TennZip

Perry Kitchen and DeAndre Yedlin will be on the US team playing in Havana, Cuba I think that the game will be televised on espn2 on Friday Oct. 7 at 4 pm http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2016/10/02/16/45/161002-mnt-klinsmann-calls-23-players-for-historic-friendly-against-cuba

Zip_ME87 thank you for sharing. That made me cry Victor does truly appreciate the kindness of others.

As a fan of zips mens soccer, I like and support Coach Jared Embick and his staff. None of us will ever know the full set of facts on this situation. None of us know everything that occurs in practice or in the locker room I trust Coach Embick to make the best decisions for the mens soccer team. I have no basis on which to judge decisions made by Larry Williams That being said , I am heart broken for Victor Souto. His ferocious desire to win obviously caused problems for Victor and the university. I live in Tennessee and can only see a few games a year and I have never talked with Victor. However, from reading his Brasil bogs and a few of Victor's social media posts and watching him interact with teammates and compete on the field, I have rooted like crazy for a fine , young student athlete who fervently wanted a 2nd star for a university far, far way from his family and his home country. I was greatly impressed by Victor being able to attain an outstanding 3.83 GPA while studying at a university where the classes are taught in his 2nd language. Victor became my favorite Akron player when I read his blogs from the Brasil trip. On his first blog, I greatly admired Victor's confidence to express his great love for his parents and his brother and his pride and affection for his Akron family. His humbleness in thanking all that support him showed that Victor is a fine young man. Here is a link to the full first blog: http://www.gozips.com/sports/msoc/2015-16/releases/20150521s3tiu3 here are the 3 paragraphs that caused me to become a huge supporter of Victor Souto: Victor wrote: Today is one of those unforgettable days that we have throughout our lives. I am literally living a dream today. Today in Brazil, my two families came together: my Akron family, and my Brazilian family. First I would like to thank everyone that contributed to this trip, and for the realization of personal dream of mine. I look at this trip as a remarkable point for our Akron Soccer Program, and I am confident that I will be writing to you guys in December celebrating the National Championship. To all of the student-athletes, coaching staff, donors, 2SV Sports and all of the people that are directly or indirectly involved on our trip to Brazil, THANK YOU for helping us make this dream a reality. It has been two years and five months since I have been living my two "lives", my American one and my Brazilian one. All of the hours travelling on airplanes and bus did not get me tired; instead, the long trip has so far been rewarding. I wish you all could see how tight I hugged my Dad, Mom and brother, and how happy I was at the airport when I looked back and I saw all of my teammates and coaches celebrating that moment with me. I will never forget that. Never. It was an indescribable feeling. At that moment, I realized how many people support me, will help me when I am in need, and want to see me succeed. In exchange I will leave everything I have on and off the field on this trip, and I cannot wait for the fall to make sure that both of my families feel proud of me. I like the responsibility, and I love being an Akron warrior. (end of Victor - 3 paragraphs) During the course of last year, I was proud and happy for Victor that he had become more of a leader on the field and that he seemed calmer while still being a great battler. I could see Victor on the field helping Richie Laryea to become calmer and to help Richie avoid yellow cards. I would occasionally look at Richie and Victor's instagram pages last year and could tell that Richie was grateful for Victor's friendship and help. I could also tell how proud and happy that Victor was when Richie was drafted so highly in the MLS draft. During the course of last year, almost all of Victor's social media posts ended with #2ndStar. Victor believed in his teammates , himself and his coaches. Brett Gravatt is a former Akron/Penn State soccer player (played 1 year with Victor) that suffered a life challenging injury. When Akron played Penn State last year, Victor posted a photo with Brett and Victor wrote something to the effect that Brett was the bravest man that he knew and that Brett was the toughest battler that he had ever known. I think that Brett Gravatt knows that when Victor Souto becomes your friend, you have a compassionate, caring friend for life. My favorite soccer players at Akron over the past 7 years have been Perry Kitchen, Scott Caldwell and