TennZip

Johnny Fitzgerald really brought great energy into the game. Real difference maker in the 2nd half

Congratulations to Jason Shokalook Big East Offensive player of the Week https://www.instagram.com/p/Cx5-2agPiVm/ Jason was also deservedly picked by College Soccer News for their team of the week https://collegesoccernews.com/college-soccer-news-mens-national-team-of-the-week-week-ending-october-1-2023/

Living in Georgia, I only get to see a few men's games in person. I do not get to see any women's games in person. Thank you for providing an update on what you saw from women's soccer. Coach Simonetti got a very late start in her first year. I have been told that she has great passion when you talk with her in person. I am glad that you are seeing some positive signs. It would be fantastic to see women's soccer doing well. Cancer is such a devastating disease/major health issue. I give you great props for your donations over the years and your support of the previous womens soccer games and women's basketball games where breast cancer awareness was given the excellent treatment that it deserves. It is great that the women players for both teams were able to honor family members in the past. One of my favorite moments of the major league baseball all star game is when every player and every fan holds up a card honoring a family member or friend that has been heavily impacted by cancer. I am very glad to hear that women's basketball has been consistently doing well with this needed special day I went to the Akron Athletic department web site . I clicked on Athletics and then clicked on Athletics Staff Directory. I then clicked where it said all offices to try to sort by department. I went down to the M's to try to find marketing. I ended up needing to go to Athletic Communications and Marketing. https://gozips.com/staff-directory#athletics_communications_and_marketing I do not honestly know if the previous pink recognition days were primarily done by the marketing department or if the SID's or the women's coaches were the major driving force. When I read the biography of Seth McFall, I see that he has only been in his job since June 2023. From what you described, this important recognition and fund raising day was done super poorly this year. I believe that women's basketball will have a new coach next year...who might not be aware of the excellent pink days that have been done by women's basketball. To make sure that women's soccer does much better next year for pink day and that women's basketball continues their great work, I would suggest that you send an e-mail to Mr. Guthrie, Mr. McFall, Mr. Palchick and Ms. Simonetti to let them know that the University of Akron did very poorly this year with women's soccer Pink days. Cancer is devastating and we need to continue to raise money to fight cancer. You are not "nit-picking" at all on this issue. I would guess that Mr. Palchick and Mr. McFall should be the 2 people that will need to work together to make sure that "pink Day" in fall 2024.....sees tremendous improvement.

St. Johns only had 1 shot all game...and they made it count Marquette led 19-1 in shots and 17-2 in corners Marquette only put 3 of their 19 shots on goal.

Dyson not in starting lineup

Seton Hall comes into tonight's contest with a 5-2-1 overall record The Pirates are 1-1 in the Big East. In their last game, Seton Hall defeated Connecticut 4-2 (Connecticut had defeated St. John's 2-1 in the first big east game) Seton Hall had lost 1-0 to Georgetown in their first Big East game. Seton Hall played in the IU Classic from Sept. 1 to Sept. 4. The Pirates started off with a 1-0 win over Ohio State and they then lost 1-0 to the Hoosiers. The stats for Seton Hall vs. Connecticut were very interesting. Even though, Seton Hall won the game 4-2 , Connecticut led 14-6 in shots and the Huskies also led 15-4 in corner kicks. Amazingly, all 6 of the shots by the Pirates were on goal. the UConn GK stopped 2 and the other 4 got in. 7 of the 14 shots by UConn were on goal. Go, Zips......let's get 3 points tonight

Zips were #4 in last week's coaches poll...... This week, the zips are #5 in the new coaches poll https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-di-men/

https://gozips.com/news/2023/9/25/mens-soccer-jackson-named-big-east-defensive-player-of-the-week

Big disparity in rankings this week... College Soccer news has the zips at #5 Top Drawer soccer has the zips at #17 Akron is #42 in RPI this morning college coaches poll will come out around 4 pm eastern time on Tuesday according to college soccer news, there are 9 teams in Division 1 college soccer...that have not lost a match this year. Marshall 8-0-0 West Virginia 6-0-2 Akron 5-0-4 Missouri St 5-0-1 Michigan St 5-0-2 Northwestern 7-0-2 North Carolina 4-0-3 San Diego State 6-0-1 SIU-Edwardsville 5-0-2 edit on 9/27.....just saw that Old Dominion has no losses....Old Dominion - 3 wins , 0 losses and 5 ties

