing it to be more direct and physical. These are already huge criticisms of the college game from a player development standpoint. Why not just alternate between locations in Florida and those in the southwest (SoCal, AZ, NV, etc.). Perhaps this is a good reason to make soccer an NCAA spring sport instead? Then, the four best teams in the country could play warm-weather, highly skilled matches anywhere in the country. 12) The event staff was excellent. Even though against policy, I was allowed re-entry to get my gloves from the car. It would been a long and miserable night had I not been permitted to get back in with my gloves. This in addition to the banner locating (#8, above) and speaking to the Tulsa coach (#10, above) made my night in spite of the Zips loss. Kudos to everyone involved in those experiences. 13) Zips fans showed up in greater numbers than the other schools, though IU's were likely close.Very encouraging for the program and university. 14) I watched most of the IU-UNC game. It was clear to me that neither are at Stanford's level. I would have liked our chances against either. I think we are the second best team in the country, and the best team caught us on a bad day. Nothing wrong with that. Great season, Zips!

The committee got it right this time.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2017/12/03/ohio-state-or-alabama-the-decision-that-has-the-playoff-committee-anguishing-in-the-abyss/?utm_term=.486baa7a75a8 "Alabama (11-1) has the better record. Ohio State (11-2) has the better wins. Ohio State has the conference championship. Alabama never got throttled at home or annihilated in Iowa City, but Ohio State did. Alabama held down No. 5 last week but didn’t play. Ohio State held down No. 8 but withstood the great-big hearts of No. 4 Wisconsin, 27-21, in the Big Ten championship game. There has never been a two-loss team, or a team that suffered any annihilation at any time, in the playoff; now, the playoff might get both." "The committee repeatedly has demonstrated that, in a pinch, it deems good wins more relevant than bad losses. In 2014, it inched Ohio State upward from No. 5 to No. 4, and docked TCU from No. 3 to No. 6, because in that closing week, Ohio State had routed a No. 13-ranked team, while TCU had routed a 2-10 team. In the hapless decades spent deciphering this sprawling, indecipherable sport, this represented a fresh wrinkle of thinking, welcome most everywhere but Fort Worth." "This Alabama-Ohio State riddle often gets compared to the milder riddle of last season, when Ohio State (11-1, same as 2017 Alabama) got in over Penn State (11-2, same as 2017 Ohio State), even though the latter had a Big Ten title like Ohio State in 2017, and the former had no division title like Alabama in 2017, and the latter had beaten the former head-to-head. Yet the two situations are hardly comparable. In Ohio State’s body of work, it had beaten No. 6 Michigan (at home), No. 7 Oklahoma (on the road, crucially) and No. 8 Wisconsin (on the road), well better than Alabama 2017. Penn State had beaten No. 3 (at home), No. 8 (neutral) and No. 24 (at home), leaving Ohio State a clear-cut notch ahead." I've highlighted a few paragraphs, but the entire article is worth a read. It is the best I've come across in summarizing ALL the facts. The media has set this up from the beginning as an expectation that OSU will be chosen. The piece above is more balanced, but still gives OSU a 50-50 chance with 'Bama. Some of the comments are very enlightening as well... e.g. random heartland american: "To muddy the waters a little more: Sagarin says Wisconsin's strength of schedule (#50) is HIGHER than Alabama's (#56) - but the 11-1 team that didn't even make its conference championship game is being considered over the 12-1 team that did? And what of USC, the 2-loss conference champion with a higher SOS (#16) than Ohio State (#28)?" e.g. cupojoe6: "I do think region will be a factor. Three teams from the deep south (and the other from the prairie), is TV ratings death." TCU had reason to be super pissed in 2014, and Penn State will likely have similar justification based on last season and this year. In 2017, Bama > Penn St. > Ohio State How is this subjective crap any better than having the top four chosen by pure quantitative objectivity (i.e. an RPI-like formula)? Oh, right, you can't directly put a program's financial power into a formula and still have transparency and universal respect.

