TennZip

72Roo's post raises some good points. If Charles Guthrie is diverting funds away from men's soccer to try to make the gridiron (American football) team relevant, I am as upset as anyone. I know that Charles Guthrie is very, very ambitious and likely wants to move on to a power 5 conference. As an Akron alum, I know that myself and many other soccer fans feel that Akron being a top 10 mens soccer program.....makes Akron a college that future students and alumni can feel proud about. I wear a lot of A-Roo Akron polos and I have had people in airports comment to me...."Am I correct that Akron is a powerhouse in soccer?". Many alumni take great pride in Akron soccer. I would hate to think that Akron's history of great soccer is being jeopardized by the ambitions of the current Athletic Director.. I also am not happy if NIL and the equipment providers (Adidas/Nike) are helping the Clemsons, the Stanfords and the Indianas have an unfair advantage over schools like Akron and Western Michigan and St. Louis. That being said, let me mention a few things that show that a mid major can still succeed at the highest levels of college soccer. The first link shows the top ranked schools for the 2024 recruiting period. St. Louis Billikens are #2 and the Portland Pilots are #5. It is hard for me to believe that those 2 mid-major schools are using NIL dollars and that they have lucrative equipment deals. Both schools have charismatic coaches that reach out to their fan bases and they both coach an attractive, exciting brand of soccer. The second link shows this week's top drawer men's top 25. I will list what I consider...non traditional, non power schools. - Denver #1 ; Penn #3 ; Western Michigan #8 ; Elon #10 ; Hofstra #12 ; Duquesne #18; College of Charleston #23 and Dayton #25. Do those programs have a great facility like Cub Cadet Field at First Energy Stadium? Are their resources and funding much greater than Akron (I do not know). How many of those programs have won a national title and have been to 3 college cups in the last 10 years (that answer would be zero). What I do know....is that this Akron team played great against VCU and they could have won at Kalamazoo. This team has talent and they are capable of turning this season around if the coaches and the players can start working as a team. I believe in Malik and Emil and Jonas and Mitch and others. Go, Zips !!! https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/article/?categoryId=26&articleId=53661&articleTitle=final-2024-mens-di-recruiting-rankings https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-national-rankings/men