Standings are wrong....in more than just one way... Creighton is 2-0-0 in the league and DePaul is 0-2-0....Standings show both as 1-1 https://gocreighton.com/news/2023/9/23/mens-soccer-ramadan-and-arilla-deliver-goals-in-bluejays-2-1-win-at-depaul.aspx

Video presentation by St. John's is so poor. I really can't comment much on the first half. Akron video does a very nice job with replays. St. John's did not show a replay of the goal. St. John's did not show a replay when a player got a red card for clobbering Gyuwon. FloFC should be embarrassed to charge money for the poor video quality tonight. For the first 10-15 minutes, there was a guy in a red shirt that walked in front of the camera a few times. They had some kind of glass with lights that showed on the right side of the screen for a while. Just laughably poor video quality.

Chong was cheap shotted at 25:33 red card on st. johns player 11 vs. 10...let's go zips !!!!

Gray, damp and cold for the game

Top Drawer soccer (TDS) is showing that the Zips have landed their first recruit for 2025. https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club-player-profile/christian-hodges/pid-148197 They show that Christian Hodges is a goal keeper from Westlake, Ohio. They show that he is associated with the Columbus Crew academy. TDS has Christian Hodges ranked as the #100 rated recruit in the class of 2025. Over the past few years, most of the players ranked in the TDS top 50 players....decide to go pro...... Getting a player ranked in the top 100 ...(with so many recruits turning pro)....is now the equivalent of signing a top 50 or top 60 player in 2011 or 2012. This is a very quality recruit to start the 2025 recruiting class. Well done to all of the coaches involved in getting this young man to announce his intentions to attend the finest soccer university in Ohio. In 2022, this young man was selected to be part of the Under 16 Boys National Team https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club-soccer-articles/twenty-three-players-called-to-u16-bnt_aid51102

Let's compare scores.... Marshall did beat Oakland 4-0 Akron tied Michigan 1-1.......Michigan has a 1-3-3 record now and Michigan is picked to finish last in the big Ten Oakland defeated Michigan 2-1 this week You reference Wright State in your comment.....On Tuesday night, Wright State defeated Bowling Green 3-0. Bowling Green also defeated Michigan earlier in the year. Providence came into the game against Akron with a 2-3-0 record. In the game before they played Akron, Providence lost to UMass 3-2. Since their win over Providence, Umass has tied Dartmouth and lost to Duquesne and Holy Cross. UMass also lost to Hofstra. Hofstra lost to Fairleigh Dickinson earlier in the year. Monday, Fairleigh Dickinson lost 5-1 to Pitt. Marshall scored 3 goals in each of these 3 games...against Xavier (#58 in RPI) ; James Madison (#9 in coaches poll when Marshall played them and 3 against Pittsburgh. As a zip fan, I am not happy with ties against a weak Michigan team, a Providence team with weak results....and a 0-0 team against a toothless Notre Dame team. I have applauded the Zips for their win against a very good Vermont team...and did a bravo, bravo post for their excellent performance against a good FIU team.

Jared Embick is very happy in the press conference

https://rpiupdatemenssoccer.blogspot.com/search/label/RPI Rank As of Thursday morning, Zips are #45 in RPI Georgetown (not on the zips schedule) is the highest ranked Big East team at #7 Listing the RPI teams....for zips opponent.... Game 1....Niagara is at 200 Game 2....Vermont is at 34 Game 3....Michigan is at 144 Game 4...SIU is at 181 SIU has a record of 1-6-0....they did get their first win of the year...this week....3-2 over future zip opponent....Northern Kentucky Game 5...Long Island is at 118 Game 6...FIU is at 49 Game 7...Providence is at 101 Game 8...Notre Dame is at 15 for the first 8 opponents, the average RPI for the first 8 opponents is currently a little over 105 Game 9....St. Johns is at 113 Game 10...Seton Hall is at 82 Game 11....Northern KY is at 206 Game 12...DePaul is at 110 Game 13...Cleveland St is at 168 Game 14....Xavier is at 58 Game 15....Creighton is at 56 Game 16...Marquette is at 36 Game 17...Butler is at 158 For the final 9 regular season opponents, the average RPI is slightly under 110

