Roogangs

i am pretty sure he was not considered a HG player, i.e. did not play long enough for the crew or meet the minimum criteria to be considered a HG. however, on the crew website it appears that the crew are hosting a "college like combine" on 12/14/13 for a group of eligible pro players. i wonder if any Akron guys will be there?

agreed! and then would love to see Barson continue to start and joined by Trapp and Speas for the rest of the season. get the young guys in to bulid for the future.

wow! watched the game yesterday and columbus got thumped. on a positive note, Barson had another great game. he looked to be the only one actually defending and marking. got up a few times with good results (although getting up was limited because midfield was like swiss cheese). at half Barson was switched to left side from right. in the fist half the left back was getting abused (3 goals in like 10 mins). this is hoping Barson retains a starting position for the rest of the season, he certainly has left his play state his case

I had talked to Porter about a month ago. he has been trying to get some of his players back. he tried Kofi and was denied. from the article it sounded like tried for Wil. he also stated that he did not even try for Barson as "the crew would never release him since they wanted him after his freshman year". hopefull in the next couple of years as the GA players contracts expire as well as the HG players he can start to sign them as free agents!!

i probably jumped the gun by posting this in another thread the other day..... but here are my thoughts. Darren: will leave Caldwell: had trained with the New England Revolution this past summer (his academy team) but the coaching staff was just switched up which may hurt his chances. I also feel that he did not have a very strong year overall. Meves: good year (two good saves last game) but still really really needs to work on crosses and punching the ball out. I feel that he has to potential to be a pro but needs to be more confident in himself. Barson: this is the one that scares me the most. always reliable, rarely makes mistakes, and porter has called him the "crutch" of the defense since day one his freshman year. i was told he was invited to train with San Jose and Colorado this past summer and he has always been with Columbus (offered a contract last year but turned it down). unless he wants to finish is degree, he does not have much else to prove. started every game of his career and played almost every minute, national runnerup and champion. i worry if he leaves our organization in the back will fall apart. but then again i am sure porter has someone else up his sleeve! Trapp: great season especially as the year went on. needs to stick around another year or so. Not as explosive as Kitchen but has better ball control. Yedlin/Gallego: not yet so i may be wrong with GA and Home grown players contracts but this is what i think i know: only underclassman are offered GA contracts. are fresman were good this year but none will be offered this. between barson, calwell, and meves my thought would be barson if any were offered. barson is a "never makes a mistake defender", caldwell is a great player but in all fairness did not have a great year overall. meves will be a off the chart keeper once he is more confident and masters punching and crosses. so besides darren i feel barson is the only other player to be considered for a GA. now this is where it is tricky. barson is a home grown player with the crew (so does this negate hime from receiving a GA contract). also thoughts on leaving: lets say barson or caldwell are not offered a GA (which are 6 figures)contract but are offered a home grown player contract (which barson was offered last year and i am assuing are close to 100K). if he does not take it and stays his senior year the crew may not offer it again next year and as a senior would not qualify for GA, so he would just enter the draft and if signed would likely have a contract in the 50-60K range. i could be totally wrong on my thought process but if not offered a GA contract best bets for barson would be to take his home grown contract before the crew gets tired of offering it to him!

I wonder if Darren will be the only underclassman to leave? my brief thoughts: Darren: will leave Caldwell: had trained with the New England Revolution this past summer (his academy team) but the coaching staff was just switched up which may hurt his chances. I also feel that he did not have a very strong year overall. Meves: good year (two good saves tonight) but still really really needs to work on crosses and punching the ball out. I feel that he has to potential to be a pro but needs to be more confident in himself. Barson: this is the one that scares me the most. always reliable, rarely makes mistakes, and porter has called him the "crutch" of the defense since day one his freshman year. i was told he was invited to train with San Jose and Colorado this past summer and he has always been with Columbus (offered a contract last year but turned it down). unless he wants to finish is degree, he does not have much else to prove. started every game of his career and played almost every minute, national runnerup and champion. i worry if he leaves our organization in the back will fall apart. but then again i am sure porter has someone else up his sleeve! Trapp: great season especially as the year went on. needs to stick around another year or so. Not as explosive as Kitchen but has better ball control. Yedlin/Gallego: not yet

I agree, however, towards the end of the season he did struggle with performance (not counting first two game of NCAA's). He will be missed next year, but i am sure Porter will find someone else.

The real change, in my opinion, that has brought this all together is inserting Dagilis as CB and moving Gallego up to CDM. Dagilis is good in the air, can body up larger forwards, and is solid defensively. Gallego brings that ball winning mentality into the midfield that we seemed to lack. It also has the added advantage of essentially giving us 3 CB's to help stop a counter. I would be shocked if this isn't how the team plays next year as well (replace Dagilis with Souders). i agree, except balo is a senior and that is the assumption that barson stays for his senior year.

my opinion, but i thought we played great. you are right, for about 15 mins in the second half we began to lose the midfield and i was dissapointed we lost a mark on the 1st goal. the pk though, what was the call? we have been hit hard by the "we want akron out of the tourny officiating!!" great game tonight.

these have been the most random PK's the past 2 games

we need to pick up the midfield play

I hope I am wrong but I think we are being a little optimistic about where our Zips will fall in the rankings. I am crossing my fingers for an At Large bid let alone home games. We will probably be in the mid to upper 30's in RPI with our recent loses and ties to poor teams. I dont know how they select teams to get in but there are 20 or so automatic bids and then at large ones. If some of the conference winners had RPI's worse than ours that makes it even harder to get in. I think we are going to be on the cusp of getting in.

POTG: Meves and Barson. Meves multiple saves which kept us in it. Barson at least 2 sliding blocks, header cleared of line, header off post, near assist to Mattocks. With all that being said the loss kind of makes it a wash. I watched the goal a million times and the Michigan guy was off by at least 2 yards and kicked it out of Meves hand which then went rigth to the guy who chipped it in. oh well cant cry forever.

Davidson ices UNC 1-0

this game was played at two ends, our third and their third. we had No midfield what so ever. i would venture to say it is hard to defend when the second you play it up midfield looses it and it comes right back.