TheTank123

Pretty self explanatory. Part time job that should have no effect on his Akron duties. Talk about a recruiting tool...Just ot be clear, this has NOT been confirmed by US Soccer or Porter. I have heard via numerous news outlets and one source in particular who tends to know these things (not DeAndre). Don't shoot me if I'm wrong.

He should have cleared the ball with his left foot, eliminating any issues. However, after speaking with him, the ball actually redirected off the foot of the Michigan player after he touched it. It should have been offside. Regardless, it took an outrageous finish to score.

The thing I love most about Tommy is that Porter has received a lot of criticism (mostly from elsewhere, not us) about kinda telling players they should leave in order to make way for new freshmen, transfers, and internationals, but Tommy is an example of paying your dues and working hard and going from not playing much to breaking into the starting XI. I am happy for him.I think the change in personnel was to get Tommy and Luke in the starting line up together, something which we had not yet seen. It seemed to work well and we definitely had a more aggressive attack tonight, however I have to wonder if Porter just knew that Hartwick wasn't going to pose much of a threat offensively and that's why he didn't mind not playing our destroyer tonight.The change was to get someone else playing DM. Wil Trapp is an absolute animal. Did you notice how much better the distribution was with him back there?

Have to think it may have a bit to do with Schmitt's outstanding play right now. He's been pretty impressive lately. Holmes played a perfect through ball to Mattocks and as a reward they pulled him. A bit of a head scratcher there. May also have something to do with fitness. Lots of professional players aren't "match fit" even after four or five games back. 32 minutes seems a bit short, though.

Wake vs. Charleston tonight on FSC.

I dont even know if he played poorly. All I know is that Schmitt was clearly a differenc maker.

dont know if thats typical, but that should prove difficult for us. Height also means weight and theyll be able to easily push us around. We'll have to keep the ball out of the air too since they have the clear height advantage. im looking for porter to re-establish the way we normally play via possession and accurate passing to minimize those advantages they may have over us. hopefully we'll also have luke back to compliment maddocks... we desperately need him. We're nowhere near as good as we are when he's out there. We were better with him off the field than on last night. Why do you say that, Tank? True, Holmes did not not play especially well, but no one besidesTrapp brought their A game. I say it because it's true? No one played particularly well (save Trapp) but the team did better with Schmitt in the game than with Holmes. I have no ill will nor personal feelings about it, just my opinion on the game. And don't get me wrong, DeA had the worst game I've seen him play in a long time, so it's not like I'm blaming anything on Holmes.

I have to agree with you. It's tough enough to play 3 games in eight days but factor in the travel,time changes,and stress and you have a set up for potential poor performance. Hopefully they get refocused and ready for Saturday and the friendly confines of First Energy-Cub Cadet. I'm in absolute agreement. It's one thing to not shy away from anyone, but to travel to Western Michigan, return home, travel 2000 miles a few days later, play a game with no adjustment to the time difference, and then return home another 2000 miles to play a few days later is tough...especially for college student athletes who also have class work to do. I hope Caleb won't schedule like this again. Who cares about West Coast teams and their not being able to schedule well outside their region...Akron is my team and the only team about which I give a darn. I really think you guys are missing the point of this game. The outcome means absolutely nothing save for "streaks" and records over the last however many seasons. This is the exact kind of game that Porter wants before we get to the playoffs. Travel, adversity, good teams, etc. Yes, the team did not look its best. Does the outcome of the game matter? Not for anything tangible.

dont know if thats typical, but that should prove difficult for us. Height also means weight and theyll be able to easily push us around. We'll have to keep the ball out of the air too since they have the clear height advantage. im looking for porter to re-establish the way we normally play via possession and accurate passing to minimize those advantages they may have over us. hopefully we'll also have luke back to compliment maddocks... we desperately need him. We're nowhere near as good as we are when he's out there. We were better with him off the field than on last night.

i think your hopes are closer to reality. UCSB, based on what I watched, played us very well and did an EXCELLENT job at disrupting our flow. There were times where we were able to settle into our game for a minute or two, but UCSB would find a way to disrupt our passing and press into the second and final 3rd of the field. I give a lot of credit to their preparation for the game. Side note: the West has not been kind to us this year. I think the California teams are perpetually underrated. Far and away the best state in the country for youth soccer, it makes logical sense that their college teams would be good as well.

I agree. The home streak is in jeopardy. Zips had better figure it out soon or this season will be looked upon as a significant regression. Come on man. They lost 1 game on the road to a very good UCSB team. These kids have been playing together for 9 games. Anyone who wasn't expecting some form of regression is insane. Three new starters on defense and three new starters in the midfield is tough for any team to integrate. Take a look at the UCSB roster. Not one freshman played, 2 sophomores, and the rest were juniors and seniors. That's a 3-4 year age difference for a lot of these players. They will be fine.