I was actually up from Georgia and was in Akron for the last 2 games. Notre Dame lost last week to Michigan State...so Notre Dame dropped from 10 to number 15 in the coaches rankings. Based on what I saw last night, Notre Dame is not a top 25 team. Vermont was a much better team than Notre Dame I sat at last night's game with a Notre Dame Graduate. The Notre Dame graduate said this is the worst Notre Dame team that he has ever seen. The Notre Dame grad predicts that Notre Dame will not make the NCAA tournament. My friend has been following Notre Dame soccer since the early 80's. Some of the comments make it sound like the Notre Dame goal keeper stood on his head and made some fabulous saves. Many of his 12 saves were on headers when the zips player was a good distance from the goal. The GK easily handled the headers from a far distance. The Zips probably had 4 very good shots. 1) Jonas Buechte fired off a rocket from a great distance and the GK got a hand on it before it went in the top of the goal. The GK punched it over the top of the goal. ; 2) Fitz made a great run and fired off a shot that the Gk punched out into the field ; 3) Malik cut inside and fired off a strong left footed shot that the GK could only punch back into the field. ; There was a 4th but I have been driving all day...so, I am drawing a blank. I think it was probably a Shooky opportunity in the first half. The GK did not stand on his head. Hopefully, if the zips keep firing strong shots like 2 and 3 above , the zips will be able to get a lot of goals off rebounds. Both 2 and 3 were almost direct shots at the GK but the zips were not ready to pounce on the rebound. I do like the 3 man back line. Daragh Reilly played well last night. However, I also really like Ashton Kamdem. Ashton got no minutes last night(I do not know if he was injured). Joel, Jonas and Daragh have done well as a 3 man back line . Perhaps, Ashton can get some minutes as a left outside midfielder. Like all Zips fans, I am really hoping that Dyson Clapier can return very soon. Gyuwon Chong is working very hard to fill some very big shoes but Gyuwon is probably better as a distributor in the middle of the field. The zips sense of urgency was much stronger in the first half....than it was in the 2nd half. I kept waiting for a zip to be daring in the 2nd half.....and make a challenging run into the middle of the field and draw 2 defenders to him....but the zips more often opted for the safe pass backward. After Friday night's very slow start, it was very encouraging to see the bossing the game in the first half. The 2nd half was played at Notre Dame's pace. The number 1 team in the country....Marshall is winning games like this 4 -0 ...or 5-0......Based on Notre Dame's skill level, the zips should have won this game 2-0 or 3-0. Zips should not be happy tieing a team that is inferior to them

Notre Dame at Akron....is the first of the 5 key games that they profile.... PS....I like their score prediction https://collegesoccernews.com/mens-college-soccer-a-look-at-five-key-contests-coming-up-this-week/

Congratulations to Shooky for being chosen for team of the week for his performances against FIU and Providence https://collegesoccernews.com/college-soccer-mens-national-team-of-the-week-week-ending-september-17-2023/

I have been in Akron area since Friday. I have not been on a computer much. I had not looked at RPI in many days. After Friday night's tie with 2-3 Providence, Akron has dropped to #50 in RPI (as of Monday morning) Notre Dame is #41 https://rpiupdatemenssoccer.blogspot.com/search/label/RPI Rank

it is definitely overpriced. But, it is definitely worth it....to see the games......following live stats only is torture I am very glad that I took the plunge and paid the cost Chad talks with the coaches and the players....and is passionate for the first 4 or 5 games, they showed a feature at halftime....where each player introduces himself...tells where they are from...and an interesting or funny fact about themselves it is really enjoyable to watch... the impressive Joel Sangwa shares that he speaks 4 languages someone is a chess grand master...I think it is Ashton Kamdem ryan kopay..number 28...says I am really good at ping pong josh hardin...number 29...follows Ryan and says ...I am much better at ping pong than Ryan Kopay... Josh Hallenberger and Josef Paulus are hilarious with a deadpan face, Josh Hallenberger says he loves to take long walks on the beach with Josef Paulus when they get to Josef Paulus, Joey says I love to prank Josh Hallenberger on a daily basis hope you get to see all of the players talk at halftime It would be great if Akron Athletics would put the player introductions up on their you tube page so that all season ticket holders could see