TennZip

https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-di-men/ In the United Soccer coaches poll, the West Virginia moved up to #3 in this week's rankings (they were #4 last week) One of the 24 coaches voting...voted West Virginia as #1. The Zips dropped from #20 in last week's ranking.....to #26 The soccer coaches rate the Zips as the 3rd best team in the MAC. Bowling Green is 7-1-1 and stayed at #17 in the weekly rankings. To side track for just a second...it is interesting to look at some big name schools that are not in the top 25. Indiana is #30 ; North Carolina is #31 ; Stanford is #34 ; Wake Forest is #40 Getting back to West Virginia West Virginia is 6-0-2......and is a team that is fully capable of reaching the college cup in December I think that it is safe to say (that if you exclude Akron teams), this is the best MAC team in the past 15 years This is the toughest MAC season opener that any Zip team has ever faced. West Virginia began this season with a huge chip on their shoulder. West Virginia deserved a berth in last year's NCAA tourney. They had a regular season win over eventual NCAA champion Marshall and they thoroughly destroyed at large selection Charlotte 3-0. West Virginia ended the year around #15 in RPI. West Virginia deserved to be in last spring's NCAA tourney West Virginia did not receive one top 25 vote in the preseason coaches poll. WVA is 6-0-2 they started the year with a 2-0 win over Robert Morris. In their 2nd game, they hosted then #3 rated Pitt. WVU came away with a 2-1 win 3rd game, they hosted then #17 ranked Penn State. WVU won that game 3-1 On Labor day, they hosted Loyola (MD). That game ended 0-0 5th game, they hosted the Ohio State Buckeyes. WVU added another shutout in a 1-0 win they then travelled to #6 Marshall. After 110 minutes, it was a 2-2 result On Sept. 21, they hosted Dayton and WVU won 3-0 On Sept. 25, they hosted St. Bonaventure and WVU dominated in a 4-0 win. in 5 of their 8 games, they have shutout their opponent. They have only allowed goals to Pitt, Penn State, and Marshall. (2 of those 3 teams were ranked in the top 6, other team was ranked #17) 17 goals scores in 8 games. Only 4 goals allowed. West Virginia coach Dan Stratford is one of the great young soccer coaches in the game https://wvusports.com/sports/mens-soccer/roster/coaches/dan-stratford/3999 3 years at the University of Charleston (WV) - 61-4-5 record....Division II national champion in 2 out of 3 years This is his 2nd season as WVU coach. This is a team with great depth. 11 different players have scored goals for them. Yoran Popovic leads them with 3 goals. Frederik Jorgenson has 2 goals and 2 assists. Kevin Morris has 2 goals and 1 assist. Pau Jimenez Abelda has 1 goal and 3 assists. The zips will have to get off to a quick start in this game. In the past 2 games, Malik Henry has been fantastic early on and put the ball on a forwards foot in the first 5 minutes of both games. In both games, the zips striker did not convert. To use a Jared Embick term, the zips need to be very clinical and put the ball in the net early in the game. The zips were not at full strength - player wise against Yale. Hopefully, all of the backline players are back healthy. The zips have proven that they can compete with Indiana and Pitt. West Virginia is every bit as good....possibly better than last year's college cup teams. The zips can get a win......But they need to regain their confidence....BE CLINICAL early in the game. Huge Challenge for a young team. Go, Zips !!!

Pitt had an outstanding 2-0 win over Clemson. coming into this week, Clemson was 7-0-0 and 2-0 in ACC. Ranked 2nd in coaches poll Pitt is 15 in RPI Maryland 2 Ohio State 1 5-0-1 Kentucky went to play last night at Marshall 0-0 result after 110 minutes. Kentucky led 5-1 in shots on goal. Marshall did not have a shot on goal in first 100 minutes Marshall is currently 4 in RPI ; Kentucky is 7 Duke improved to 6-1-0 with a 1-0 win over Colin Biros and Syracuse Northern Illinois improved to 8-1-0 with a 1-0 win over Green Bay. NIU strength of schedule must not be great as their RPI is 85. West Virginia (zips next opponent) improved to 6-0-2 with a 4-0 win over St. Bonaventure. WVU RPI is 26 Georgia State (a new MAC team) improved to 6-2-0 with 2-1 win over Wofford. GSU rpi is 73 Friday night, Bowling Green improved to 7-1-1 with a 2-1 win over 0-5-2 Canisius. BGSU appears to be the highest rated MAC RPI team at 21 After last night's win, the Zips RPI is 34.

