bobbyake

It was a remarkable season for Porter. Taking the Timbers from last to title contender in one year, his future is brighter than ever. I think he made up for his Olympic qualifying blunder. We were very fortunate to have him as our coach for so many years.

I just hope this doesn't have negative consequences with other MLS teams. Would the Crew consider Akron a bad choice for their academy players with Akron's relationship with Porter? I would like to see more academy prospects from the Crew.

Akron competes with Ohio State in several ways besides on the field. Recruiting in the area, fan purchases, and several different factors have to be considered. The problem is, there's little pride behind the Akron name regarding football. You will see soccer and basketball fans proudly wearing their Akron gear. I'm impressed with Bowden's 5 win season. I will be honest, I gave up on Akron football during Ianello's 1st season and haven't cared about college football since. Bowden brings a sense of hope for Akron Football future. I find myself trying to like the sport of football again because of this. I don't believe anyone in the MAC should be disappointed about NIU going to a BCS game over the National Title. I'm sorry you are.

The basketball and soccer programs are suffering because of the MAC. The Big East is gone and there are only 5 BCS conferences in the future. We will not be joining either of those conferences anytime in the future. These are facts. My opinion: The best from the MAC join up with the best from the old Big East and CUSA to form a new conference. I don't think this is going to happen.

I've been asked this before. I gave them a dumb look and said, "are you serious?"

Regardless of NIU getting a shot at a national title or not, they are doing exactly what we need to mimic. The fan base in this area wants a winner that is nationally known. Everyone borrows Ohio State because they are the closest thing to representing this area at the national level. I don't like it, but I understand it. If Akron started putting together undefeated records, we would give these frontrunners in this area something they value, a team that has national standing. What hurts our school the most is the lack of revenue coming in from football. We depend on that big payday every year. The odds of winning those games are low. This makes putting together undefeated seasons very challenging. The formula for MAC teams should be: win all your non-conference games + win all your conference games = National spotlight for a non-bcs school in a bcs game. If the MAC could ditch the scheduling with the Big Ten and work a deal with the Sun Belt or CUSA, we would have more bowl eligible teams every year. Maybe a BCS bowl game with more non-significant bowl games makes more money than playing those payday games in the regular season. Maybe winning MAC teams start to bring in more fans for regular games. Just my thoughts.

the football stadium can not accommodate soccer because the stands angle in near the end zones.

If you're going to post in the soccer thread, you should familiarize yourself with Akron soccer. You can't take what you see in OSU fan threads and assume the OSU soccer supporters don't consider us their rival. Akron vs OSU has history in soccer, regardless of our domination. I guarantee OSU players have a chip on their shoulder when they play Akron. Akron is the team they weren't good enough to play for

Trains run through the University of Akron campus too. I remember hearing one all the time in the business building.

If you already bought a Yedlin jersey with #2 on it, you'll have to get a new one. Dempsey is taking his number.

Brett Gravatt is training with the New England Revolution http://www.imgacademy.com/sports/boys-socc...mls-new-england

CONCACAF usually streams the games on their website. I don't know if they're doing it this year though.

MLS TV coverage has increased since they left FSC. NBC Sports does a much better job covering the games. Also, you can watch just about every MLS game with MatchDay Live.

Ill try to update the stats and post them on the Rubber City Brigade Facebook page today.

1. Swensons 2. Flip Side 3. Menches Bros

I've never seen it mentioned before. Here's the Class of 2012 http://www.thecrewyouth.com/Classof2012/index_E.html and other classes: http://www.thecrewyouth.com/CollegeBoundAt...es/index_E.html It would be nice to see more Akron players in Crew uniforms.

Missing, as in they're no longer on the roster. Alfred Koroma was the only transfer I knew about though.

By my count, there are 6 players (that did not move on to the pros or graduate) missing from the current 2013 roster http://gozips.com/sports/msoc/2013-14/roster 25 Saad Abdul-Salaam F Jr. 6-3 170 Gahanna, Ohio / Gahanna Lincoln HS 7 Reinaldo Brenes M/D Jr. 5-10 155 San Jose, Costa Rica / Edison Academic Center [Fla.] Clint Caso MF So. 6-0 165 Kinnelon, N.J. / St. Benedict Preparatory School Louis Cross D Fr. 6-1 165 Lancashire, England / Blackpool FC Academy Robby Dambrot MF/D Fr. 6-0 150 Akron, Ohio / St. Vincent-St. Mary HS Jonny DeMoya GK Fr. 5-10 180 Olney, Md. / Sherwood HS 11 Robbie Derschang M Sr. 6-0 165 Englewood, Colo. / Cherry Creek HS/SMU 30 Jake Fenlason GK So. 6-0 157 San Deigo, Calif. / Rancho Bernardo HS 16 Phil Fives D So. 5-9 145 Pittsburgh, Pa. / North Allegheny HS 5 Matt Foldesy M So. 5-7 145 North Olmsted, Ohio / St. Ignatius HS 4 Bryan Gallego D Jr. 5-10 165 Kinnelon, N.J. / Kinnelon HS Riley Grant F Fr. 6-1 160 Copley, Ohio / Copley-Fairlawn HS Brett Gravatt D Fr. 6-0 160 Dunn Loring, Va. / IMG Academy [Fla.] 18 Osas Malkin M R-Fr. 5-11 165 Pittsburgh, Pa. / Pittsburgh Central Catholic HS Adam Najem MF Fr. 5-8 140 Clifton, N.J. / Paramus Catholic HS 1 Fernando Pina GK R-Fr. 6-0 180 Houston, Texas / Challenge Early College HS 13 Zac Portillos M Sr. 5-9 150 Aurora, Colo. / Grandview HS/Washington 9 Aodhan Quinn M Sr. 6-0 155 San Diego, Calif. / Mt. Carmel HS/Bradley 20 Brad Ruhaak D R-Fr. 6-0 170 Akron, Ohio / Copley HS Tyler Sanda MF Fr. 6-0 180 North Royalton, Ohio / St. Ignatius HS Ismail Seremba F Fr. 5-8 135 London, England / Chelsea Academy 2 Andrew Souders D So. 5-11 165 Amherst, Ohio / Amherst Steele HS Victor Souto MF Fr. 5-11 165 Sao Paolo, Brazil / Sport Club Corinthians Paulista 14 Eric Stevenson M Sr. 5-8 145 Columbus, Ohio / Worthington Christian Missing: 22 Kayvon Afsarifard D So. 5-10 175 Chardon, Ohio / St. Ignatius HS (transfered from Loyola, must have been cut?) 26 Andy Chiu F R-Fr. 5-8 155 El Paso, Texas / Coronado HS (RSL Academy player) 27 Chase Jabbori M Fr. 5-8 143 Novi, Mich. / Novi HS 8 Alfred Koroma F Fr. 6-0 160 Dallas, Texas / Southlake Carroll HS (confirmed transfer) 23 Andrian McAdams GK So. 6-0 170 Oberlin, Ohio / Oberlin HS (Crew Academy Player) 19 Alex Ranalli M Fr. 6-0 170 Powell, Ohio / Olentangy Liberty HS (Crew Academy player)

horrible performance, but an awesome time!!!

College players are allowed to play in the pdl or NPSL during the off season.

I'm putting together stats for this year and discovered that Meves was never signed by Portland. Portland has the rights to sign him, but he's currently a non-roster player.

Not bad. There are highlight videos on YouTube for this guy.