bobbyake

On Saturday, July 7, Porterland travel to Columbus to take on the Crew. The game will be followed by a live performance from Flogging Molly. I'm planning on attending. If anyone else is, we could possibly organize a tailgate. There are 2.5 former Zips playing for Columbus (Trapp, Barsons, Speas), and 4 former Zips playing for Porterland (Nagbe, Nanchoff, Zemanski, Meves).

Timbers are playing very similar to Akron. The ball is a lot faster on the turf making it harder for his style to work. Porterland trails NY 1-3 at the half.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2013...-step-mls-debut

Akron players that started today in MLS games: Sarkodie, Korb, Kitchen, Zakuani, Yedlin, and Mattocks.

Should we continue calling it the BCS? the 5 automatic bid conferences need a new name, the ABC? Now that the MAC is competing directly against the Big East, CUSA, Sun Belt, and MWC for that bid/bowl spot, the MAC needs to focus on wins The MAC must ditch the Big 10 and focus on scheduling "easy" non-conference games to improve the odds of beating out the other non-automatic bid conferences. This would be the logical choice if the MAC is hungry to compete with the big boys and grow. An undefeated MAC team has a better chance of being ranked higher than a team with 1 loss against the Big 10. It's only a matter of time before the MWC secures an automatic bid, they're a stronger conference than the ACC.

Inside info? Is he getting the contract? That would leave Blair Gavin as the only Zip in the MLS not on a roster.

The FCS schedule ban starts in 2016. http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/...edule-fcs-teams With the changes for the national championship game being made for a playoff format of conference champs, going undefeated in non-conference games isnt as important. Which leads me to the question, what's in it for the Big 10 to schedule MAC opponents if the "easy" win wont benefit them for a national championship run? They could replace those games with quality opponents from other conferences that could draw huge tv ratings, increasing their TV revenue. I'm afraid those big pay days could be a thing of the past for the MAC. Also, should the MAC continue scheduling FCS opponents? Thoughts?

Serna was called up to the u20 team http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2013...rna-u-20-roster

Happy to see Zemanski land in Portland. I was worried he would lose playing time at Chivas as they focus on bringing in Hispanic players. When's the deadline to sign players? I wonder if Blair Gavin will play anywhere.

yes, he's in the Toronto FC Academy. Akron's recruiting class, which hasn't been announced yet, did not make topdrawer's top 20 list http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soc...:-boys_aid28419

it doesn't help our recruiting when players know they'll have to sit for a year. We've got a very talented team returning, it will be hard for the incoming freshmen to get minutes. Don't forget Omari Morris, he turned down a homegrown contract to come here. He should be getting a lot of playing time.

I will be heading down to Columbus for several games this year. Very excited to see how these guys do.

with the recent developments of the USLPro and reserve league, it might become difficult to recruit MLS academy prospects. We could see MLS teams sign their academy players sooner so they can play them in the USL Pro/Reserve league. I don't believe college players can play USL Pro or NASL, but can play USL PDL or NPSL. A stronger second and third league in the US could start decreasing the talent we see at the college level.

Akron players and the Cascadia Cup: Vancouver: Darren Mattocks Portland: Darlington Nagbe, Michael Nanchoff Seattle: Deandre Yedlin, Steve Zakuani, Blair Gavin

Meves might have to work his way up to the MLS through the NASL or USL. It worked for Evan Bush.

I still haven't found anything on where Michael Nanchoff or Blair Gavin will play next year. Has anyone heard anything?

Ben Zemanski was a Ken Lolla recruit (committed before Lolla left). Porter had to convince him to stay. Porter talks about that being his first challenge when he came to Akron in his farewell speech.

What's the holdup with the Crew signing Chad Barson? Is he going to the draft instead?

With the playoff structure, winning non-conference games isnt as important. This could be the end of the MAC vs Big Ten games every year. There's more money for them to play bigger opponents, and a loss doesn't hurt that much.

Blair Gavin wasn't picked up in the re-entry draft.

According to this article, Vancouver still has rights to Nanchoff. So if he goes anywhere, it has to be through a trade http://www.theprovince.com/sports/soccer/W...l#axzz2EGxBwKZg

Students have been treated with more respect at soccer events. There's an entire section devoted to students for soccer games. The soccer coach comes over to thank the students. He goes around campus asking them to come to games. He makes you care about the program. I was a cheerleader for 2 basketball seasons during my time at Akron. I've witnessed some very poor decisions made by UA towards students. During my time as a cheerleader, 2003-2004, the bottom sections behind the scoreboards were not for students. Students had to sit in the upper area behind the scoreboard. I thought it was ridiculous because we would have 4 to 5 thousand for CSU and Can't State games, but empty seats behind the scoreboards. I don't believe it was until the Rowdies were formed that students were allowed to sit down below. I believe it was in 2005. If you wanted to sit down below, you had to have an Ak-Rowdies shirt. To get an Ak-Rowdies shirt, you had to sign up and pay to be an Ak-Rowdy. Not all students, myself, wanted to be Rowdies, but would have sat down there cheering. I believe the Rowdies were allowed it sit down there for all games except for the Can't State game. They moved the students that were down there for the entire season up-top so they could sell those seats to casual fans. Very disrespectful. I can't blame the students for not showing up.

We have an Athletic Director that's stuck in a job which he thought would advance his career. There's no way Tom Wistrcill gets hired away from Akron for a better place, so he's got no motivation to improve things here. He has made some very poor decisions across several sports during his time at Akron. He is also not from this area and it's doubtful he planned on making Akron his home. With an unmotivated Athletic Director, nothing is going to improve. Tom Wistrcill needs to go!!! We either need to hire a local person that bleeds blue & gold, or find new talent looking to shine.

Will he be heading to Portland? Here's the story on Gavin http://nesoccertoday.com/?p=17199

FAU hurt the MAC, this is good news.