meatwad

UNC is leading a charmed life this tourney. They scored in the 90th minute to send this one to OT.

+1 to everything said here. Looking forward to punching our ticket next Saturday!

Thanks for the laugh OZoner What? I completely agree with you. Sarcasm doesn't translate well on the forums.

Thanks for the laugh OZoner

The only laughable thing was our offense tonight. We held CSU to 38% shooting. I'd take that any night. Problem is we only shot 36%. We also gave up 11 offensive rebounds which was on the defensive side of the ball. However, we had 16 turnovers! You aren't going to win many games scoring 51 points, sorry.

The only laughable thing was our offense tonight. We held CSU to 38% shooting. I'd take that any night. Problem is we only shot 36%. We also gave up 11 offensive rebounds which was on the defensive side of the ball. However, we had 16 turnovers! You aren't going to win many games scoring 51 points, sorry.

Excuse me? We give up 64 points to a team averaging in the mid 70s in points and you think the problem is defense? We scored 51 freaking points and turned it over countless times. No one could create their own shot. Our offense was terrible tonight and we still had a chance to win. I disagree, the D was not the problem.

I think I am not alone in saying that this is pretty cool of Coach Porter to do. However, I'm also probably not the only one that would say that the crowd last Sunday was disappointing. There is no reason that Sunday should not be packed beyond capacity. Biggest game of the season against an opponent whose fans will likely travel well. Everybody needs to be there and be loud - like the Tulsa game.

Great game. That was a lot of fun. Too bad we got hosed and had to go to Northwestern less than a week later.

I too was wondering if there was a pre-Thanksgiving coma going around zn, Captain. Posting in general seems to be down this week. Perhaps travel is interfering with the posting habits of some of the regulars. Definitely stoked for this game and ready to see a Viking beatdown. Prediction: Zips 77 CSU 69

It can be hard to hide the Royals bias I agree. I honestly think I see Porter's reasoning behind the change in formation. Last year countless teams packed the box and never even tried to get any numbers forward (I'm looking at you Virginia). To add in another play maker up front would maybe change the dynamic a bit and add a bit more of a scoring punch for those types of games and situations. Trouble is, at some point during the year other teams figured it out and started to send more numbers at us on the counter attack and in the regular course of play. We've handled it fairly well all things considered on the defensive side, but I agree that Meves hasn't been what we need him to be. I think that will sort itself out and he will step up when we need him (he made some huge saves against Creighton in a tight game). I also agree with you about Brenes as the other holder if Porter went back to the two mids. Caldwell is a solid defensive player (which I suspect is why he is playing at the expense of Speas), but that does not seem to fit his skill set well. His passing has been suspect at times, which is obviously essential as a holding MF. However, Brenes has also shown the tendency to try and do too much with the ball at his feet, which could also be a problem. In general I completely agree with you on this, though.

Yes, Ampai is now classified, in my mind anyway (others can confirm what I'm seeing), simply as an attacking MF. He is rarely back on D to the extent Zemanski and Gavin were last year. There's no doubt that was tweaked in the off season to add more numbers forward. Ben and Blair were almost inseparable on the field by more than 10-20 yards. Ampai is consistently up field while Perry is back waiting for clearances, etc. It's great when we are attacking, however the goals that we have given up in the past few games lead me to believe that the D was supported by the holders just dominating last year and breaking down a lot of attacks before it even got to the D level. Just my two cents. Anyone can feel free to post other observations.

I would even be ok with him starting off with the same formation, then when the result is in hand (2-0 perhaps?) dropping back Caldwell into a more defensive MF role. Then again we've made it to 19-1-1 without changing a thing this year (outside of the roster from time to time), so let's roll! By the way, welcome to the soccer board, Hip Zip!

I'm going to have to say it relates to two things: Gavin and Zemanski. Notice this year there is only 1 holding MF (Perry) as compared to those two last year. Our formation is a bit different to be an even more attacking style than last year. I can't say that I think it's a bad idea since it's worked for us so far, but I think Caleb's goal was to be more attack oriented this year. Goals per game year over year are about the same but we have played a tougher schedule this year. Goals against has gone up which is more concerning, but again a tougher schedule might have played a part in that. All this to say I think the formation change has a lot to do with the "quick goals" we've given up.

Agreed. This game will be harder than either Cal or Brown. Brown because they are Brown and Cal because they are travelling across the country (remember Stanford last year and how we abused them). Likewise if we make the College Cup, the Semifinal match against Maryland (most likely) will prove to be tougher than any on the other side of the bracket in my opinion. Getting back to the topic at hand, IU might be the best 7 loss team ever. Some great wins on their schedule (UCLA 5-1, Creighton on the road 3-2, Michigan State 3-0, and Tulsa 5-1). However they also have some puzzling losses (Cal Poly 1-0 at home, Brown 2-1, Butler at home 4-1). Bottom line is they score quite a few goals and they give up quite a few goals. Even if we get one or two early there can be no letdown or they will put a few in themselves. I'm thinking because we are at home we take this one. They were a very mortal 3-3-1 in road games this year. Prediction: Zips 3 Hoosiers 1

As I watched this video I thought it was pretty cool to have the press conference like feel. I was wondering if this was only going to be for tourney games or is this going to be semi-standard for all events going forward? Thanks for sharing.

Mark it down. Zips win. Close (due to our terrible offense). But we pull this out to avoid the o-fer.

Amen. That would have been sweet to watch all that soccer today.

UNC and Georgetown also in OT. Very interesting happenings today. Louisville struggling with College of Charleston tied at 1 at the half.

IU adds another. Gear up for the Hoosiers next Sunday. The committee definitely set this one up on purpose.

What makes one the Pat Nicely of Journalism per se? Is it completing around 40% of your stories? Writing some for a rival paper a couple times a year (comparable to an INT)? Or is it knowing that there's a reserve that should at least get a chance instead of you? Having untalented readers (receivers) around you? Having a poor editor (coach)? I'm not making the connection here...

haha yep btw the WVU students were chanting "bring on akron" at the end. Guess they dont know what they are getting into. They certainly do not remember what happened here 4(?) years ago in the tourney when Akron pasted the Mountain Men 5-0. I expect a similar result Sunday. Edit: Found it. Apparently it was Five Years ago.

False.

The match should have been held in Boca. Nice.

Interactive Bracket Follow the action here for today's games. Most surprising result at the moment: MSU and Oakland tied at nil almost at halftime.