We abosultely need to win this game... but even then our RPI will take a hit as it might knock UCSB out of the top 25. RPI is always graded all the way out to the last team... but beating top 25 teams have more impact than the next 25. Right now our RPI looks to be pretty weak. Winning out will help that... but we still need to be concerned about UNC, Creighton, New Mexico... and some 1 or 2 loss teams ranked below us. We need to see some teams step it up... Like Fullerton, Northridge, New Mexico, Cal Poly, Tulsa and Ohio State. You need some teams to step it up? New Mexico is undefeated and top ten in some polls. Fullerton has one loss. Tulsa, Northridge and OSU just aren't very good.

and... #3 in Soccer America: http://www.socceramerica.com/article/44052...ens-top-25.html Go Zips ! Big Poll tomorrow... look for another #3 Big game Wednesday for the Polls... could get us up there a notch or two. Can't blame the voters for showing UConn and Maryland a lot of respect for the top teams that they played over the weekend. They deserve to be #1 and #2... right now. Here it is! And here's a link to the Goal.com poll.

There's no question. Not only does he solve the link up problem between the midfield and forwards, he also stretches the field to the left. If you noticed in the games previously, we were being given the left side in an attempt to stop our attack down the right. They can't do that anymore. That is actually an astute observation. I am not even sure Holmes was placed on the left by design. Did he come in for Quinn? He seemed to naturally flow to where there was least pressure, or most space. He replaced Schmitt. He played out left and Quinn stayed on the right. From what I can tell, Porter really likes putting players in a position where they can cut inside to their dominant foot whie allowing the back to stay outside and run at people. Look at our right right now. Quinn is over there with Yedlin. Yedlin makes the outside runs and goes at defenders, Quinn can either play him the ball or cut inside and provide service. I expect to see a lot more of those snap shots that Holmes showed as soon as he got in. I am pretty sure both Portillos' and Schmitt's playing time is going to take a huge hit, with Portillos feeling the brunt of it. Quinn doesnt always go the full 90 so I can see Schmitt getting back in during those spells.

There's no question. Not only does he solve the link up problem between the midfield and forwards, he also stretches the field to the left. If you noticed in the games previously, we were being given the left side in an attempt to stop our attack down the right. They can't do that anymore.

We just dominated our biggest rivals and the only topic of discussion is that some fans weren't loud enough.

Great points. Did not think about the time frame aspect. Honor a guy who played 10 years ago for your opposing team? I think that's overkill.

UConn will probably lose at least a couple before season is over. They never have been capable of putting it all together and this year will probably not be any exception. As long as we remain in top 4 on NSCAA poll it's fine by me. Bring on OSU!!!! Being top four is NSCAA poll may be a lagging indicator of being a top four seed, but it's not a lock. There's still a selection committee and they still lean on RPI and don't take any other ranking into account. Either way I could see us not losing a match this season and I'd have to think that would bode well for our seed. UCSB is the only match that I think we stand a decent chance of losing. Schedule is softer this year than the last couple. Totally agree with your assessment of the remaining schedule. Beating UCSB will be huge. Yes... the schedule looks weaker than the past few years... but that's because some teams have not performed as well as we anticipated... like OSU... Tulsa... and Wake Forest. When the schedule was released... it looked pretty tough. Also keep in mind that some teams are doing better than we thought... like Cal State Fullerton and Northern Illinois... so our RPI might not look too bad. Louisville might be the team that we need to look out for... RPI-wise. They are currently ranked below us and play a really tough schedule. Creighton might not have an RPI above ours. Maryland and UConn will be high also... as usual. Akron holds at #4 in the NSCAA Poll behind the trio of 8-win teams. http://www.nscaa.com/seniorRes.php?it=1653 NCAA Rankings National Men Division I 5th Poll - September 27, 2011 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rank School Prev. W - L - T 1 Connecticut (18) 569 2 8 - 0 - 0 2 Creighton (2) 544 3 8 - 0 - 0 3 Maryland (3) 543 1 8 - 0 - 1 4 Akron 499 4 5 - 0 - 2 5 North Carolina 479 6 7 - 1 - 0 6 Indiana 454 7 6 - 0 - 2 7 UC Irvine 421 8 8 - 1 - 0 8 Louisville 384 5 6 - 2 - 0 9 New Mexico 380 11 6 - 0 - 2 10 UC Santa Barbara 376 13 6 - 1 - 1 11 Notre Dame 341 17 5 - 1 - 2 12 Charlotte 339 14 7 - 1 - 0 13 Boston College 279 10 6 - 2 - 0 14 Central Florida 260 9 6 - 1 - 1 15 St. John's 240 12 5 - 2 - 1 16 South Florida 210 21 5 - 2 - 1 17 Georgetown 189 23 5 - 1 - 2 18 Northern Illinois 180 20 7 - 1 - 0 19 Penn State 138 16 5 - 2 - 1 20 Old Dominion 103 15 4 - 1 - 0 21 Kentucky 71 22 7 - 3 - 1 22 Washington 66 RV 5 - 1 - 2 23 Furman 53 25 7 - 1 - 2 24 East Tennessee State 52 RV 6 - 1 - 1 25 UCLA 50 18 5 - 3 - 1 Number in parentheses is number of first place votes Also receiving votes: Cal State Fullerton 47, Iona 44, SMU 32, West Virginia 25, George Mason 22, Xavier 16, Bradley 15, William & Mary 11, Coastal Carolina 10, Ohio State 6, Brown 6, Florida Gulf Coast 5, Monmouth 4, Santa Clara 3, Pennsylvania 2, Providence 2, UIC 1 Fullerton should definitely be in the top 25.