The Yale Bulldogs come into Saturday's match up with a 3-2-0 record. on Tuesday night, Yale had an impressive 2-0 win over ACC team Boston College (BC had played Notre Dame to a 1-1 tie earlier in the year) Yale started their season with a 3-2 road win over Fairfield In their 2nd game, they traveled to Villanova and Villanova was a 2-1 winner (Villanova is 5-2 this year and has a winner over Marquette) In their first home match, Yale defeated U Mass Lowell 4-1 their 4th match was at UConn ...and UConn was a 4-0 winner The Yale coach was understandably very happy with his team with their win this week over a 2019 NCAA soccer team (Boston College) https://yalebulldogs.com/news/2021/9/21/mens-soccer-bulldogs-blank-boston-college-2-0.aspx The Yale-BC game was a rematch of the 2019 first round NCAA Tournament game won by BC in Chestnut Hill, Mass. "This is a great result for the program, and I'm really happy for the current guys, as well as the guys from the 2019 team that would have loved to be back for this one," said Kylie Stannard, the 5K Corral Head Coach of the Bulldogs. "We challenged the guys to respond after a disappointing performance last week [4-0 loss at UConn] and they absolutely stepped up and we couldn't ask for much more. We needed to get back to being difficult to play against, and we absolutely did that tonight. I am especially happy with the shutout tonight and our guys did well to dig in for the last few minutes."

As a fan of a mid major soccer team, I will be rooting for both Marshall and Akron to do well. Marshall plays an attractive brand of soccer as they try to get goals from the run of play. Good luck to the herd for the rest of the year.

I like your positive post. Let's give a lot of credit to Marshall for how the zips looked last night. Marshall is a scary good offensive team. Marshall defenders did a very good job of "dis-possessing the zips in 1 v. 1 defending. I fully expect that Marshall will be in Cary in December for the college cup. There is no question that this Akron team will be better in November than they are right now. The MAC has 3 teams in the top 20 of the coaches poll...West Virginia at 4, Bowling Green at 17 and Akron at 20. As you can see below in the Marshall comments, Marshall has played all 3. WVU played Marshall to a 2-2 tie, BGSU and Marshall were tied 0-0 after 88 minutes with Marshall winning 1-0. West Virginia is going to be a brutal first conference game for the zips. That being said, the young zips need to concentrate on Yale and get a win on Saturday night before they can even think about conference play. There are positives for the zips. Malik Henry had some excellent moments last night. Malik started the game at right winger and put the ball on a zips striker foot...in front of the goal 5 minutes into the match. If the zips had been able to get on the board there, that would have provided a lot of confidence and momentum. Malik looked like he moved to right defensive back in the 2nd half. Malik was a huge factor in several good zip counter attacks in the 2nd half. I am sure that Jared and the coaches will find the best position for Malik but I am excited about this young man's potential and skill set. Will Meyer has kept the zips in games this year.....with very good saves. Will made back to back saves at 13 minutes and 14 minutes into the first half to prevent the game from getting out of hand. The zips are very fortunate to have 3 very good center backs. In the first half, Carlo and Jonas Buechte were the CBS with Daniel Strachan at HMF. Daniel and Jonas were the CBS in the 2nd half. I love all 3 guys.....but this team is better with Daniel playing center back. His steady veteran presence and great decision making provide this young team with the structure that they need. The zips need to get back to death by 1,000 passes...possession soccer and spreading the field. Right now, the zips are trying to pass from the defensive backs up to the forward/wingers. Renato and Wan Kuzri can be good distributors/passers. Pacheco, Clapier, Shokalook and Kingsford.....are having to battle 1 vs. 2 when they are now getting long passes from the defenders. All 4 are very talented and they will start to jell with the midfielders. The talent is here. Looking forward to seeing this team improve during the season. https://herdzone.com/news/2021/9/21/mens-soccer-no-5-mens-soccer-blanks-no-20-akron-2-0.aspx "We definitely needed the win tonight," Herd head coach Chris Grassie said. "We played three top 20 teams from the MAC in Bowling Green, WVU and Akron. Two wins and a tie from that stretch is fantastic. "We talked to the guys about this game being a fight and it really was today. You saw how open the game was at times. I think we had about seven or eight breakaways, they had three or four that they could have had pretty good goals. And I think we had to pick those moments to fight and those moments to play. It was important for us to stay mentally focused. The guys were definitely up for the fight today and did a great job."

In the coaches poll, the zips dropped from #7 down to #20 Marshall is at #5 Go, Zips !!!! https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-di-men/

Rutgers improves to 6-0-1 wake forest improves to 3-2-0 with a 3-1 win over Pitt Bowling Green moves up to number 15 in RPI with a 2-0 win over Fla international Fla intl was 4-0-1 before tonight fla intl is number 21 in RPI after their first loss

Excellent substantive comments by both 72roo and Zip_ME87. I hope that Charles Guthrie reads their comments and learns from this huge missed opportunity. On a brighter note, very nice picture.

Before yesterday's game, Akron was #17 in RPI Ohio State was #147 in RPI (only 208 div. 1 teams) after yesterday's no energy effort, the zips are #49 in RPI and Ohio State is #96 Marshall is #13 currently in RPI Next Tuesday....will be a big game

worst half that the zips have played this year. The ball was constantly in Ohio State's half of the field. Score easily could have been 2-0. Will Meyer could not control a ball and it bounced out a few feet in front of goal. Fortunately, the zips were able to clear. Ohio State had several 2 on 2 or 3 vs. 3 opportunities. Zips were always 2 vs 5 or 3 vs 6...no good opportunities at all Ohio State seems to be winning every ball in the midfield Captain Carlo Ritaccio made his first appearance this year at 44:28. Jared used a lot of subs in first half. Hope that the zips can use their fresh legs to win some balls in the midfield.

