Z.I.P.

Back when the Sounders were in USL, Kitsap Pumas were essentially their "youth team", as they had no MLS Academy. Has Kitsap Pumas become a Class AAA version of the Sounders Academy squad(s)? Also noticed this on the site: Schmid also said the availability of midfielder Steve Zakuani (leg) remains week-to-week.

Somebody wanna let the rest of us in on who this character is?

That link does not inclue Akron's game @Notre Dame. What's up?

If I can find out what "FX" is, I'll be watching!

CD Chivas USA! The Goats played their best football of 2012 for about 80 minutes in defeating the Impact 2-1 last Saturday night at HDC. And the Fox Prime Ticket Man of the Match was our own Ben Zemanski! Ben played the most aggressive game of his career, leading Chivas in shots, testing Donovan Ricketts ferociously in the first half and providing space for new star Juan Agudelo. The announcers mentioned in his previous game vs Houston (edit: Make that the home loss to Real Salt Lake) that Ben was coming off a knee sprain suffered in mid-April. Ben and Blair Gavin both started and played 90' in that one. Blair did not see action vs Montreal. Zarek Valentin played an honorable defensive game, though not seeing much of the football. It seemed that the Fox announcers, including Eric Wynalda were playing down the return of 'Z' to the HDC, though they did mention more than once the reunion of Zarek and Ben.

I failed to notice anyone mentioning the biggest consequence of this action -- it probably opens up an (yes, an as in "one") extra spot in the 2013 NCAA tournament to be fought over by foolish mid-majors and the BCS dogs who will likely gobble it up.

The only thing I am upset about is the article this morning on MSN, stating that people in his "hometown of Cleveland" are still upset at his team selection. Sheesh to the Nth!!!

Well, as much as I hate to p-o the "glass half-empty" crowd, Keith Dambrot is still the coach of our alma mater, and I give him all the support I can. No other coach in the MAC is as highly regarded, and none is as loyal as Keith. And, I might add -- his comment about his value on the market forcing the university to further invest in the program shows his moxy. Perhaps he's sacrificing some of his own well-earned credits for the sake of the team. The guy does still own the school record for HBP, doesn't he?

More power to BW. No doubt he has thought this through for a while. Hopefully he stays at UA and gets his MA. That is a really good academic institution. Brian will be a success, he always has excelled.

Lee, you've made the exact same mistake as ESPN -- spelling Mike's name without the "k". He didn't get a lot of 'K"s in his Akron career, as I recall, being more of a finesse pitcher. Nonetheless, his name was and is Mike Birkbeck. And I thing, the only UA baseball games I ever attended were his OVC pitching outings at LJF. I'm sending out a msg to both Akron fans and our Hawaii alumni and fans of that other school in my town to meet for the CWS games at Varsity Grill off the UH Campus in Manoa. Since Ben Curtis failed to qualify for the US Open, fans of the Portage County school (when are mods going to grow up, and let us name them?) have no one else to cheer for this week. Fact is, success for any Akron area school is good for everyone. Good luck to Coach Stricklin's guys, they have as much (actually more) of a chance of winning this as Fresno State did in 2008, when they took gold.

Dave, How about doing Zn.o a favor and reminding Gozips of our web address. Please let him know we accept members of all political persuasions.

I'll be rooting for a Greek repeat of 2004. They need all the help they can get!

Sorry, I meant to link to this article about Buriram United. I might invest in a new jersey (not Gov Christie's). And -- please, please don't use the 'C' word around me or any other Gunners fan.

Welcome, Ampai, to the Thunder Castle! That is Buriram United's 24,00 seat home stadium. They appear to be well healed operationally. Won the Thai Treble. Can we call them the Barca of SE Asia?

Thanks for the credit -- but I just logged onto this thread. Apparently it was MDZip, the Baltimore Oriole who advocated that crazy softball-like concept. Me, I like 8-overtime finals! As long as Indiana isn't involved!

I happened across some salary figures released by the MLSPA this week. This only shows the Galaxy and Chivas USA, but that includes our two Akron Goats. I'm sure someone can find the rest of the league salaries. I imagine Zakuani still leads all ex-Zips by a decent margin.

Pardon me if I'm just a little more self-centered. Here's hoping that Rico and Melo can maintain possession with intent to distribute! If so, I predict at least a 2-0 series with the Golden Parolees.

E.J. Thomas is not unique among the university’s auxiliary enterprises. UA also provides $19 million of the athletic department’s $24 million budget and $3.8 million of InfoCision Stadium’s $5.4 million budget, said David Cummins, UA’s chief financial officer An interesting fact I noticed in last week's University of Hawaii hiring of former U. of Delaware Provost as their new President is that Delaware sponsors 21 sports (vs UA's 17) and has an athletic budget of $31M, higher than probably any MAC school. Yet they play football in the FCS. Hmmmmm.

