yazan07

Yeah don't ask, cause I'm not sure how I got this shot either. Woulda thought they would have stopped be from going on the field but I guess they knew how important it was about to be.

Zarek's audio blog Over the Summer when the U-20's were together for World Cup qualifying, Zarek had an audio blog that featured co-host Perry Kitchen. Zarek is again doing the audio blog for this (and hopefully future) U-23 camps. Unfortunately as you will hear if you listen to the blog, he and his former co-host had some artistic differences and had to part ways (despite being roommates). I love Zarek's sense of humor. This is a pretty insightful and funny look into how their camp has been going in Germany.

I'm a band member and here's what I have to say: 1. We're doing a chair step - not a high step. The toe should come only 3 inches off the ground. No higher. It's a more technical style. 2. Have you listened to us play? Or do you go and get a damn hot dog? I mean really, the sound echos back on us its so loud. 3. We use sheet music because it has our drill marked in it. On average we learn how to do each show in one week. We also do not use music for pre-game. There is truly no comparison between us and a high school band. I came out of my high school as 1st chair on my instrument, only to wind up here thinking that I suck balls because everyone around me can play my ass off. I always defend the band since I was previously a member, but if you're going to make an account and then come on here to dig up comments from two years ago in order to initiate a fight, it is going to make neutral parties less inclined to defend the band when it comes under fire.

Lucky you. I wish the feed would have cut out for me while I was at the pouch watching the game last nigh

I thought Luis Gil (pronounced "Hill" or "Heal") was on the roster for the senior USN team for France. Was Teal in Paris? Going to Slovinija? Teal withdrew from the U-23 camp due to an issue with his ankle.

MLS is looking to hit 20 teams and will probably wait a few years before expanding beyond that. Don Garber really wants another team in NY as the 20th team (specifically the NY Cosmos). Other cities that are bigger than Akron and ahead of us in line for an MLS team are Detroit, St. Louis, Miami or Orlando, anywhere in the south east United States, probably somewhere else in the south west United States. Akron is too close to Columbus for them to do this and the Crew can hardly draw a big crowd. DC United isn't relocating to Akron or Cleveland. If anything they are going to Baltimore. That franchise has too much history and too large of a fan base to completely abandon it for somewhere in Northeast Ohio. Also, for the Garber to be convinced that we are deserving of an expansion side, we would have to prove that we have the fan base to support it. Those other cities that are fighting to get an MLS team have the supporter groups from their NASL or USL or whatever division they're in begging to bring an MLS team to their city and are getting turned down because the 10,000 fans they bring out to their games isn't enough. What do we have to show? We break 5,000 at a college game on a good night, and it has to be because the team is playing well. We started a PDL team in Akron this year, that is our closest thing to a pro team and what did we draw? A couple hundred each game? Our only argument is that our fans show up when the team is really good and having a really strong base of fair weather fans isn't going to convince the commissioner to start an MLS team in Akron.

Alright folks, here it is... Vote for Darlington Nagbe for goal of the year Darlington's goal made it to the final round and is up against three other goals for goal of the year. The other three goals are from Seattle's Freddy Montero and from Vancouver's Eric Hassili and Davide Chiumiento. I think fans voting for their own team will play a big part in this vote. Because Vancouver is represented by two goals, I think their vote could be split. Also, Seattle has the best fan base in the MLS and their fans come out in the masses to vote for stuff like this. Montero could very will win this just because of Seattle's fan base. But hey, you can't really blame fans for being biased. Personally, I think if I was voting as an unbiased party, I might have a difficult time choosing between Nagbe's goal and Hassili's goal. But Nagbe's goal is also so good that I don't really feel like I'm being unfair be just choosing him. Let's try to win this thing for Darlington and for Akron.