As I said on here prior to the game, we are the possession team and UL struggles with that. They are forced to pack-it-in defensively and counter attack. What I did not expect was the effect that field size and turf would have on our ability to attack. The field was narrow making it more difficult to spread UL out and benefit from our control of the ball. UL played compact and stout defense. The turf led to a lot of slipping, taking away our technical and speed advantage. Rather than the crowd and travel, these were really UL's home-field advantage. Without them (or rather, with the game at UA), I think we win 2-0 in regulation. I have no idea how Cordeiro didn't score one of his 3-4 chances. Towards the end of the first half, it looked like the ball came across too fast or he was out of stride to get anything on it. Literally, any contact with the ball in that situation would have put it in. Other than 15 minutes in the first half and 5 minutes in overtime, UL was not dangerous. Even their best chances were not real threats to score; unfortunately, the same could be said for all of ours except Cordiero's near touch at the end of the first half and his one-on-one near the end of regulation. UL's goalie was solid...as was ours. Moutinho, De Vera, and Gainford were also particularly strong for us. Harter and Holthusen disappeared for large portions of the game. I woulda liked to have seen more of Egbo and Kahsay to change the dynamic up top. It was clear UL was tired, mentally and physically, but our offense was missing that spark to punish them for it. Both Egbo and Kahsay are proven players, capable of scoring. I wish Embick wasn't so conservative with their time, especially after the stagnation around 75'+ and at times during OT. I was impressed by our patience and discipline, but equally frustrated by our reluctance to be more aggressive in attacking. Given that we had relatively few opportunities, I think the balance between possession and being more attack minded was unfavorable. We have to have more urgency in the future. Getting to PK's is generally a victory for the other team as it gives them a 50-50 opportunity to advance in spite of a discrepancy in talent, technical ability, or overall play. It's the electoral college or gerrymandering of sports. Most of the time, we looked complacent enough to be the team needing PK's to advance. Going into PK's, I had a bad feeling. How many times have we been eliminated from the NCAAT on PK's?...I can think of at least four...Maryland, 2005ish, UVA 2009, and more recently by Ohio State and Stanford. It's a terrible way to end the season, particularly when we are clearly the better team and the opponent is packing-it--in and hoping to get to PK's as their best chance to advance. In spite of the history and hatred on here for Lolla, he is pretty diplomatic and seems indifferent about playing us. He's proven to me that he is a classy competitor. Lolla was dressed as the quintessential urban metrosexual...looked like he was ready to go out for NYE dinner in NYC. I don't know why, but I found that interesting and funny. See everyone in Philly! If you'd like to meet in person and sit together during the game, PM me.

Overall, this game and the outcome is what I expected. Toledo simply has more talent than we do. I like the direction of the progrum and think we will get to Toledo's level in the next two seasons or so. The building has been slow, but the winning small has begun and the MACC was a wonderful next step (and finally beating BUGS and the BoobKitties to get there). The seniors have a lot to be proud of. I liked that even though down big, the team was still playing hard and believing. Equally important, it looked like our guys were still having fun in spite of the score. That's a dramatic change from the iCoach era when it looked as if most players wanted to be anywhere other than on the field. I can't help but wonder how keeping the TD on the board in the first quarter rather than having it called back due to penalty would have changed the game. The turnover right after the UA TD and the recovered fumble with about ten minutes left in the fourth really hurt too. I thought we may had been in the midst of an epic comeback, but then Toledo took the next play to the endzone. Good teams can turn it on to close out a game. Toledo is a good team. In spite of all the points, the defense still forced Toledo to turn the ball over a lot. I think they would have fared much better had our offense not had so many 3-and-outs in the first three quarters. Why did we not open up the offensive playbook until the fourth quarter?...Way too conservative for a championship game! Woodson is a statue at times and Nelson holds the ball too long. Was great to see Kelley getting some time at the end. For a third stringer in the MAC, he ran the offense well and was confident and accurate. The future at QB is bright with Nelson and Kelley. They bring very different abilities to the offense, so it wouldn't surprise me to see them both getting time next year. I think we'll get an interesting venue and opponent for our bowl game. I also think if we tidy things up a bit from today that we'll have our second bowl victory in three years.

And equally important, No Excuses!

Amen. The woe-is-me attitude is annoying from Embick now and always was from Dambrot. These guys get paid six figures plus to coach a game and then complain that there's some injustice in the competition. Get over it! The only thing that is deserved is credit for prior wins. The rest is subjective speculation. The five seed was very fair. If we wanted a top four, we could have guaranteed that by not starting off the season with losses to inferior teams like Utah Valley and Denver. Winning one game on the road to get to the College Cup should be no big sacrifice for a team worthy of winning the National Championship. See Rule #76 as my tag below...

I've made my points, and you've made yours. I agree to disagree.

And four full weeks of meaningful games would dilute that how? I could argue that most bowl games are meaningless. And nearly the entire OOC schedule is meaningless. And half the teams in FBS start the season with no chance of winning a national championship because they are G5 and not P5. Talk about meaningless.

https://www.ohio.com/akron/sports/university-of-akron/university-of-akron-soccer-zips-get-chance-to-prove-they-deserved-higher-seed-at-louisville “It works both ways,” Embick said. “They’ve been here, but they haven’t been able to get over the hump. We’re going to try to take advantage of the fact they have experience, but their experience is losing. Maybe we can draw upon that and get them to panic or have doubt that hey, it’s going to happen again if we get off to a good start.” I really wish Embick hadn't said that. Louisville is gonna be a tough enough out without them having billboard material as added incentive. Let's hope they don't come upon this before game time.

Conference champions plus at-larges would get bids. P5 programs would be heavily favored for the at-large positions. That together with the prestige and money of the P5 conferences would keep schools like Purdue right where they are. Indeed, skip-zip, it is amazing.

So why doesn't a school like Purdue just jump to the MAC now then? They aren't winning anything in the B1G in the next decade. Answer: revenue. The B1G has it, the MAC does not. This wouldn't change with my concept of a 16 team playoff either. Again, this also has not happened due to basketball utilizing the same model.