Victor Souto. Perry and Scott were both smart and unselfish players who did not play the most glamorous goal scoring position. Victor always battled and put the team first and was very smart and unselfish. I was out in Kansas City last year for the game against Stanford. When Adam Najem missed his penalty kick and had to begin the long lonely walk to his teammates, it was Victor Souto who broke away from his teammates and walked down the field to walk with Adam back to his teammates. Victor put his arm around Adam and provided friendship and support. After the penalty kicks were over, my heart broke for all of the Akron players and it was hard to watch Victor lay on the field for a very long time and everyone could see that he was sobbing. Last December, Victor had a social media post that said something like this: I thank Akron and its personnel for everything I've learned these 3 years! I became a better person. I do not have an instagram or twitter account and when Victor took his instagram account private, I missed seeing his pro-Akron posts and his loving posts about his family. Before this season, Akron's most passionate Soccer fan was kind enough to share with me an instagram post from Victor that was quite touching. Victor wrote : Senior Year. I won't leave Akron and the boys without a title. None of us posting on this board can say that we have walked in Victor's shoes. None of us can say that we played top level college soccer while growing up between ages 19-23 in a country far way from your parents and other family. Victor grew up in a country where the people wear their emotions on their sleeves. Victor has always been super passionate and had to adjust to a new culture. I personally made my share of mistakes when I was 21 or 22. Victor's mistakes at the same age were made in front of 3,000 passionate Akron soccer fans. Akron and the university of Akron are not sexy, glamorous places but this young man from Sao Paulo loved Akron, his team mates and the students. I was at the Marquette game in 2013 and I was at San Diego State this year. I know that Victor has made mistakes due to his ferocious desire to win. I know that there have been other transgressions. I won't defend Victor's transgressions but I also want to say that he is a caring young man that loves his family and has been a wonderful student at Akron. I don't know all of the facts and I hope that Larry Williams did not make this decision by himself. Could the university have done more to help Victor with the one part of his life that was not perfect? I don't know what has occurred behind the scenes. I know that Coach Embick is also a good man and that he has 30 athletes to educate and help and he has an administration to please. No easy answers. I look at the Akron paper this morning and I see a cold headline - Victor Souto dismissed from soccer team. Larry Williams's statement was very curt. I know that several posters on this board have been fortunate to get to know Victor and say that he is a kind, caring person. I know that Victor went out of his way as a freshman to introduce himself at a hotel to a great zip fan that had traveled to St. Louis to support the soccer zips. Victor also thanked that great fan for his support many, many times. I only "know" Victor by watching him compete on the field and from reading his Brasil blogs and his social media posts. There are so many good aspects of Victor that I felt the need to expand beyond the cold headline in the Akron paper. Victor is not perfect and I sure am not. I have admired his maturity in letting his family know how much that he loves them. I am in awe of how well he has done in school in a foreign country. I have rooted for him on a soccer field based on how hard that he tries and loved seeing his unselfish, team first nature as he competes. Victor is fundamentally a very good, nice person with one area of his life that has caused some issues. I am just absolutely heart broken for Victor that his dreams and aspirations at Akron will not have the ending that he had worked so hard for. I pray that Victor will be able to finish his degree. If he chooses to pursue a pro soccer career, I will be pulling for him big time. Victor is a good young man and I have loved watching him compete and show his love for Akron over the past several years. I guess that I will have to set up an instagram account and ask to follow Victor as I want to see what this smart. hard working young man will accomplish in his life. I am so overwhelmed right now with emotion as Victor is a person that appreciates the goodness in others. I hope that this long rambling note makes sense and goes way beyond the cold headline in this morning's paper. I am heart broken for this young man from Sao Paulo that has touched so many hearts in NE Ohio and this old man's heart in NW Tennessee

