Z.I.P.

You think so? Just the "announced" crowd (2,500) wasn't even 1/2 the size of the biggest crowds this year, and it was against one of the biggest names on our schedule. And there were certainly quite a few no-shows, so the actual attendance was probably well under 2,000, which may have made it more like 1/4 or 1/3 the size of Ohio State or Cleveland State crowds. If people were paying attention to the forecast, they could see that the rain was ending. I was surprised and disappointed. Just inserting a little perspective: Prior to 1980, the school record attendance was "well under 2000". I bet it didn't pass 2000 till after the 1986 Final-4 trip.

Are there any substitution retrictions in college soccer?? I thought the rules were similar to international rules. Nope, unlimited substitutions. However, a player cannot re-enter a game in the same half that he left in. EDIT: No re-entry in the first half - One re-entry in the second half I wish I knew for sure -- I thought it was the opposite -- no re-entry for second half. Can someone find the actual rules on line? -- I've looked and can't find.

I think we can probably agree -- based on the number of students attending athletic events on campus, that zipsman's passionate defense of subsidized collegiate athletics represents perhaps 2 percent of the student body. Does anyone seriously believe that this exercise in excess for the benefit of the few would or could win any free exercise in democracy -- i.e., an election of the student body? I am glad that zipsman wants to support the jocks on campus -- but perhaps he should be paying what would constitute a market price for the tickets, rather than having his fellow students subsidize his entertainment. Please don't allow this article to get out to the student bodies of public universities. We may have the start of the #OccupyUniversity Movement! But of course for that to occur, we would first have to replace sports as the current opiate of the masses.

In fairness, stat-keeping isn’t big in college soccer, and even if we had more traditional stats available (chances, possession, action zones, etc). it’s still somewhat dubious that those things would be much better. The fact is, though, that looking at the number of goals you let in compared to the number of shots you face cannot tell you anything about keeper performance. To draw an analogy, any SABR-savvy baseball fan can explain to you that, if you want to know how defensively sound a player is, looking at a player’s fielding percentage is a rather futile exercise , because it ignores factors that are, all things told, more essential than “did you catch the ball or not.” Range and throwing power are harder to quantify, but probably tell you a lot more in the long run. I don’t know if there is a UZR equivalent for goalkeepers, and I would imagine that if there is one it is as inherently problematic as UZR for largely the same reasons. It’d be interesting to know whether or not Porter uses some sort of match analysis tool, (this one seems really frickin’ sweet) but what we relatively resource-less fans are left with are our eyes and the eyes of professional scouts at places like TopDrawer and SoccerByIves. A quite impressive attempt to capture some experientially valid information on the goalkeeping arts, Andy. Thanks. I don't know for sure, but I think some programs still use this company's software for game analysis. (Sorry - the website is pretty useless) I have a friend-of-a-friend connection to the inventor, former CSU-Northridge coach Zvi Friedman. Does anyone know of other computer software programs designed for soccer analysis?

Here's this week's NSCAA poll. Surprising to me that we're ahead of New Mexico.

Why?

Pimm, Frawley and Atkinson look to be the only (true) freshmen to play this year, so the others will be redshirting. That's pretty promising, or perhaps surprising (considering the ranking of a couple others).

Once again, Zach makes an incisive remark that will probably earn scorn from the ZN.o masses. It ain't just soccer, man! And winning is no guarantee of change. Which brings up another side question (related to the attendance thread): Are we seeing license plates from outta state at our games (men's primarily)? I know that much of the attendance at Col Crew games comes from out of state -- is that happening in Akron?