I am very unhappy with Embick's comments in the press conference. He blames the players and offers no constructive ideas on what the coaches can do to help this team get back to winning Akron soccer. He has been the head coach for the last 12 years. He has to take responsibility for how this team is performing. It is not the first year that teams coached by this coaching staff has underachieved. This is the 6th year for this coaching staff and they have not won a single NCAA tournament game during their tenure. Furthermore, if you look at 2023, the coaching staff and players won 9 out of 18 games. YTD 2024, they have won 1 game out of 7. That is 10 wins out of the last 25 games played (that is 40 percent). It is time for the head coach to stop blaming players for not communicating on the field, falling asleep and not being able to score. I can understand his frustration. However, he should not be throwing the freshman left back substitute under the bus. Help the young man get better on the field or we will see that young man's name in the January transfer portal. Embick also said that the team has 2 MLS draftees and an MLS showcase player and they are not able to score. Malik Henry busted his behind yesterday and was consistently dangerous. Malik has worked hard and is trying to take the ball to the center of the field at times this year. Malik deserves credit for his tremendous effort and his improvement in now having an outside threat and an inside threat. I feel sorry for Emil Jaaskilainen. In my view, Emil is the best #9 that Akron has had in many, many years. He is good in the air and often directs good one touch passes off his head. Emil is also very good at hold up play and is good with the ball at his feet. Emil is also very unselfish and had 2 great assists to Dyson in the VCU game. The problem is that almost all of Emil's goal scoring opportunities have to come on headers. With the 4-2-3-1 offensive approach, Emil rarely has the ball delivered to his feet in the box and normally Emil is the only zip in the box. I am very offended by Embick's comments inferring that Emil and Malik are largely responsible for the zips not being able to score. Again, Akron soccer has been playing the same unchanged offense for the past 12 years. When are the coaches going to take some ownership to change up the offense? Opposing teams seem to get more rebound goals and deflection goals than the zips because opposing teams seem to have more offensive players in the box on their side of the field than the zips do on the opposite side of the field. How many times this year have we seen the zips #6 or one of the HMF's take the ball up the midfield and enter a pass into the box? It has not happened very often. One of the reasons that I was really excited....about the 2024 season....was the addition of 3 new exciting players. Maximus Barboto was an all league player in a league that includes highly ranked Vermont and New Hampshire. Maximus and his NJIT teammates last year defeated Vermont. Victor Gaulmin was a 3 time Div. 3 All American. Caleb Borneo was one of the top 50 ranked juniors in the 2023 recruiting class. There have been games this year where Barboto has played 0 minutes. There have been games this year where Borneo has played 0 minutes. For the most part, these 3 players (with tremendous success elsewhere) are forced to split 90 minutes between the 3 of them. I know that they are all small....but can one of the 3 play some minutes at an HMF position? When Dyson is not effective during the game (constantly losing the ball while trying to go 1 vs 2), can one of the 3 play the left winger position? Again, I know that Embick is justifiably frustrated by the team's 1-3-3 start. However, I was very offended by him making negative comments about some of his players. This team played outstanding soccer against VCU. This team was the better team against number 4 ranked Western Michigan. I would have preferred that Embick talk about the team's potential rather than making negative comments about a freshman substitute and the big 3 of Malik, Dyson and Emil. I also did not appreciate him talking about how much that Will Jackson and Joel Sangwa are missed. If the coaches don't remember, I will point out that Will Jackson will be the only zip soccer player that started almost every game over the past 5 years and never won an NCAA tournament game. IMHO, Ashton Kamdem is a huge upgrade over Will Jackson. below is a biography for Maximus Barboto 2023: Named to the TopDrawerSoccer Men's National Top 100 Postseason List. ... selected to the All-ECAC first-team. ... America East Championship Team (2nd straight season). ... a America East first-team selection, led the America East and sits tied for 15th in the nation (as of 11/26/23) in assists with 9. The 2022 America East Conference Rookie of the Year's nine assists in a single season is a new NJIT Division I record and his 13 career assists ranks fifth all-time in the NJIT Division I era. ... scored first collegiate goal against UMass Lowell (9.23.23). ...Barboto became the first Highlander player to be named Team of the Week by two different publications – CollegeSoccerNews and TopDrawerSoccer on September 9 after tallying four assists in a pair of Highlander wins that week. He was also named America East Offensive Player of the week. 2022: America East Rookie of the Year. ... America East All-Rookie Team. ... America East All-Championship Team (only freshman to be named to the team). ... 2x America East Rookie of the Week. ... played in every match but one this season (16), tallying four assists which ranks seventh in the America East. He is the son of head coach Fernando Barboto, who is in his seventh season at NJIT. ...His four assists this season ranks tied for fifth in a single season in the NJIT Division I era.

Thank you for explaining your post. If you go to the Akron zips facebook page, the comments after the IU-Indy game were very outspoken about the need for a coaching change. Former Akron Zip soccer All American Matt English Commented "Seems we should start scouting for a new coach." The comments after this game on facebook...are more of the same.

I am so depressed right now about the quality of Akron soccer......I do not understand your comment. What is TOS? I am old....and don't understand acronyms. What are you trying to say?

exactly #44 IU Indy has wins over #23 Akron and #24 Incarnate Word UIW = Incarnate Word...a true soccer power house........NOT !!!

as of 11:55 eastern time, the 1-2-3 Akron Zips are #23 in the RPI rankings 🤯 Ohio State is #11 IU Indy is #44 Western Michigan is #14 Notre Dame is #39 VCU is #85 Cleveland State is #94 obviously, the RPI is deeply flawed this early in the season https://rpiupdatemenssoccer.blogspot.com/search/label/RPI Rank

https://iuindyjags.com/news/2024/9/9/mens-soccer-jaguars-zip-past-akron-on-the-back-of-two-second-half-goals.aspx "Impressive performance and phenomenal result for the program," declared head coach Sid van Druenen following the match. "One of our goals is to represent the University at a high level and compete against any opponent and we have now done that at both Saint Louis and Akron." "I'm proud of the guys' commitment, work rate and belief all season thus far," added van Druenen. "The sky is the limit if we keep this up!" my comment on the news story - That is a phenomenal college soccer writeup. Their SID actually tried to describe the action. I like that the coach was quoted in the article. As usual, the Akron news release will look like it was written using AI. The sports information department and the mens soccer program....have both gone in the wrong direction during the Charles Guthrie administration.

