Z.I.P.

review the past two seasons' recruiting threads. Youth players who can make a career at football/soccer are taking their talent to another shore. In our case look to Las Palmas and Sporting KC, who managed to take away forwards who could have been all-American players as freshmen at UA. We are hardly alone at losing top players however. It is the future of the college game. The good part is that there are so few really good players at this level that winning a national title is becoming something of a crap shoot. We're not out of contention for 2017, IMHO.

End of OT, 0-0 Well, it was certainly an exciting game -- very physical and hard-fought contest, but sloppy on both teams' parts. Akron had the last chance, and a SLU player cleared the ball of their line with seconds (under 10, I think) on the clock. This one could have gone either way, and since we finished with 10 men, I suppose some will say we "escaped" with a draw, but the escape was mostly due to our lack of final 20 yard attacking strategy. We just look messy (no Messi) there.

Well, we escaped the free kick from just on top of the circle, following a red card against Nate Schultz for taking down the attacking St Louis player. Borderline call, in my opinion.

There's no audio, but I just noticed from the flags it is very windy, and the wind is benefiting SLU in the OT period. A cross-field pass by Akron went straight out.

End of regulation, no goals! As ZipME87 said, there's been a lot of trouble creating an effective attack on top, and when we have, St Louis strength seems to be inside the box defense. I hope we can make something happen, and not happen to us!

Halftime stats show Akron with just 2 shots in the first 45! Considering that we controlled 80+ percent of the possession that I watched, that is pretty poor. St Louis keeper made just one save to three for Ben. 1 corner kick each side. 2 OS for us none for the Billis. We have to find an attack.

Tuned in and there is no scoreboard on the screen -- on top of a highly pixilated picture. Now I see a pic of the field scoreboard...0-0 as the 1st half ends. For the ten minutes I watched, it was clear that our side was far superior -- however we made some poor passing decisions and had no scoring opportunities that I saw. This reminds me a lot of Utah Valley! Clean things up the second half, and we SHOULD come away with a 'W'.

Billikens certainly have plenty of height! 18 position players on roster over 6'. http://www.slubillikens.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=27200&SPID=93202&SPSID=632576

Most interesting game promotion I've seen in recent times: PROMOTIONS -- Fans are encouraged to bring their dog to the game for the “Howl at Hermann” promotion. Fans who bring their dog to the match will receive a free SLU-branded water bowl. This sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen!

BTW -- I noticed the spread in my newspaper went up from 9.5 to 10.5 today. New injury report?

Oh, hey...I missed this psycho thread! Those of us from Green also have a connection! My dad sent me a small Akron Jerkin Beanal clipping while I was in the Air Force of the first guy to meet his demise at Jeffrey's hand (before he was implicated -- don't think his cannibalistic tendencies had emerged yet), just to ask if I remembered the guy from my class at Green (i.e., the first victim). "Think he was a stoner" was all I could recall.

Well, I hope something happens to get the team on national TV -- as contrasted with ESPN3 more this season. The past two years have been way down, as ESPN has begun leaning on the 3 platform. Three years ago, I counted 17 games were televised either on the ESPN regular family, or the Game Plan type system that no longer exists. I'm not a fan of ESPN3, as us old guys prefer a big screen where we can control all the knobs!

As it ended up, the video and audio returned just before halftime, and stayed up for the remainder of the game. The UCSB announcing team were excellent, especially the color guy with the British accent! They knew what they were talking about -- and gave Akron players credit for being top flight.

Marcel Zajac is the offensive MVP, but Moutinho looks like a pro in the back! Is he really a freshman?

Zajac. Times two. Second with about 5 minutes remaining in the half. Zips outclassing the home team.. with 8 shots to nil for the Gauchos.

Well, I got no pic on the usually reliable Big West broadcast. BUT, the gamecast tells me Zajac scored 7 minutes in for a quick advantage. Very nice!

Mark, I would be in the Harder stands with you, but the cost of hotels in SB has absolutely gone THROUGH THE ROOF! And suddenly. I've been there three times since 2010 and have always found a room around $100-125/night. Now it's basically impossible to find anything under $200 (+). I will be back next year for Big West women's soccer when the Rainbow Wahine play @UCSB and Cal Poly again. Maybe we can get together to go wining in Santa Ynez. I hope and expect the Zips and Gauchos to continue the series, and am still trying to get some momentum for my idea of the Tire-Lager Trophy between the teams, sponsored by the Firestone Walker Brewing Co. My friend, a winemaker in Los Olivos sees old Brooks Firestone and his kids and grandkids around town. Gotta get that moving!!

UCSB lost their leading returning scorer to an ACL tear on the first day of practice, and now their season is slowly leaking away -- in the first week of September. They lost an exhibition to D-2 Westmont (rivals from up the street) and then suffered ties to St Mary's and Siena before losing twice last weekend at San Diego and San Diego State. So, this is surely a Must Win for the Gauchos and their loco fans. Who's going to be there? There is a Live Stream from the Big West Conference Network. Here's the story from GauchoLand. http://www.ucsbgauchos.com/sports/m-soccer/2017-18/releases/20170907lp0vwu Calling Big Mike! Shucks -- what happened to our NCAA Champs moji?

The problem I find is, when I Google any individual sport, it defaults to that generic front page, and you have to then search for the correct sport through the list. This doesn't happen with other universities.

Say WHAT? This isn't the NSCAA poll, is it?? Weren't we #16/24 before beating the #10 team? What gives?

Pretty much complete domination against #10 UW. Gainford scores goal #2 for the 24th ranked team.

The Huskies only SOG was about min #2. 43 minutes without a look at goal. Akron dominated half no. 1, but could only put one shot away. We need more scorers.

Stuart Holthusen!! Just what we were waiting for! 1-0 Zips at 30:45.

Okay, I had a chance to watch 30-35 minutes of the second half of tonight's game. And...ZipsVoice is my new source of info on Zips Women's soccer. Cleveland State was the better team throughout tonight, clearly displaying more team speed and passing ability. Akron was successful at playing a physical game against them, but athleticism won out. I thought we would be able to escape with a draw, but I saw if any real scoring opportunities for the Zips. On the other hand, my Leahi Soccer Club protégé, Ali Lorenzo, #10 of CSU was the best player on the field. After beating KSU last week, Cleveland State is in first in the MAC East.

Good Q! I see that he's a Cleveland area sports honk, and a tOSU honk to boot! Let's cross our fingers.