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/soccer-men/d1/united-soccer-coaches in this week's coaches poll, the soccer zips moved up from #16 to #7 surprisingly to me, Pitt (#15 last week) moved up to #5 (Pitt lost to Akron and then defeated #2 North Carolina 4-0)

The Mid American conference...gave Will a well deserved honor

Well deserved honor for Will Meyer https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-articles/mens-team-of-the-week:-september-14_aid49865

Portland's assistant coach....is pretty good https://portlandpilots.com/sports/mens-soccer/roster/coaches/ben-zemanski/2067

Good catch i knew that WVA bear the buckeyes 1-0 dont know why I typed a 1 for that team in Columbus

good night for the MAC last night Northern Illinois upset 9th ranked Marquette 3-0 West Virginia 1 Ohio State 0 (WVA led 8-4 in Shots and 8-4 in corners). WVA plays at Marshall on 9/17 Western Michigan 3 Dayton 0 the Georgia teams did not do as well Georgia State lost 2-1 to Belmont Georgia Southern lost 2-1 to North Florida in the MAC game of the day, Bowling Green (3-0-1) hosts the Marshall Thundering Herd at 7 pm

https://www.idsnews.com/article/2021/09/no-9-indiana-mens-soccer-takes-overtime-draw-against-no-16-akron Almost 3,400 fans packed into FirstEnergy Stadium, the largest crowd Indiana has seen this season. “That was an excellent college soccer game. Quality from both sides,” Indiana head coach Todd Yeagley said after the match. “This was a tough environment to play in and we are happy to walk away with a point. Of course, we wanted to get three points, but we are happy with the result.” “I thought both goalkeepers were great tonight. Meyer had two or three phenomenal saves,” Yeagley said. “The save he made in overtime on the shot from Vic, that was phenomenal. Like I said, that was a well-played college soccer match.”

great college soccer game Will Meyer had a huge save in each overtime Will Jackson had his best game as a Zip. Endeley is an absolute beast for the Hoosiers and Jackson battled him all night Jason Shokalook had always been rated slightly lower than Sam Sarver when they were juniors. Shokalook outplayed Sarver tonight Jared and staff made great coaching adjustments at half time Hoosiers were better team in first half. Akron was the better team in 2nd half. Great performance by Wan Kuzri Wan Kamal and Ranato Kauzlaric in the midfield. Playing 2 college cup caliber teams ....without your best defensive midfielder....(Samu) and coming out with a 1-0-1 record is outstanding. It was very nice to see Captain Carlo Ritaccio in uniform. When Carlo comes back, the zips great depth will become even stronger Mailik Henry was a beast in the 2nd overtime. Great coaching decision by Jared to have Malik rested so he could run at tired legs in overtime Very proud of the Zips. playing preseason 2 and 3 in the 3rd week of the season..........great , great week for the Zips, This young team will continue to gel

Top Drawer soccer....obviously chooses the zips and the Hoosiers as a huge Friday night game https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-articles/mens-weekend-preview:-huge-friday-games_aid49843

Bezera is definitely their key guy Bezera finished 2nd last year for the hermann trophy https://www.idsnews.com/article/2021/09/star-forward-victor-bezerra-returns-from-injury-for-indiana-mens-soccer

https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer/college-national-top-100/men top drawer soccer thinks that Hoosier player Victor Bezerra is the 2nd best player in college soccer TDS has Indiana goal keeper Roman Celentano as the top rated GK in college soccer...and the 9th best player in college soccer Defender Spencer Glass is rated by TDS as the 18th best player in college soccer You will remember that TDS says that Pitt had 3 of the top 7 players in the Country. Akron, according to TDS ....has no upperclassmen worthy of being in their to 100 hmmm.....and Akron won when they played Pitt !!!! continuing the Hoosier ranking fest... Defender Daniel Munie is rated at the 36th best player in college soccer Forward Herbert Endeley is rated as the 75th best player in college soccer Akron and Indiana each had one player selected to the TDS pre season All American freshman team Freshman Best XI F: Caden Stafford (Maryland), Sandor Pelle (Yale), Ilijah Paul (Washington) M: William Reilly (Stanford), Bailey Sparks (SMU), Zemi Rodriguez (American), Tommy Mihalic (Indiana) 😧 D Kieran Sargeant (Georgetown), Dante Huckaby (Louisville), Jonas Buechte (Akron) GK: Emmanuel Smalios (St. John's) In their weekly polls this week, top drawer soccer does not have Akron in the top 25 College soccer news does not have Akron in their top 30 In this week's college soccer coaches poll (voting was done before the game against Pitt....Indiana was voted number 9 and Akron was voted number 16 https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-di-men/

Great team performance.....the defenders and GK's worked their tails off.... the forwards and wingers....were simply outstanding.... the midfielders ran all over the field...Renato has quickly become a favorite....he is feisty and does not back down Hoping that Samu will be back for Friday's big match. Samu is the best ball winner on the team as HMF Finally, it was great to see our new Athletic director on the field with his young children after the game I am so glad that Larry the Lawyer....has moved on. Charles Guthrie has made a strong first impression.