Supposed to be a stream through Tulsa's website/CBS sports but its not working. Not all that happy right now.

LOL the best part was that they got his name right in the beginning of the game then butchered it towards the end. Makes no sense.

The way I see it, the team has two distinct weaknesses:1. Transition defense between the midfield and defense.2. Link up play between the midfield and forwards.Holmes will help with number 2, I don't know who/what is going to help with number 1.

My only request is that we start spelling Yedlin's name right...I have't heard a Yeddelin before. :-)

Game is streaming live

Like my first half suggested, we were in trouble. I knew going in to this game it was going to be tough, even at home. It seems as though Porter agreed with my assesment of the players I thought struggled. Dagillis was subbed at half, Balogun came off in th second half too for the (imo) more polished and savy Brenes. The left side continues to be a problem too. Player ratings:Meves: 4 - The mistake early was a real howler but thankfully it didn't cost him. However, he didn't look comfortable the rest of the way.Yeddelin - 6 - Tried to get forward but wasn't able to convert a lot of his runs into successful attacks. Still like the way he plays and is only going to get better.Barson - 7 - Solid. Saved Meves on one occasion and overall had a commanding presence to him.Gallego - 6 - As I expected he struggled at left back and was better at center back. Still not one of his best games.Dagillis - 3 - Really thought he looked off the pace. I just view him as a utility center back and not someone that you can start at centerback if you want to be a realistic national contender. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh but he looked slow and his distribution wasn't good.Balogun - 4 - Again I found his distribution to be poor. At defensive midfield he needs to be a link-player and he doesn't quite seem up to it. Good that he scored a goal and put out some fires, but still might not have what it takes to play in this spot.Trapp - 7 - A solid shift from the youngster, really like his game. Has a good head on his shoulders and is someone that the team is gonna have to really count on this season.Caldwell - 7 - Does such a good job of keeping the ball and finding the next player. Really is a leader on the field. Played a number of great balls thru to Barrett when down to ten men.Quinn - 8 - the Akron M.O.M. Did a nice job of being active, finding the ball and making things happen. Served a class ball to Balogun on the goal as well. Will need to be consistent all season.Schmidt - 5 - Was ok but I think is much better suited at coming off the bench then starting. Didn't seem to assert himself enough on the game and really needs to take these chances because when Holmes is back his minutes will dwindle. Mattocks - 3 - Obviously the red card was a poor sign of maturity on his part but he was offside countless times this game and I'm sure his frustration is what led to the red card. Cost the team the win.Portillos - 4 - Didn't look comfortable and was sloppy in possession. Disapointed, because he doesn't look to be very useful in big games.Mayer - 6 - Gave away a few balls with errant long passes but really solidfied the backline. Think he is the left back answer until I'm proven otherwise.Brenes - 7 - Was a bright spot for sure, coming in and helping the team outplay New Mexico despite being down a man. May get a chance to start now - can he take the opportunity?Barrett - 5 - Really was annoyed with his play. I know he had a hard situation, being the lone forward against bruising NM centerbacks, but didn't take his chances and looked too erratic in his play. Has use, but more as a wide player then a center forward. Does Akron have someone who can play center forward if Mattocks is out? probably not...My only gripe with your ratings is Quinn. He takes way too long on the ball to do what he should have done 3 touches previously. His service is exceellent, it just needs to be faster.

An FYI: According to the mac-sports.com website, the Cal Poly game will be streamed online even though it's not a MAC game.