Well deserved all around, especially Trapp. He's an animal. Totally agree; #6 is the real deal! One or two more like him and we will take back the championship in 2012. FS: I have worn a #6 jersey every match since I purchased it at the beginning of 2010 season. You may remember that #6 and #10 were offered in the Team Shop, Nagbe and Ampaipitakwong respectively. Prior to this year’s OSU match, I was approached in Manny's by Trapp's neighbor from Columbus, accompanied by Trapp’s mother. She was too shy to ask if I was her son’s primary fan. So, she convinced her neighbor to accost a drunken stranger (me) about it. Of course, I replied that I wore #6 in her son’s honor. What else was I going to say? Big Wil Trapp fan here!!! ISN reported MLS Scouts are high on Caldwell and Trapp. Saying MLS scouts believe Trapp has the most potential. I'm just wondering if Trapp will leave early like Kitchen. ISN also is hearing Mattocks will be offered a Generation Adidas Contract which I think is what we all expected. Haha I love how anymore, "leaving early" doesn't mean leaving before your four years are up (which that is just expected) it means leaving after one year.

Sounds like you are a red-headed tuba player who was in the band for three years and you're just trying to defend an attack on the band!

So much for that happening, oh well. Aaaaaaaaall haaaaaaaaaaaaaail!

Well deserved all around, especially Trapp. He's an animal. Totally agree; #6 is the real deal! One or two more like him and we will take back the championship in 2012. FS: I have worn a #6 jersey every match since I purchased it at the beginning of 2010 season. You may remember that #6 and #10 were offered in the Team Shop, Nagbe and Ampaipitakwong respectively. Prior to this year’s OSU match, I was approached in Manny's by Trapp's neighbor from Columbus, accompanied by Trapp’s mother. She was too shy to ask if I was her son’s primary fan. So, she convinced her neighbor to accost a drunken stranger (me) about it. Of course, I replied that I wore #6 in her son’s honor. What else was I going to say? Big Wil Trapp fan here!!! I bought a #10 jersey at the beginning of last year. I was glad to hear Mattocks took the #10 cause I was going to be disappointed if somehow a freshmen riding the bench got their hands on that important number. A few weeks ago I got one of those Jamaican hats with the braided hair attached to it and showed up at one of the games as Darren Mattocks haha. Also got some other use out of the jersey over the Summer. I was in DC and went to a United game where they were playing San Jose. This was actually in the part of the season where Ampai was starting and getting decent minutes. While the teams were warming up I yelled out his name and he looked over and I was wearing my Akron #10 jersey. I got a big thumbs up from him which made up for the fact that DC lost 4-2. I wonder if the team shop is ever going to come out with the new jerseys?

Vote Nagbe for goal of the yearNo surprise Darlington is still in this in the round of 16. He deserves to make it to the next round but is in a tough group. Make sure you vote for him, he has a chance to win the whole thing.

" He was named a team captain two weeks ago, joining Chad Barson and Scott Caldwell." Wasn't there some debate on whether he was a catain?? He is now.yeah I knew there was an armband floating around the team. Maybe some trial thing? Mattocks had it one week, Meves had it one week, even Gallego had it one week if I remember correctly. Then a few games ago Mattocks was introduced as a captain. Porter is really high on Mattocks, at the end of one of the post-game interviews he said "and really, Darren Mattocks is the reason we're winning games right now."

ZIPPY HAS NO SCHOOL PRIDE, SHE HATES OUR SCHOOL AND OUR FANS.

LOOK ZIPPY IS A TRAITOR!

@Zach I'm sorry you got cut from your high school band, but you should probably get over it now and stop hating on the band 24/7 like you're getting paid to do it. Come on, it's getting really old. @Captain this is nothing new, the band always does it. You guys are acting like the band all got together and tried to figure out the worst way to upset other Zips fans and this is what they came up with. For anyone who doesn't understand what the purpose is of the band playing the other team's fight song, it's just for pregame. I feel like some of you are misinterpreting this as our band will be playing the Can't fight song after they score touchdowns or something. No, it's just for pregame. Again, the band ALWAYS does this, and clearly some a few people here have never payed attention to pregame. whoops.