I am heart broken for Victor Souto. He is fundamentally a good young man. I hope to have a much longer post later today.

announcement came from Larry Williams

yes, there is an automatic bid Akron was 50 in RPI before yesterday’s games Zips are now 56 (Buffalo is 60 and W. Virginia is #14) UCLA is now 4-3-1 after they lost 4-0 to Washington (UCLA is #41 in RPI) San Diego State is now 5-1-3 after tieing Oregon State (4-3-2)…SDSU is 45 in RPI and OSU is 97 Cal Santa Barbara dropped to 4-5-1 as they tied UC Riverside 2-2 (UCSB us #92 in RPI) Coach Embick put together a strong schedule but the zip opponents are not providing much help in the RPI

Rough night on Wednesday for some future zip opponents Northern Illinois faced IUPUI last night….IUPUI was 0-7-0 before last night and they defeated the Huskies 2-0 (NIU is now 1-5-2) Ohio State faced SIU-Edwardsville (1-4-2)…..SIU-E won 3-2 (tOSU drops to 3-7-0) Michigan State (6-2-0) def. Bowling Green (6-3-1) 1-0 In the national game of the night…Butler (7-0-1) faced Indiana (5-0-4)….Hoosiers won 3-2 in OT

Wow, this board has been quite void of discussion before today. Today and last night, there has been some great discussion. I still have faith in this team. Stuart, Sam, and Jon Lewis will need some time to get acclimated to each other up front. The 3 of them will figure it out and start putting the ball in the back of the net. This team did not expect to face this kind of adversity. They will have to win on the road in the round of 32 all the way to the quarters if they make the NCAA's ....but I plan on doing some traveling to see the zips in those NCAA matches. To reply to zippypitt's observation....I would clearly say "no" that too many team members from around the world is not the problem. This team and its players benefit greatly from experiencing different cultures and learning from soccer wisdom from those countries. The USA kids will have better and more rounded lives going forward from playing with and learning from new Zealand players, Portugal players, Brazilian players, spanish players and australian players. Soccer is a universal game and I like that Akron has a mixture of quality young men from many different countries. The international players are a long way from home and they deserve our support.

Before last night’s game, the zips were #36 in RPI and VCU was 144 Zips dropped to #49 after the tie MAC opponent West Virginia is now #9 in RPI Western Michigan improved to 8-2-0 with a 2-1 win in 2 ot’s over Drake (WMU is 75 in RPI) Penn State dropped to 4-4-1 as they lost 1-0 to Temple (PSU is 76 in RPI) Georgetown improved to 3-6-0 with a 3-1 win over American (Hoyas are 39 in RPI) SMU is now 4-6-0 after defeating Oral Roberts 3-1 (ponies are 111 in rpi) Loyola-chicago was 7-0-0 and 4th in RPI before last night…Loyola lost 3-0 last night at Creighton (blue jays are now 6-1-2 and 16 in RPI)

the zips need to take care of business tonight the loss last week to 2-5 SMU dropped the zips from 15 to 23 in the coaches poll West Virginia at 17 in the coaches poll http://www.nscaa.com/web/Rankings/NCAA/DI_MEN.aspx

http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-national-rankings/men the bad loss to SMU dropped the zips from 13 down to 18 in top drawer rankings West Virginia is #15 in top drawer rankings... in rpi, West Virginia is #12 and Akron is #39 Seattle dropped to 4-4 as they lost 2-1 last night to Washington San Diego state improved to 5-1-2 with a 1-0 overtime win over San diego

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/sports/2016/09/24/crew-sc--wil-trapp-sees-progress-in-recovery-from-concussion.html update on Wil Trapp's recovery from injury

Akron is down to #37 in this morning's RPI SMU dropped to 3-6-0 as Tulsa pounded them last night...3-0 VCU is now 2-5-1 as they tied St. Louis 1-1 Ken Lolla's Louisville team was on fire last night as they drilled Virginia 6-1 (virginia was 3-1-2 before the game) Cal Santa Barbara dropped to 4-5-0 as they lost 3-2 in OT to California Bowling Green improved to 6-2-1 as they shut out Ohio State 2-0(Suckeyes are now 3-6-0) West Virginia moved up to #10 in RPI and 6-1-1 overall as they defeated UNC-Greensboro 1-0 (UNC-G is now 4-2-2..unc-G had defeated coastal carolina in their last game)

Georgetown dropped to 2-6-0 as they lost 2-0 today to Xavier Buffalo dropped to 8-2-0 as they lost 3-0 to Binghamton (4-2-3) really bad loss today for Western Michigan...Detroit was 0-4-3 before today and they defeated Western Michigan 2-1 (WMU dropped to 7-2-0) bowling Green leads Ohio State 1-0 after 51 minutes

