TennZip

James Madison just scored at 31;39 to go up 1-0 at Michigan State... winner faces the mighty zips in the semis

https://the18.com/soccer-news/akron-goal-vs-stanford-34-passes-ncaa

You mention the skill of Marco Micaletto in your comment. Mr. Micaletto and so many others are what impress me so much about the growth of this team and the skill of the coaching staff and the work ethic of many of these young men. It is so hard to play soccer in one system for 3 years and then come to Akron for the senior year. It was obvious that both Marco Micaletto and Abdi Mohamed had some growing pains in the adjustment. Abdi also had to deal with a position change. Both Abdi and Marco Micaletto are both playing some fantastic soccer right now and have made enormous changes to their games to help the team win. Tremendous credit to their unselfishness, hard work and also to the coaches for finding the right fit for them. Colin Biros has become an outstanding contributor to the team over the last half of the season. Colin is not the biggest kid on the field but his work ethic is unrivaled. Great credit goes to Colin for his development over the year. Daniel Strachan was a huge part of last year's final four team. It has been a learning process for the coaching staff and Daniel to find the best fit for Daniel with this group of young men. I believe that Daniel has started 2 of the last 3 games in place of Pol. Credit to the coaching staff for knowing the teams and the games when Daniel's talents would be most effective. Daniel also deserves a lot of praise for dealing with not being a starter for every game like he was in 17 and contributing greatly when he has been given the chance to start in huge games. Finally, Ezana Kahsay. Ezana;s give and go with Marcel for the 2nd goal was incredible soccer and was beautiful. Can any of us have envisioned 2-3 years ago that Ezana would make a beautiful, instinctive soccer play that would lead to a magnificent goal in a win over Stanford? Ezana has grown so much over his 5 years with Akron. He is really contributing and he has matured greatly. I am only able to make it to 2-3 home games a year. Many people that sit around me in section 203 have bashed Ezana unmercifully over the last several years. I am very proud of this young man from Eritrea and how he has grown to be a huge contributor. This team would not be going to the college cup without the growth and development during the year of Marco Micaletto, Abdi, Ezana, Colin , Daniel and so many others. Jared Embick and his coaching staff deserve great praise for believing in each young man and finding their best attributes on the soccer field. Sermon over.....Extremely proud of these young men and their coaches.

former Akron U. president Matthew Wilson has been supporting the zips in every tournament game

There is a college soccer talk board on big soccer.com. There are many people on that board that know 200 times more about soccer than I do. There is one man...who is an ACC and Virginia fan...that has incredible knowledge about college soccer. The man is not a fan of the Stanford rough style soccer. His comments about Coach Embick are spot on. This man's comments this morning are below in bold On behalf of all of us who don't like PKs at the College Cup, thank you! Also, congratulations. There was a time this season when the NCAA Tournament seemed in doubt so this is really impressive. And hats off to Jared Embick, who has now taken Akron to the College Cup three times in four seasons. That's a very impressive accomplishment and one Caleb Porter, Ken Lolla and Steve Parker never did. I don't think Akron fans revere Embick yet the way they do some of their former coaches. Perhaps that should change.

https://gostanford.com/news/2018/11/30/mens-soccer-someone-else-this-year.aspx "They're a fantastic team and you can't afford to give them a head start," Knowles Family Director of Men's Soccer Jeremy Gunn said of Akron. "They settled into the game better than we did, they got the early goal and were going to be more confident the rest of the game. They deserve to be going to the final four and we congratulate them for it. We fought back, we gave it everything we had and then they scored a great goal to end it." "You can't argue for a more exciting game," Gunn said. "It had everything you needed. We just fell short to a very good team on the night. I thought our boys fought incredibly and when we got to 2-2 we looked good. Absolute credit to Akron, though. They settled the game down again and the goal they scored was fantastic."

Marcel Zajac's header assist to Colin...was beautiful

Jake will be cheering the guys on in Santa Barbara

first goal also beautiful

2nd goal...beautiful work by Marcel and Ezana

https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/club-soccer-articles/boys-da-winter-showcase:-goals-galore_aid45566 this is a premium top drawer soccer article...so most of you won't be able to access it... A 2019 zip recruit did get mentioned in the article M Will Jackson, Internationals SC – The Akron recruit showed well ahead of a big game for the Zips, scoring three times on the way to a 5-2 victory against Albion SC.

A stalwart from the 2015 final four team ...also wished the zips well

https://www.sfchronicle.com/collegesports/article/Tanner-Beason-anchors-defense-as-Stanford-pursues-13432739.php nice to see a major paper like the san francisco paper giving coverage to college soccer Stanford has been the 8 or 9 seed...each of the past several years.... they figure it out during the season....(just like the zips do)...and are brutally tough on defense when it comes to tournament time

article from this morning's Beacon https://www.ohio.com/sports/20181129/college-soccer-defending-champion-stanford-again-stands-in-way-for-ua

good to see the Canton paper giving some coverage to father and son. Colin has improved so much during the season. Thanks for finding this good article.

Travis Clark is once again doing his predictions He is predicting that there will be 3 big ten teams in the college cup there will definitely be one unseeded team (the winner of James Madison vs. Michigan State).... I am hoping that there are 2 https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-articles/mens-division-i-quarterfinal-preview_aid45559

zips twitter....doing a good job....in explaining...that you can't pay just to watch this one game on pac 12

I love the celebration photo in the e-mail advertising photo They are doing a good job promoting this event... I have been critical of the athletic dept over the years for lack of promotion...but I will give them a well done on this one... living 650 miles away from Akron, I will not be at the watch party....but I hope that there are lots of NEO fans....that are there cheering the hard working guys there are 30 some soccer zips...I think only 22 guys travel...so I would that the guys redshirting this year will be at the watch party Go zips...Thank You Larry Williams and the athletic department for making this happen

amazing scoreless streak...BUT !!! check out the last person to score a run of play goal against them !!! can you say 1-0 Zip win....with Abdi scoring the Zip goal ? I am predicting it and it will happen !!! https://gostanford.com/news/2018/11/28/mens-soccer-quarterfinal-at-cagan.aspx The Cardinal owns an active NCAA-record postseason shutout streak of 14 consecutive matches and 1,414:20 of match time. It last surrendered an NCAA tournament goal in the quarterfinals at Wake Forest on Dec. 5, 2015, an Ian Harkes penalty in the 70th minute. Stanford hasn't conceded a goal during the run of play in the tournament in the last 1,512:37, since Ohio State's Abdi Mohamed headed one home at 61:41 in a third-round match on Nov. 29, 2015.

Marla Ridenour article in the Beacon about Abdi and the 3 freshman https://www.ohio.com/sports/20181128/university-of-akron-mens-soccer-zips-get-right-answer-to-crucial-back-line-question-as-senior-transfer-bonds-with-three-freshmen