TennZip

http://www.collegesoccernews.com/index.php/polls/csn-preseason-top-30-poll/1065-college-soccer-news-2017-preseason-national-poll Akron is one of only five programs to have earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament for the last ten seasons. The Zips have traditionally had a multi-dimensional and explose offense. Seniors Stuart Holthusen (7g 1a) and Sam Gainford (4g, 3a) and junior Ezana Kahsay are among the forwards who will be called upon to fill the void that exists in that department in 2017 due to the departure of Adam Najem (5g, 5a) and Jonathan Lewis (2g, 12a). A solid contingent of capable midfielders return led by senior Pau Belana. Junior Ben Lundt will give the Zips a solid and experienced presence in goal. The backline will require some reloading due to graduation.

Will be interesting....to see what attendance is with a 1 pm start

Congratulations to Jonathan....very nice goal

I am sure that football season tickets and mens basketball season tickets were mailed out well in advance. Larry W.does not seem to appreciate the best sports team on campus.

this was the tweet from aug. 9

They had on their twitter account yesterday....that they are mailing the tickets today.

did not want to create a separate topic Sam Gainford....one of 31 players selected....to pre season watch list http://www.gozips.com/news/2017/8/8/mens-soccer-gainford-named-to-mac-hermann-trophy-watch-list-for-2017.aspx

Joao's photo http://www.gozips.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5444

credit to Zip_ME87.....for spotting this quickly on the zips web site http://www.gozips.com/news/2017/8/7/zips-mens-soccer-adds-three-for-2017-campaign.aspx

http://triblive.com/sports/riverhounds/12576635-74/riverhounds-stay-in-playoff-race-with-draw-vs-richmond Okai calmly finished into the left side of the net after substitute Victor Souto picked him out with a perfect pass rolled on the turf into the box. “Victor has great vision, and I knew he was going to try to slip me in,” Okai said. “When he did that, I got the touch on it, and I knew I had to do everything I can to get the ball in.”

Congratulations to Victor Souto for his excellent entry pass....giving him his first assist in the pros

Richie Laryea improved so much from his freshman to sophomore years. Would be super for the zips if Reggie showed the same improvement. This initial ranking is the soccer coaches poll. The other polls...top drawer soccer and college soccer news....are typically done by reporters. To go from season ending 24 to pre-season 16.....while losing 4 kids playing pro soccer (Lewis, Najem, Ruhaak and Radjen)......says that the coaches voted the zips very high... 1) based on prior years....or 2) the coaches think that recruits like David Egbo, Faisal Ghaffur, DeClan Watters Daniel Strachan, and others are going to contribute tremendously in their first year. Denver is ranked preseason #3 in the country and was in the final four last year. The first weekend will be a stern test.

The zips ended last year #24 in the rankings and they lost in the round of 32 of the NCAA tourney. That team lost Jonathan Lewis....the #3 or #4 player drafted to MLS. That team also lost the MAC player of the year Adam Najem as well as the 2 center DB's that started on the 2015 ncaa semi team. I was also an enormous fan of the potential of Jesus Perez and was sad to see "Chino" transfer out. top Drawer soccer is never perfect when they try to rank recruiting classes. They had the recruiting class at #19 before a very highly ranked recruit (Wan Kuzain Wan Kamal) decided to go pro. To go from 24 last year....to #16 pre-season is probably a nod to Akron's storied history. Honestly, I was not expecting to see the zips ranked that high. Pre-season rankings are just that.... pre-season. The games have to be played on the field. SIU-Edwardsville is now in the MAC. SIU-E made it to the NCAA round of 16 last year and they return 7 of their 11 starters. They ended last year at #20 but they are nowhere to be found in the pre season rankings. I am sure their coach is using that for motivation and already has their October 13th game at Akron circled on their calendar. As I have said in other topics, last year's team did not have a healthy Stuart Holthusen. Like many others on this board, I think that Stuart Holthusen can do great things when he is healthy. This team will score goals. I am excited to see who steps up to fill the positions vacated by Ruhaak and Danilo. Let the practices and games begin.

http://unitedsoccercoaches.org/web/Rankings/College_Rankings/NCAA_DI_MEN/web/Rankings/NCAA/DI_MEN.aspx

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/us/features/caleb-porter-interview-portland-timbers-mls-i-thought-i-had-it-all-figured-out-punched-nose

congratulations to Zac Portillos for being selected to the eastern conference first team for the past week https://www.indomitablecitysoccer.com/2017/8/1/16073704/usl-eastern-conference-best-xi-week-19

Good topic.... thanks for starting the discussion... Stopping goals is going to determine the success of the season. If healthy, the zips have lots of fire power up top. Stuart Holthusen was never really healthy last year. Stuart was outstanding in the last part of 2015 and was a beast during the zips great tourney run. Stuart , if healthy, is capable of having a great year. Sam had a great summer with St. Louis. Ezana scored goals for Erie in the summer and Marcel Zajac did well for Sigma FC. When Nick Hinds was moved from outside Back to midfielder, he was a scoring machine in the last part of 2016. Manel Cordeiro, if healthy, can be a good distributor to the scorers. I have been told that Skye Harter is vastly improved.....and should contribute in the midfield. David Egbo and Marc Alexander both will be talented freshman pushing for time in the front 6. One would have to assume that Nate Shultz and Niko De Vera are the front runners for the outside back positions. Who will replace Danilo Radjen and Brad Ruhaak? DeClan Watters from Ireland is the recruit that we know the least about....If he can step in as a freshman and do very well as a center back, there will be a lot of happy zip fans at the end of the year.

2nd goal of the season for Victor Souto. He is really playing well for the Riverhounds

http://www.phillysoccerpage.net/2017/07/25/five-thoughts-on-the-union-the-universe-and-everything/ Najem: Najem put himself in decent positions, demonstrated good comfort on the ball, and displayed pretty good passing vision on a few occasions, though he didn’t always make the right decisions. On the night, he completed 87 percent of his passes, with two key passes leading to shots. Not bad, but not spectacular either. That said, it’s hard to measure his quality based on this performance because Jay Simpson spent the night gumming up the central channels with a static lack of movement. Like Epps, Najem showed enough to warrant more minutes and make you wonder what he could do when paired with a better attacking group around him.

great article.....glad to see Jonathan doing so well

thought this article might get missed if I posted in summer development league so I decided to create new topic http://buffalonews.com/2017/07/22/whose-city-prolific-kahsay-reflects-first-summer-erie/

http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1616/concacaf/2017/07/22/37241782/darlington-nagbe-leaves-us-wanting-more-but-hes-still-delivering-

great cut back by JLew...followed by assist

Darlington is a great player...but he sure gets unfairly criticized