TennZip

Jared talks about Joe Bowles and Tor Saunders in the video https://gozips.com/news/2019/10/4/mens-soccer-zips-encounter-no-10-florida-international.aspx

Mr. Daniel Strachan featured this week

https://fiusports.com/news/2019/10/1/mens-soccer-fiu-rises-to-no-13-in-the-nation.aspx Florida International(FIU) has not lost this year. They are 7-0-2 and ranked #13 in the country. They have scored 29 goals in 9 games. FIU defeated Old Dominion 5-0 this season(I am sure that long time zips fans know that Old Dominion is good...long time fans remember Old Dominion 4 Akron 1..from 2015) FIU's most impressive win this year was over James Madison(JMU) JMU advanced to NCAA quarters last year. In 2nd game of the season, FIU defeated JMU 3-1 (on Sept. 17, JMU upset #1 wake forest 1-0) JMU is 8-2 this year (their other loss was to Florida Atlantic) FIU played Florida Atlantic this year.....FIU won 6-1 FIU can score some goals..... should be a very exciting soccer game on Saturday night

......because someone had to start it

https://www.ohio.com/sports/20191002/university-of-akron-mens-soccer-zips-blank-vcu-2-0-for-first-win I think for us it’s about finding our game,” UA coach Jared Embick said. “I think we’ve proven over history that when we start to find our game and play Akron soccer we can beat anybody anywhere. What this shows is that we’re starting to come together. “People may think there’s not enough time, but I think as long as we have another 90 minutes there’s always enough time. There’s no place we can’t win at. No team that can beat us when we play our game.”

Daniel Strachan has been a warrior all year. Great effort every game.

good first half ?

Daniel Strachan as a holding midfielder Colin Biros left outside forward Will Jackson in the middle up front...normal David Egbo spot David will be midfielder up front

This will be great exposure for Richie

Steve French and Oliver Slawson doing the radio broadcast ☺️ Steve French really does a good job on soccer coverage https://gozips.com/news/2019/10/1/mens-soccer-zips-open-october-mens-soccer-slate-hosting-vcu.aspx

Zips need to concentrate one game at a time.... but VCU certainly seems to be the most winnable game of the next 3. The opponent on October 5...FIU is 7-0-2. In their 2nd game of the year, FIU defeated James Madison 3-1 2 weeks after that game....James Madison upset #1 Wake Forest. after the game against FIU, the zips travel to play Butler. Butler defeated the Indiana Hoosiers 2-1 last week rooting for the team to get to 1-7-0.....then they can worry about the upcoming roadblocks https://fiusports.com/schedule.aspx?schedule=237

First off, I am glad to see some discussion on this board. with a night's sleep, the statement above...I even more strongly disagree with the statement above. Who on this team this year has been better at right back...than Abdi Mohammed? Bradley Chick is going to hopefully have a long outstanding zips career...if he does not become discouraged by the losing and lack of effort from some of his teammates. However, Bradley had almost no time to acclimate to his teammates and Bradley has been battling leg injuries almost all season. Certainly, you can not be saying that Carlo Ritaccio, as the right back in the Cornell game, was better than Abdi Mohammed. Carlo is a quality center back (although his pass distribution has not been stellar this year). As a right back, he is not currently a match for Abdi Mohammed. Take off your rose colored glasses. Can you truly say that the David Egbo that we have seen in 2019 is better than the David Egbo that we saw in late 2018. Sam Tojaga and Morgan Hackworth were both outstanding down the stretch in 2018. Sam was winning balls in the midfield in late 2018. Sam is not winning balls in the midfield in 2019. This team has talent and I have not given up on them. Last year's team , on paper, probably did not have the talent to beat Wake Forest and Stanford on their home field. However, they followed Jared's game plan and they played as a team and with great effort. This year's team has too much talent to be totally dominated at Pitt and way too much talent to lose to Marshall and to Cornell. Yes, they had one great possession goal at Marshall....but they lost focus and gave up 2 soft goals to an inferior team.

Which outside forward on this year's team are you saying....is stronger than Marcel Zajac? this team is badly missing Marcel Zajac. Will Jackson is going to be a very good player....but Marcel Zajac was truly outstanding in the tournament run. Zajac was my zips MVP in the MAC tourney and NCAA tourney. Also, do not underestimate the loss of Morgan Hackworth. Morgan might not have the athletic ability of some on this team but he was a coach's son. Morgan was very technically sound and he was the ultimate team player. Morgan made others on the field better. He rarely made sloppy giveaways in the midfield and he won a large portion of 50/50 balls. I certainly was not comparing any midfielder in skill level to any of the greats. To your point, Tojaga and Cruz are playing against less skilled players. I was saying that this current group of players could learn by watching tapes of Kitchen to see how he competed and how he won so many air and ground battles for free balls.

no commentary really needed for the corner kick. The zips look like a team not focused....and like a team that wanted the game to be over

