TennZip

Are you making up facts now about Grassie? You claim that he signed a 10 year extension You claim that he is making $500K a year I have seen multiple articles that say it was a 7 year contract extension. Most importantly , it has him at $400K a year https://www.coalvalleynews.com/sports/marshall-sports-beals-contract-extended-grassie-signs-new-seven-year-deal/article_6e13a1b3-0ff8-583b-8b85-8189c3e9c21b.html

Monday Aug 26 VCU continues strong start to season with a 3-1 win over Old Dominion Number 3 West Virginia 4 St. Francis 0 Providence and Boston College played to 1-1 tie

To my knowledge, the summer 2015 trip was completely funded by donors making donations for $3,000 per player. I believe that no athletic department funds were used. I think they are only allowed to take 1 international trip every 4 years (could be 3 years...but I believe it is 4.) To my knowledge, none of the Akron soccer donors have been asked in the past 5 years to fund an international excursion.

last night and in other games, Attila Schmidt was sitting on the sidelines with Michael and Ger and Jared Does Akron not pay Attila Schmidt? Link below says 4th season with Akron soccer https://akronsocceracademy.com/staff

Embick went to 3 final fours from 2015 to 2018......with Leo Chappel as the lead assistant for 95% of those games. TJ Kolba was also on that staff. Ger was the GK coach during that great run of success. This current staff with Embick, head assistant Ger and Michael Nanchoff.....has not won an NCAA tournament game in the last 5 years. The Akron soccer community (fans, players, coaches and former players) expect that Akron should be in the mix every year to be one of the teams in the NCAA sweet 16. The head coach and each of the assistants should be very much on the hot seat if they have not won any NCAA games in the past 5 years. Last night was horrible soccer. The coaches and all of the players have to share responsibility for the absolute stinkfest that occurred on the field. I have been an unabashedly huge Ashton Kamdem fan and felt strongly that Ashton should have started at left back in both 22 and 2023. I praised Malik for his play after the ND game. That being said, both outside backs - Malik and Ashton ...both played very poorly in the first half. Their completed up the field pass % had to be terrible. Credit to the coaching staff for bringing Joshua Hardin in the final part of the first half. After not playing much last year, Joshua has been a pleasant surprise. The coaches can not compete in the middle of the field for 50/50 balls. Ohio State won almost all of the individual battles last night. Western Michigan has always been a strong, physical team. They will play the exact same style against the Zips that the Buckeyes used. The Ohio State game will hopefully serve as a gut check for this team and adjustments will be made so the team can make it to the NCAA tournament. I will give you 2 examples of Zips teams...that looked like absolute dog crap....early in the season....and then went on ...to win at least one NCAA tournament game. In 2015, the zips opened the regular season with 2 road games...Friday night at VCU and Sunday afternoon at Old Dominion. Neither of those teams finished the year in the top 25. That was the first time that I ever travelled to see the zips on the road. On Friday night, the zips scored a golden goal in OT to beat a fairly average VCU team. On Sunday afternoon, Old Dominion led the zips at one point ...4-0 before the zips scored a meaningless mop up goal to make it a 4-1 final Old Dominion used long vertical passes to take advantage of the fairly slow 2015 zips center backs. Old Dominion had a super quick 5'4 or 5'5 forward and he consistently beat the zips center backs to the vertical passes. That little forward had 2 or 3 goals in that game. I walked out of that game....thoroughly depressed...and thought that the zips were in for a long, long year. After the game , the veteran players (Najem, Souto, Ruhaak, Fenlason, Radjen, etal)...called a players only meeting and said "we are better than this...and this is unacceptable", The coaching staff obviously made changes to deal with long, vertical balls and they made changes during the season to utilize the speed of Richmond Laryea. The following weekend, the zips went on the road again and got wins at two top 10 teams...Georgetown and Maryland. That 2015 team went to the college cup and lost on PK's to the eventual champ...Stanford. In 2016, the zips opened the season with 2 games at home. The following weekend, the zips went out to the west coast to play San Diego State on a Friday night and then play a top 5 or top 10 team in UCLA. I travelled out to the left coast to see those 2 games. San Diego State was not ranked. The zips were very highly ranked. The zips did not play well against San Diego State and lost in regulation. Victor Souto got a red card late in that game and never played in another game for Akron. On Monday at UCLA, future MLS draftee Abu Danladi made all of the zips look very slow and UCLA put a 6-1 beatdown on the zips. I think it was 5-0 before Adam Najem scored for the zips. I walked away from that game ...thinking that UCLA was a maserati and that Akron was a pinto. I did not think that "pinto" team could make the NCAA (and I was assuming that Souto would only miss the 1 game). That 2016 Akron team ended up winning a round of 64 game in Akron before losing to a seeded Indiana team in the round of 32. It is early in the season.....The zips did not have any offense in the first 2 exhibitions. The team did not play well or compete well against Ohio State. I am rooting for this 2024 team......to build a "recovery" story similar to what was done in 2015 and 2016.