Not sure if you were at the game but they looked silver in person too. I don't really think I am a fan. Maybe I'm just used to the old ones.

Hmm this has gotten interesting. All I will really say is it is very difficult for me to be unbiased because of the experiences I have had as well as the experiences my family members have had. Those of you who are unbiased are probably better off for it, and I really appreciate your willingness to listen to my perspective. I am sorry if I underestimated anyone's knowledge on the subject, I don't really know what everyone's background here is. For those of you providing insightful perspectives, thank you for fostering intelligent discussion. Hope I didn't upset anyone.

Guys, the band comes to one game a year. It happens every year. The band director does it because from his perspective it is a favor to Porter and to the team. I'd say at least half the students in the band don't come to soccer regularly and I'd say they probably don't really know the soccer culture too well. They are asked to come play and so they come play because it's what they enjoy doing. They probably won't be back as a whole for anymore games this year so just get over it. How about we stop looking for other people to blame and focus on how we can be better fans?

Well, Teal didn't get the call up for the senior team either. Could be a conflict because MLS playoffs are going on right now, but Landon Donovan and Kyle Beckerman were called up. Teal wasn't the only surprise left off, as Agudelo wasn't called up either. Maybe some mangers just didn't want to release their guys for national team duty during playoffs and others didn't mind? It's weird though since Donovan and Beckerman are their clubs' captains and Hans Backe hates Juan Agudelo.