Sunday night....at 7 eastern time... New England at Columbus will be on fox sports 1 I am looking forward to see Scott Caldwell, Teal Bunbury and Wil Trapp speaking of Teal.....his sister, Kylie, is getting a ton of publicity. Kylie is the star of the new show on Fox - "pitch" about the first female pitcher in the majors

akron down to #29 in this morning's RPI UCLA continues to be unpredictable....Cal Poly was 1-4-1 before defeating UCLA 1-0 last night Before last night, Indiana was 5-0-3 and Rutgers was 0-6-0...they played to 0-0 tie Maryland def. Michigan State 2-0 defending national champ Stanford dropped to #63 in RPI as they lost 2-1 to San Francisco (3-5-0)

zips are still not getting a lot of rpi help from their opponents Cal irvine was 1-6 but they defeated Oregon State last night 1-0 Grand Canyon dropped to 3-5 as they lost 3-1 to Portland San Diego State dropped to 4-1-2 as they lost 2-0 at home to the University of the Pacific penn State defeated wisconsin 2-1 today in double OT in the night's big matchup, #1 Syracuse (8-0-0) faced Notre Dame (#2 in top drawer)...notre Dame scored at 89:42 to win 2-1 big ten co-favorite Maryland is tied 0-0 at halftime with Michigan State the other big ten co-favorite is tied 0-0 at 41 minutes with rutgers (rutgers is 0-6-0)

5 things...about Mr. Kitchen http://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2016/09/21/21/23/160921-mnt-five-things-to-know-about-perry-kitchen

Western Michigan improved to 7-1-0 with a 1-0 win at Michigan (0-5-3)…WMU is 36 in RPI Ohio State (148 in RPI) improved to 3-5 with a 4-1 win over Valparaiso (2-2-2) Buffalo (80 in RPI) is now 8-1-0 after a 2-1 win over St. Bonaventure (1-6-1) Cal Santa Barbara (51 in RPI) dropped to 4-4-0 as they lost 4-3 to Loyola Marymount (5-4-0) Denver(7-0-2) played to 0-0 tie with Creighton (4-1-2) Northern Illinois (144 in RPI) is now 1-3-2 after a 2-1 win over Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2-4-1)

the captain of hearts.....They have found out what so many zips fans have known for years... Perry Kitchen is a leader....and a winner http://www.foxsports.com/soccer/story/american-perry-kitchen-named-captain-of-hearts-092116

West Virginia is now ranked higher than Akron in the RPI Akron moved from 20 to 19 in the rpi as a result of games on Tuesday night West Virginia is now #13 after defeating American 3-0 (American was 3-1-3 before last night’s game) Previously undefeated charlotte lost 2-0 to N. Carolina Wilmington (UNCW is 5-1-0 and is #5 in RPI, Charlotte is #27) VCU improved to 2-5-0 with a 5-1 battering of Old Dominion (ODU was 3-2-1 before last night’s game)…VCU is now 106 in rpi and ODU is #83 Louisville (#2 in RPI) def. St. Louis 1-0 (St. Louis is now 1-3-2 but is #28 in rpi) Bowling Green is now 5-2-1 after tieing Dayton 1-1 Butler is now 6-0-1 and #8 in RPI after defeating Evansville 3-1 Clemson 5 Gardner Webb 0 Wake forest 2 FIU 0 Indiana improved to 5-0-3 with a 2-0 win over IUPUI (now 0-6-0) North Carolina 4 Bill and Mary 1 Is Shawn Dockery still at coastal Carolina? Coastal dropped to 1-4-1 after losing 1-0 to UNC-Greensboro

I am rooting for UCSB to host again. Great facility. Beautiful area.

http://rpiupdatemenssoccer.blogspot.com/search/label/RPI Rank #7 in the RPI before the game #20 after the game

this loss really hurts.... especially after Niko's pass was just a tad too high for Ezana

goal - goncalo 3-2 zips win this one