https://www.beaconjournal.com/videos/sports/college/soccer/2024/08/25/ncaa-mens-soccer-ohio-state-buckeyes-beat-akron-zips-end-home-winning-streak/74947757007/

the zips have to travel to Kalamazoo on the 30th....to face pre season number 12 Western Michigan On Thursday, WMU defeated number 14 Vermont tonight, Western Michigan got a top 10 scalp with a 1-0 win over New Hampshire Cleveland State moved to 1-0-1 with a 1-0 win over St. Bonaventure (Cleveland State tied Ohio State 1-1 on Aug. 22) Temple 3 Villanova 2 (both are on Akron's schedule) number 16 Georgetown 2 Maryland 0 Butler was unimpressive and played to 1-1 tie with Western Illinois Northwestern 2 DePaul 1 Creighton 5 Drake 3 Marquette 6 Marist 1 St. John's and Stony Brook played to 1-1 tie IU-Indy 1 Houston Christian 0 Xavier 4 Cal State Fullerton 1 a few opponents have games on Monday night Aug 26 St. Francis will play number 3 West Virginia VCU will face in state rival Old Dominion big east team Providence (not on schedule) will face Boston Colege

I am so happy to see Ashton Kamdem in the starting lineup He is going to have a great year at left back

great start to the season.... Coach Simonetti was handed a pile of smelly stuff in her first year. She is a hard worker.......and I am happy that the players and coaches are seeing some good results. go, Lady Zips

Wright State led Bowling Green 2-0 at halftime Unfortunately, BG came back to beat Wright State 3-2 neither team on our schedule....but an interesting result St. Louis upset #7 Indiana 2-0 St. Louis had the number 2 rated recruiting class......St. Louis is a program on the rise

https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/article/?categoryId=21&articleId=53699&articleTitle=mens-college-takeaways-from-opening-day Akron Resurgence Akron has been a sleeping giant of sorts in recent years. The four-time national finalists have qualified for the NCAA tournament just twice since reaching the College Cup final in 2018. There was renewed excitement this season brought on by the combination of talented returners with several eye-catching transfers. A 1-1 tie with No. 2 Notre Dame away from home adds to the hope that the Zips are back to claim their position among the elite.

best results that help the zips VCU upset #15 Wake Forest 2-1 #12 WEstern Michigan had strong 3-1 win over #14 Vermont result that does not help Pitt 2 #16 Georgetown 0 other scores Ohio State and Cleveland State 1-1 Villanova and St. Peters 2-2 St. Francis 3 St. Bonaventure 0 Temple 1 Army 1 Marquette 2 Drexel 0 Butler 2 Southern Indiana 1 Creighton and Fla. Atlantic 0-0 Seton Hall 1 FIU 0 Providence 2 Quinnipac 0 Xavier and N. Kentucky 0-0 Rhode Island 2 St. Johns 0 U Conn 6 Stone Hill 0 IU Indy 2 UIW 0 DePaul leads UIC 4-1 at 74 Wright State opens their season tomorrow night against Bowling Green

Lots of positives from the first night Emil is good at hold up play....very nice pass to WKWK for the goal Beto had good night at left back.... Matt Dreas is vastly improved...he had good night Josh Hardin and James Buebendorf.....both looked really good at outside back in limited minutes Malik really battled on defense...and had a near assist that forced the keeper to bat away a header from Dice I look forward to Ashton Kamdem returning from sitting out due to red card in last year big east tourney. I really think that Ashton can be a difference maker at left back. zips looked much better in the 2nd half. in my humble opinion, the zips got homered on calls in the road game at ND bring on the Buckeyes...Ohio State and Cleveland State played to a 1-1 tie tonight

Akron at Georgetown on September 28.....shows as being on the big east digital network(BEDN) on flo sports Akron at DePaul on October 19....also shows as being on BEDN on Flo I did not check for the Marquette and Connecticut games

if you click on the full you tube video, you will get to hear co-captains Daragh (on left) and Jonas (on right) speak for over 6.5 minutes

If you click on the full you tube video, you will get to hear Jared speak for over 10 minutes

Notre Dame well represented on the All American teams Bryce Boneau (in another article) is ranked as the 2nd best college player in the country

When you click on ACCNX, it takes you to ESPN.com https://fightingirish.com/match-1-preview-akron/

Emil J. selected to 3rd team pre season All American team https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-articles/2024-mens-division-i-preseason-awards_aid53660