Dave, first of all I'd like to say that it is great to hear that someone is interested in having this conversation and is willing to share viewpoints and listen to different perspectives rather than just reducing the whole thing to being as simple as "all Islam's fault." I think that second line of thinking is what has lead to most of hate and misunderstanding that exists in the world today. Now on to the topic. Palestinians are currently entrenched in a battle (figurative battle, not actually warfare) to be recognized as a state. After Israel was established in '48, many Arabs held on to their angry feelings and were violent in trying to protest the state of Israel. Within the last 15-20 year the Palestinian Liberation Organization has denounced violence and has instead focused on diplomacy and building institutions to help further their argument for statehood. Palestinian leadership saw that violence was ineffective and that pushed them to adopt diplomatic methods and try to negotiate with Israel, often though help from the United States. The big issues that have plagued the peace process are boarders, settlements, right of Palestinians to return to the land that once belonged to them, and the status of East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. There was one point where an agreement was almost met in 2000, but the then leader of the PLO felt that the conditions were not right and that accepting this deal would be settling for less than they should receive. The issue with the boarders is that while Israel says it is willing to recognize a Palestinian state, it still wants to be able to patrol the boarder between Palestine and Jordan. How can a sovereign nation have another nation patrolling their boarders? The issue with East Jerusalem is that for much of the previous negotiations, Palestinians were promised that East Jerusalem, home to several Muslim holy sites and a predominantly Arab area, would be given to them as the capital of their state. Now, the right-wing Israeli government asserts that "there is one Jerusalem, there has always been one Jerusalem, there is no east and west, it is one city that cannot be divided." The issue with the settlements is that in the West Bank, the area that is supposed to be sovereign Palestinian land, Israel comes in and bulldozes villages and erects new Jewish neighborhoods. These illegal neighborhoods are spread throughout the West Bank and have effectively changed the facts on the ground. Now for negotiations about boarders to be had, you have to consider the settlements which dig deep into Palestinian territory. Furthermore, the settlements effect the conflict because of settler violence. It is not uncommon for these settlers to go into the Arab villages and burn crops, vandalize property, and even burn mosques. Talk about a rough neighborhood. There is also the "security wall." There is a giant wall the runs through the West Bank dividing it from Israel for "security purposes." The issue with this, however, is that the way the wall was constructed, much of it actually lies on Palestinian land, dividing families and dividing people from their own property. There are also checkpoints that lie throughout the WB. These checkpoints are operated by young Israeli soldiers who will will detain Arabs for whatever they see fit. It becomes very difficult for Palestinians to travel to different parts of the WB because they can sometimes be held up for hours. Now the most recent demand that the Israeli leadership has put on the Palestinian leadership is the demand for Israel to be recognized as a Jewish State. Now, on the outside, it would appear as though not accepting this is stubborn and perhaps shows a lack of willingness to accept Jews. Actually, the reason why the Palestinian Authority won't do this is because that will give the Israeli leadership freedom to enact laws to treat Arabs in Israel as second class citizens, something it has already tried doing. Simply put, Israel always says it is willing to negotiate for peace with Palestinians, but it has implemented policies that make coming to the negotiating table almost impossible. How can you say you are willing to help establish a Palestinian state when at the same time you are building on land for that future state? So what is the United States' role in all this? Well the US has on many occasions expressed its unwavering support for Israel. How is a country going to be an effective mediator when it has unwavering support for one of the parties? The US refuses to ever not support Israel in something. This has never been truer than in the Palestinian's recent bid for statehood at the UN. The PLO figured that since Israel won't really negotiate, they will just go to the UN to try to be recognized as a state. Now, while many countries have supported this bid, the US has said that it will veto a bid in the security council for a Palestinian state no matter what, because the US sees it as a unilateral move and the only way to achieve peace is through negotiation, which as I have shown is extremely difficult. The US will not budge on this issue, but does it seem fair? How can we, the nation that preaches democracy and freedom suppress this country from acquiring its freedom the same way we achieved freedom? The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization just admitted Palestine as a member. They are now a member of a UN organization, which is a massive achievement. They won 107-14 with fiftysome countries abstaining. 14 countries in the entire world vetoed this with the US being one of them. So do you know what we did? We just withdrew the $60 million in aid we were going to give to that organization. Why is democracy only fair when the outcome is the one we want? How can the United States do this in good faith? Well although I don't have the number in front of me, there is a strong belief that it is because of the Israel lobby. There are a lot of people and companies with big wallets who come election time are willing to support the candidates who will throw the most support behind Israel. That's the name of the game. Either do what the man with the checkbook says, or say goodbye to your position. Can't blame the politicians too much for that. Who wouldn't want to keep their job? Can't blame the lobbies too much either. What's the point in having money if you aren't going to use it to get what you want? Unfortunately what they want comes at a cost of many others' happiness and well being. And this, my friends, is why the Middle East "hates" the United States. After 9/11 there was much talk of "they hate our way of life, they hate our freedoms," etc, but that is all rubbish. Many individuals in the Middle East hate that we give undying support to the country that has been oppressing other Arabs and Muslims for far too long. They see our freedom, and they don't hate it, but they wonder why it is good enough for us but that we prevent them from having it. Furthermore the US for a long time supported oppressive rulers like Hosni Mubarak and Saddam Hussein. These rulers were not oppressive because they were strict Muslims, Islam had nothing to do with it. They were oppressive because they were power hungry, and the United States took care of them because they feared what would happen if the popular rulers came into power. Someone will probably say "well what about Hamas? You can't tell me they have been peaceful," so I'll just bring it up myself. Funny thing is Hamas initially got funding from Israel in order for them to rival the PLO as a way to divide Palestinians. It worked, but I'd say it wasn't a good experiment. If you look at the numbers though, Hamas has reduced their violence. They definitely still allow violence to occur though, which is wrong, but again, I think if you look at it in context you see why. This is a more conservative group and they see the negotiations as going nowhere. Israel used to occupy the Gaza strip, but because of that violence from Hamas, Israel left that area. So technically they got what they wanted right? I am NOT saying it is right, but they don't see themselves as terrorists, they see themselves as freedom fighters. Again, I know it may seem like a stretch, but in many ways it is similar to the US's own struggle for freedom (a weaker power using less formal and less accepted means of warfare to obtain freedom from their oppressor). Furthermore, while we only hear about the violence caused by Hamas, we do not hear at all about the programs they use to provide for the Palestinian people. They do a lot to provide and have various welfare programs. Again, please don't misconstrue this as me condoning violence against civilians. I don't believe that is ever acceptable.Some Arab leadership genuinely dislike the US for our support of Israel against the Palestinians. Others piggyback off the Palestinian cause when in reality they do not care. I do not really have as much knowledge on the entire Middle East as I do on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. I hope this provided some insight for anyone who managed to read the whole thing. Wow I wrote a lot. Is it time for that basketball game yet?