If you took everyone that sat on the grass or stood during the game, those seats would be filled without a problem. BTW, I'm spending time on an attendance sheet for other schools as well, I've covered the top ranked schools and it appears Akron is 2nd in the nation for attendance. UCSB is 1st averaging 5,033, and Maryland is 3rd averaging 4,093. I'll post the numbers when I'm done. Of course people in GA would fill out the grandstand. Are you suggesting that the people who purchased the reserved seats are choosing to stand the whole game or sit on the grass?? The reserved seats are sold out or nearly sold out and some are choosing to not show up. That's the bottom line. The attendance is still very good. The percentage of sold seats to actual attendance is great. Much better than football. Your passion is obvious. Soccer will not be outdrawing football in paid attendance this year or the foreseeable future no matter how much you would like for that to happen. I'm not trying to sway your opinion, it appears to be set in stone. Just trying to set the record straight. I have sat/stood in the grass instead of the grandstad for games this year. It happens but this is a silly argument. Enjoy the crowd and the atmosphere. I wish it cold last forever. I think the main problem I have with this thread is that Bobbyake did not sufficiently lay out just what his argument is! Perhaps I mssed another thread where it was stated (That soccer does or COULD outdraw Am. Football?). I think that's a possible future reality, considering the "progress" the FB team is making. It's also an argument that is SO politically incorrect, you are going to have rotten veggies thrown at you if you go near some people on the FB board!

So based on that, Maryland should be kicking butt in recruiting the Class of 2012. I'm not so sure it isn't just the attention that comes to a WINNING team. Nike and UofO make a nice combo.

Here's something very strange: They seem to know things about us in Turkey that we didn't even know. Olympic gymnast Dominique Moceanu is an Akron alum?

Maryland @ Virginia is televised on Fox Prime Ticket on the West Coast today (4 PM PT/1 HST, so I can't watch ). It's strange how that network is suddenly broadcasting college games -- they had one last weekend also. It may be picked up by some other Fox regional nets.

The team has added some more high-flyers to their roster in signing the top three finishers from the 2011 College Slam Dunk Contest: • Jacob “Hops” Tucker of Illinois College, the Slam Dunk Champion. At a mere 5-10, the Carlyle, Ill., native sports a 50-inch vertical leap, and his YouTube video of dunks that has seen well over four million views helped him get invited to the Slam Dunk Contest. Anybody seen that? Never heard of Iliinois College -- wonder what state it's in.

This game was an opportunity to play on national TV, in a game that the college soccer world paid attention to. Could Caleb have told the NSCAA, "Thanks, but no thanks". Sure, he could have, but that would have burned a bridge that's important to cultivate. I think he will think hard about this sort of scheduling situation in the future -- our program is at a point where we have a lot of credibility in the community, but it's still hard to say "no thanks" to the chance for national exposure for the program. In a way, I'm impressed with the level of criticism from our own fans -- it shows just how high the bar has been set. Just DO realize as Bisbee said, the season's barely half-way over. I think, if we take care of business, we still have a good chance, especially if our W Coast opponents finish strong (though they can beat up on each other) to get a top-4 seed come November. And even if they don't -- that doesn't mean they will have to play on the road, since there are upsets and the games are played at the highest seed -- unless the NCAA doesn't like your field! I was thinking, remember how we "won the Big-10 title" with our OOC performance in past years? This season we were competing for the Big WEST title! Are we in second place now?

Considering what we know thus far about the head coach, to go back to Nicely at this point would be an admission of failure on the part of the coach -- something very unlikely to occur, to say the least. I won't be surprised if he brings in another JC QB for next year.

Did I ever tell you how I spent seven of the best hours of my life standing with the University of Virginia hockey club players at the U2 concert at Aloha Stadium?

From 17.4 to 7.3 PPG transition from junior to senior season. He musta been starting his career early. Another red star for Dan Hipsher.

Wow! That's the school that shares the parking lot with the Los Olivos Grocery, the stop-off for picnic supplies on the way to wine drinking! It's a very small school from appearances. Now I know what kind of "boarding" takes place there. I think most of the soccer players are from Ghana. Coincidental trivia (Sorry -- non-soccer related!): About three miles away -- believe it or not, across the street from Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch is another high school. In 1948 a former Akron Central HS, and Can't State basketball star hired an agency to find him a basketball coaching job. They sent him to that school, which was just starting up, and he spent several years coaching HS ball there, but went further afield, and essentially invented the modern method of scouting college basketball teams. He created in his house in Santa Barbara, a coaches guide to every Div 1 college team in the nation, for which he was paid well, and he was able to hire a small army of scouts across the nation. Because of his acumen at scouting teams and basketball prospects -- especially centers, he was hired in the 1960s as an assistant coach and scout by the Los Angeles Lakers. He would go on to coach for the Lakers for over 40 years, coaching every center between Wilt Chamberlain and the guy the've got now. His name is Bill Bertka, and I had the pleasure of meeting him in Hawaii, in 1994 when he was scouting the North Carolina-Michigan game. I knew who he was, because he wore a T-shirt for the Akron Awnings semi-pro football team from the 1930s-40s. My dad and uncle played for the Awnings. True story!