Thanks for the news Bobby. But, as much as I hate the Galaxy, they were one of only two teams (Chivas the other) available on Fox West/Prime Ticket -- and even though Time Warner is the ONLY cable provider in Hawaii, the CA TW broadcasts are not available here. So why am I paying over $100 a month for this system???

I'm not sure if this topic deserves its own thread, but I'm returning to the subject of MLS television coverage in 2012. It appears (now that I'm back on "American" soil), that not only has Fox lost MLS coverage on its premier soccer vehicle (the one called "Fox SOCCER Network"), but also on it's regional networks. This is clearly more than just a loss for Fox, but a huge loss for MLS! For example, Fox West and Prime Ticket were the regional broadcasters of both Los Angeles franchises, but now, best as I can make out both the LA Galaxy and Chivas USA have NO local TV coverage any longer. How can that possibly be a good thing for Major League Soccer? Are the Columbus Crew still having their games broadcast by Fox, or some other regional TV Net? Whether or not Fox gave MLS the respect it may have deserved is now reduced to the quest for any day-to-day coverage whatever. Rather than competing with Premier League, Serie A, and whatever other stuff FSC had on it's lineup, MLS must now compete against the NHL, cycling, all kinds of outdoor stuff, and gets probably less than 2% of the NBCSN's time whereby they were a daily feature at least on Fox Soccer with highlights, rebroadcasts and regular ads/teasers for upcoming games. All this (the changeover) seemed to happen with no foremention to fans. Yes -- they Foxed up again -- but the real losers seem to be US soccer fans (again!). edit/addendum: Looking at the Galaxy and Chivas TV schedules, I see that Chivas is still having SOME of their games (about 1/2) broadcast by Fox West or Prime Ticket, while the Galaxy has gone exclusively to a local L.A. station for local broadcast. I wonder if Becks, Keane and Donovan no longer sell outside LA County.

Here's a nice bit of trivia: Who was Ohio University's men's soccer coach in the late 70s? Bob Bradley! I suspect it was a club team however. Back in those days club teams played against varsity opponents during the regular season, but couldn't participate in the post-season. Two schools which played very good club soccer at that time (and were capable of holding their own vs UA) were Notre Dame and Oakland. Their soccer programs went varsity only in the 90s I believe. Anyone know the dates for sure?

Zip-_87, Edwardsville was a true power in collegiate soccer in my time at Akron (late seventies, early eighties). However, I could swear that Akron defeated SIUE at Lee Jackson early in the season in which they won the NCAA tiitle, about 1977 or '78. That was the year in which their coach suffered a heart attack midway through the season, and I believe they went undefeated the rest of the way through October to the end of the season (which I think ended in November back then). Is SIUE playing in D-1 again? they downgraded their whole athletic program in the 80s.

Skip, I respect your desire to continue with this simplistic (and simply wrong) statement. however this is the second time I have had to correct you on it, so please read this clearly: ANY youth sports league can be referred to in the terms you use -- if you have no experience as a player or parent in recent years. I believe any kid can play little league baseball or pee wee football (etc.) for relatively little money -- the cost of uniforms, travel to games...I'm not sure what else. But unlike youth soccer clubs, to my knowledge other sports do not require large membership fees for merely belonging to the club, and coaching fees that normally reach into the thousands of dollars per year. As I mentioned earlier, these expenses required to merely step on the field of a competitiive youth league (as contrasted with AYSO, where indeed, "Everyone Plays", but no one reaches the level of play necessary to achieve the parents' goal of a college scholarship, or pro career) are similar to those which upwardly mobile families are required to pay to get their children into the best private schools in their communities. And this economic reality is one of the main reasons why American soccer has been held back, in contrast to the Euroean and Latin American countries where kids can indeed just step onto a dirt field and somehow be noticed by club scouts, because in those countries every adult basically is a 'scout" and when a youngster is noticed with outstanding skill, he is sure to be given an opportunity to show his skills to local clubs, which is the entry door to professional play. Think of a Canadian youth who is good at hockey -- he'll be seen, "discovered", and the junior hockey scouts connected to pro teams will beat a path to his door. This system does not yet exist in American soccer, and so those with the $$$ to bet on their kid's future must put up, or appear willing to pay the big bucks for professional coaching and career progression (this is why the highest salaries in US soccer coaching do not go to college or sometimes pro coaches, but rather to youth soccer club Coaching Directors). Ask any family which belongs to a soccer/football club how it effects their expenses. You're sure to get an earful!

Just returned to Hawaii, and found the Globetrotters are in town this weekend. I want to see Qua(d)ke, but the website shows something like 29 players on the roster. Is there any way to find out if Milum is going to be on this particular tour? edit: Found an email form for the team and phone#. Will let you know what I found out. Hope I get to see him. How'bout help out the Z.I.P. with some ducats, Quake, Baby!

As I shouted to their coach when they last played @Hawaii: "Put in Cornbread!"