YipaZip, Zip_ME87 has been the only Non-parent that has been to all 5 road games this year. Truth be told, there are probably akron-cleveland area parents that have not been to all 5 road games. This is not a criticism of the parents of the local players. Traveling to Omaha, Huntington, College Park, MD, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh is very expensive and time consuming. Zip_ME87's love and support for this team is undeniable. YipaZip, did you travel to Wake Forest for the round of 16 last year and did you travel to Louisville for the NCAA quarters in 2017? YipaZip, Fknuflobo, ZIP_ME87 and many other "regular fans have been following the zips for 10+ , 20+ , 30+ years. They are not band wagon fans. I am more disgusted by season ticket holders that only show up for NCAA tournament games. I distinctly remember myself being at a late October home game in 2016 when the zips lost 3-0 in 2016 to a bad West Virginia team. I was living in TN at the time and was only to make it to 3 home games that year(I did fly to LA that year to see zip games at SD State and UCLA). I would have got up and left that late October 2016 game in disgust if I had been to all 11 home games. Since I had not been to many games, I kept hoping that the team would get better during the game. That zip team in October 2016....made very little effort in that game. Yes, this team is talented. Yes, Jared, Ger and Michael Nanchoff are all great coaches. ZipaZip, are you going to criticize Jared for criticizing the players that were arguing on the field about passes that did not get made? YipaZip, are you going to criticize Jared for saying that all 11 players are not making a good effort for all 90 minutes? Bottom line, this team is not playing the kind of soccer that Akron soccer fans have seen over the last 65 years. All year long, we have seen one center back (on most pre-season all american teams) pass the ball almost exclusively to the other center back or to Sam Tojaga, the holding defensive midfielder. There have been many times when Bradley Chick or the right def. back has been begging for the ball. Akron soccer, especially in the Porter/Embick era, has been about spreading the field. Akron soccer is about giving your teammate a thumbs up when they have made a good pass...that did not lead to results. Akron soccer is about helping your young teammates with good suggestions, and not with whining criticism. I have not seen enough of the team support and leadership that I am used to seeing. David Egbo is one of the most brilliant, talented forwards in zips history. I will be kind and say that David sometimes get down and distracted when calls don't go the way that that he wants. Great goal scorers like Josef Martinez and Carlos Vela don't get down when things are not going well. This Akron team is not winning 50/50 balls in the midfield. Jared has said that many times in post game interviews or pre match interviews. Akron has been fortunate over the years to have tremendous ball winners in the holding midfield (Zemanski, Perry Kitchen, Victor Souto, Will Trapp). For this team to play true Akron soccer, Sam Tojaga and Henrique Cruz and Colin Biros must win more balls in the midfield. (perhaps , it is time to watch some game film of Perry Kitchen, the warrior from Indianapolis?) Jared has consistently said that this team is losing the 1 vs. 1 battles for the ball. That is a nice way of us saying that they are being outhustled. After the Pitt game, I posted that I hoped that the beatdown in that game....would be a gut check game for this team. I posted that I believed in the coaches and the talent on this team. In the last 2 games, the team has not focused for a full 90 minutes (Jared's words....not mine)....and they are arguing among themselves (Jared's words, not mine). I love Skye Harter....He is creative. He is hard working. I expected him to be a great captain this year. His off season surgery has prevented Skye from being the great on field leader that I expected him to be. I only want to see Skye back on the field when he is really close to being healthy. That being said, that puts a bigger burden on David Egbo as a captain to help the guys up front and for Carlo and Daniel Strachan as captains to help Bradley Chick, Tom Smart and the new guys in the midfield. I posted that after the Pitt game....that something had to change. Something has changed....as the last 2 games....did not show the effort and talent that the zips showed against Stanford. Soccer is a very hard game with no margin for error. The 2010 team was one of the most dominant teams that I have ever seen. However, they came so perilously close to losing to Cal on a bitterly cold, snowy day in the NCAA quarters. I was not a fan of the "unfinished business" signs and tweets from the athletic department early this year. That made it sound like the finalist team from last year.....could just step out on the field and get the results that they wanted. Colin Biros in the beacon article....said that the team probably thought that things would come easier to this group of talented guys. This team is in crisis. 0-7-0 is not good. Let's start the year afresh.....with a motto like "Soccer is hard, we are very good. and we will work harder than anyone else to get the results that we want". The coaches can't do it by themselves....David Egbo can't do it by himself, Carlo can't do it by himself........Zip soccer.......11 guys.....rooting and pulling for each other ....and working together to improve.......is the answer.

change at goal keeper Pol Hernandez and Johnny Fitzgerald get the start

https://www.ohio.com/sports/20190927/university-of-akron-soccer-zips-hoping-for-fresh-start-at-home-after-0-6-start

number 4 in this series

Marla Ridenour article Skye Harter is very important to the success of this team. I am glad that this article informs fans of the physical injuries that Skye has been dealing with. https://www.ohio.com/sports/20190926/marla-ridenour-ua-mens-soccers-0-6-start-puts-master-psychologist-jared-embick-to-his-sternest-test