Link defaults to America East Conf. How do you update?

I'm in most agreement with Tank on this one. Let's not commiserate, let's get to work -- because if we don't shore up the shape of our defense and passing, things could get worse. On another thread, Teal Bunbury talked about how Caleb's style was to have ten guys playing defense -- that strategy broke down in SB County last night. At the half, Caleb complained about play being "too open", that his team didn't hold the ball at midfield. I think that was Coach Vom Steeg's strategy -- to hurry up the Zips in passing more quickly than they wanted. These were too very good college teams, who played a very exciting game for the spectators. As I said earlier, UCSB has some excellent players, but they are VERY inconsistent. Their post-season is not assured by this win. Now a Q: Is David Mayer still on this team?? He and Quinn looked so good early on. I miss David's confidence and on-ball skill.

While I don't have a marinade recipe (I usually just go with a feel), I would suggest any recipe that has olive oil, lime juice and hot pepper as a gauge. Add some sugar or honey, garlic powder and salt to Johnny's three ingredients above, and you are in good shape. If you have no lime, go with a vinegar. My hot pepper choice is Sriracha. Holy Cow! The proof that globalization has gone too far is when the secret of Sriracha sauce reaches the natives of McDonald Ohio. Please don't tell me you pour it in your pho!

Before the season I predicted that the key games for Akron would be vs Temple and Fla Int'l. If they could win those two -- they would have a chance at a .500 or better season. Well, we saw what happened in the opener. And FIU looks to be almost as good a team as the Owls. Akron must score 20+ to beat the spread. Not likely. Nor is a three win season. Even we lukewarm fans are losing any interest we had.

The PD article says he's a senior. The 6-3 senior completed 28 of 44 passes for 469 yards and three touchdowns, and had 84 yards rushing with two TDs rushing. Let's hope SMU and Hawaii don't find him first.

Yeah, I seem to have bad luck at the HDC. None of our guys started. At least Blair started the 2nd half and played that full 45 minutes. I didn't even get to say "hi" to any of our guys. They never hung around afterward at all. The crowd was very sparse as you noticed on tv. Edit: I did wander over to Hermosa Beach on Monday morning and walk around the area where I believe Zarek and Heath Pearce share an apt. Zarek probably doesn't realize he gave away his address with that photo of their view that he posted on twitter. Google street view is an amazing thing (especially when the street doesn't cover a long distance). Nice area, nice beach (HOT girls playing volleyball, if I'm allowed to mention that on ZN.o ), good restaurants with sidewalk seating. Not sure what Chivas' weekend (and training) schedule is -- If he has time, it wouldn't surprise me to see 'Z' show up in Isla Vista. You might be interested in visiting with Big Mike and the Locos at Giovanni's pizza before the match. I hope at least a handful of W Coast Zips can make it. I hear there's a terrible cold spell blowing in with rain. Colder than the Cup weekend. Yikes!

We abosultely need to win this game... but even then our RPI will take a hit as it might knock UCSB out of the top 25. RPI is always graded all the way out to the last team... but beating top 25 teams have more impact than the next 25. Right now our RPI looks to be pretty weak. Winning out will help that... but we still need to be concerned about UNC, Creighton, New Mexico... and some 1 or 2 loss teams ranked below us. We need to see some teams step it up... Like Fullerton, Northridge, New Mexico, Cal Poly, Tulsa and Ohio State. You need some teams to step it up? New Mexico is undefeated and top ten in some polls. Fullerton has one loss. Tulsa, Northridge and OSU just aren't very good. CSU-Northridge has now won three straight, including a victory over Fullerton last weekend. They're in first place in the Big West Conf.