I did not see either of the exhibitions. I asked a high school friend for his impressions of the first 2 games I will paraphrase his comments. They looked much worse in the 2nd game than they did in the first game. 2nd game comments - They spent a lot of time passing the ball around on their half of the field. They appeared to be afraid to pass the ball into the midfield as the pass was likely to be intercepted. Most times, the zips looked to pass backwards....rather than looking forward. When the zips were able to cross the midfield, the ball did not stay very long on the zips side of the field. Same problems that we saw late in 2023...when they tied Marquette and other less talented teams. Final comment from my friend...game was very boring. Fans were not engaged. Fans were talking to their neighbors and checking stuff on their phones. my comments - I will pay $10.99 for a month to watch Thursday's night game on ACC TV. And I will pay the obnoxious $30 per month to pay for the very over priced FLO TV so I can watch the home games against Ohio State and Cleveland State on August 25 and September 2nd. I will pay whatever is necessary to watch the game in Kalamazoo. I hope to make it up to Akron in early to mid September I consider myself a devoted fan...and I was thrilled to see the addition of a super highly rated left back in James Buebendorf. I was absolutely thrilled to see that the coaching staff had great success in attracting excellent transfers like Maximus Barboto, Victor Gaulmin and Emil J. Super fast, elusive top talent....Malik Henry and Dyson Clapier...came back for a 5th year because they believe in this coaching staff and their returning team mates. Caleb Borneo was a top 50 rated junior and he is healthy to play this year in the midfield Fans that saw the zips play in the spring say that Beto Ydrach is a fantastic center back and these same fans give credit to the coaching staff for finding a great talent in Beto. My comments below are 2nd hand...for the first 2 exhibitions....but they appear to mirror the problems that we all saw in the disappointing end to last year. I have never played and I am certainly not qualified to be a coach....but as a passionate fan, I think that the Coaches are going to have to make some major adjustments to utilize our super talented new mid fielders....Borneo, Barboto, Gaulmin and Josh Bartels. Teams have figured out how to contest the zips step by step passing style.....and clog up the midfield Last year(similar to 2021 and 2022), our starting left back....struggled greatly to get the ball to our supremely skilled left winger (Dyson Clapier) This year, I am very hopeful that either Ashton Kamdem or James Buebendorf can lock down the starting left back position and use their speed and passing skills to get the ball up to the final 3rd of the field to Stefan, Emil, Dyson, Malik, Josh B. and other skilled scorers. Unfortunately, Ashton got a red card in the big east tourney game and will not be able to play against Notre Dame. I sure hope that James Buebendorf gets a lot of playing time at LB against Notre Dame and that the highly rated freshman can have a stellar zips debut. This team has many talented players in the midfield....and some terrific players as forwards and wingers.....Jared and the 2018 coaching staff....showed in the great 2018 tournament run...that they could get the ball to Marcel Zajac and Stuart Holthusen in good scoring position. All of the transfers and talented new freshman (Bartels, Borneo, Buebendorf) believe in their teammates and the coaching staff.. Soccer is not easy.....Lots of new players ...Rome was not built in a day...but this team can make a deep NCAA tournament run.

would love to hear comments from fans that attended the game???

Pitt, Friday night's exhibition opponent, is predicted to finish 9th....in the 15 team ACC Notre Dame (opponent in the regular season opener) was selected to finish 2nd in the ACC https://theacc.com/news/2024/8/13/clemson-selected-2024-preseason-acc-mens-soccer-favorite.aspx

take a look at the pre season 2023 Top Drawer soccer first team All American team again, this was 2023....12 months ago....last year, Akron had Joel and Dice on pre season All American team and did not even make the NCAA tournament. So, pre season accolades.....do not guarantee great success We all know that Dice struggled with injuries in 2023 I am encouraged to see how highly that Emil J......was thought of...pre 2023 Zips need a healthy Dyson Clapier in 2024. Top Drawer Soccer(TDS) will announce their 2024 top 25 poll on Monday August 19 TDS will announce their 2024 pre season All American teams on Tuesday August 20 below is what TDS predicted...12 months ago..... TDS August 2023 Preseason Best XI Teams First Team F: Alex Meinhard (Clemson), Emil Jaaskelainen (LIU), Stas Korzeniowski (Penn) M: Christian Soto (Washington), Joran Gerbet (Clemson), Laurence Wootton (Ohio State), Dyson Clapier (Akron) 😧 Tommy Silva (UCLA), Joel Sangwa (Akron), Ronan Wynne (Denver) GK: Alex Lopez (Tulsa) https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-articles/2023-mens-division-i-preseason-awards_aid52390