I talked to the band director and he said he saw Porter at the Diamond Deli and Porter asked him to come...I think...or he asked Porter if Porter would like to have the band at the game, to which Porter said yes. Not sure which one it was haha. But really you can list a bunch of external factors on why we lost this game, and it's really easy to point to the band, but they didn't cause the loss.

So, if we can't believe what we read in the media, where do we go for factual data on which to form an educated opinion? For example, where did you get the data that led you to the conclusion that the government of Israel is primarily to blame for the problems in the Middle East?I guess I didn't distinguish between print media, internet media, and television media. I do not watch the news. I feel as though the major TV networks have an agenda and have a very effective way to spread what they believe. If you are going to learn about a certain topic, there are a plethora of ways to find what you are looking for on the internet. I like to read other sources from other countries besides the big news sources in the US. It is a better way to get a different perspective of what is really going on in the world. I know reading other source material is not as convenient as turning on the television and watching a news program, but if you are really trying to delve into a particular world topic, I think it is the better route. I guess really, every news outlet probably has some agenda, but if you want a comprehensive view of what the conflict is, reading multiple sources to put the pieces together is the best way to do it. With the topic of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, that is something for which I have done a great deal of research, in and out of school, because I have personal ties to it and I care about what is going on in the Middle East. I can understand though that if you're not heavily interested in what is happening you are not going to spend a bunch of time trying to connect the dots. I could share my views about Israel if you'd like, I assure you they are nothing close to "death to Israel" but they would probably still be enough for me to be lambasted for being crazy.

Bleacher Report has a slideshow about who they think should start for Porter at the U-23 level. Teal and Perry both make this list, at striker and center back, respectively. I would still rather see Kitchen play in the midfield, and I think that's the direction DC is moving towards next year, but unfortunately the player pool is very shallow for center backs at the U-23 level. I think an important thing to remember though is that it was Porter who made the decision to put him in the midfield last time, and he knows that in the middle is where he is perhaps the most effective.

Here is a very well timed article that supports a few of my points.""Pino’s view of Israel is “harsh, and I completely disagree with it, but it’s not illegal,” said Wilson Huhn, a specialist in constitutional law at the University of Akron."He is an Akron professor, so maybe you will be less inclined to think he is wrongSome faculty nationwide have been fired for “saying something inappropriate, but that was usually in the classroom,” said Sara Kilpatrick, executive director of the Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors.“Outside the classroom, it’s a grayer area of whether this was a faculty member acting as a faculty member or a private citizen.”I also agree with this. Someone mentioned that educators should be held to a higher standard, but I don't think you forfeit your right to free speech by being an educator. Now, in the class room your job is to be a neutral voice, and if you aren't doing that, then there is a problem. I wonder if this was a problem in the case of this guy?"In the case of Pino, students have not complained about his teaching or for “taking his politics into the classroom,” said Ken Bindas, chairman of the Can't State history department."But, whether or not he was in a position that he could say this, it was still hate speech right?"In addition, his language would not be considered hate speech, because he did not make a credible threat to the speaker, said Jonathan Entin, a professor of law and political science at Case Western Reserve University.“It is a point of view, as controversial as it may be, about policy. That will afford it pretty broad latitude,” he said."