Thanks Bisbee.
It is nice to remember Akron of 2010 when it stormed through the playoffs and captured a national title, but the Zips did not immediately find success.
When Porter took the job in 2006, the Zips went 14-6-1, which included a 5-0 loss to UCSB in Porter’s first game as a head coach.
If implementing a 4-3-3 to perfection were easy, every team would do it. But that’s not reality. It is a meticulous, time-consuming practice, which requires more than just throwing a ball on the field.
Porter brought some former Zips with him to Olympic Qualifying, perhaps as a way to overcome the difficulty of establishing a new system, but he did not bring the most important piece: Anthony Ampaipitakwong.
The brilliant mastermind of all of Akron’s success was six months too old for this team, and Porter did not find a player who could pull the strings like Ampaipitakwong at the international level.