The Jaguars have a record of 2-1-1. In their most recent game, they had a very impressive result they started the season with a 2-0 win over Incarnate Word. they then had a 1-0 win over Houston Christian. they then lost 4-1 to Bowling Green On Labor Day, IU Indy bounced back and played to a 1-1 tie with #6 ranked St. Louis (St. Louis had defeated Indiana 2-0 earlier in the season)

Jared talks about Remi Agunbiade at the end of the video. Matt Dreas really seems like a nice young man. Happy group of Zips at the press conference

Standing ovation for all of the zips players....and the coaching staff Again, tremendous credit to the coaches for moving Malik up to right winger. Awful weather at the end of the game.....but all of the zips played their butts off. Fantastic soccer played by the zips tonight Beto and Jonas were great in the back.... Malik and Emil were both very unselfish on the 2 goals in the 2nd half. Only negative was 5 yellow cards for zip players. Referee Soren Stojka is legendary for having a short fuse and giving yellow cards for dissent. Great job by the entire soccer team.

Best half of soccer this year. Great move by the coaching staff to move Malik up to right winger. Malik and Josh are a really good duo on the right side. Emil J......is such a smart player. He really has good vision. Emil and Malik are a handful for a team to deal with. Victor Gaulmin had a super first half as the "6" 10-1 in shots and 4-0 in shots on goal Great first half.......would love to see Malik get a goal in the 2nd half.

Joshua Hardin gets the start tonight

I admire your optimism. This program desperately needs a win. The last win for the Akron men's soccer team was on October 10, 2023. That was 332 days ago. In Akron's last 5 games of 2023, Akron had a record of 0 wins , 2 losses and 3 ties. Akron has started the season with a record of 0 wins, 1 loss and 3 ties. That means that Akron's record over the last 9 games is 0 wins ; 3 losses and 6 ties. At the end of 2018, there is not a single zip fan that could have imagined going 9 games without a single win. That being said, this team has many talented players. They played very well at Notre Dame and at Western Michigan. They could have earned a win in each game. The 2018 national final team had a record of 6-6-2 or 6-6-1 at one point. That team finished with a record of 15-7-2. When I look at the lineup for that 2018 team, I see Midfield - Skye Harter, Morgan Hackworth, freshman Sam Tojaga Defense - Carol Ritaccio, Marco Milanese, Abdi Mohammed, Daniel Strachan Forward and winger - David Egbo, Colin Biros and Marcel Zajac When I look at the talent on this 2024 team, I honestly think that this 2024 team has more talent than the 2018 national finalist team. the talent in the midfield.....on this team....is much , much better ....in my never a soccer player Opinion Maximus Barboto was all ECAC as a freshman and sophomore...He was also named to the top drawer soccer 100 best players in college soccer list Victor Gaulmin - division 3 all american for his last 3 years at St. Olaf Caleb Borneo - was rated by top drawer soccer(TDS) as one of the top 50 recruits in the 2023 recruiting class. About 30 to 35 of the TDS top 50 went pro and did not go to college. Caleb Borneo has the skill set to do great things at Akron. Matt Dreas and WKWK.....compare very favorably to a young Sam Tojaga Defense I love the collection of outside back talent on this team Malik Henry, Ashton Kamdem, James Buebendorf and Josh Hardin are all high quality. Jonas Buechte was a preseason All Big East team pick.....Jonas is as good or better than Ritaccio or Milanese Forwards and Wingers Emil J. scored 43 goals at LIU. Before the 2023 season started, Emil was selected to the TDS pre season top 11. I prefer Emil J......over David Egbo from 2018 Stefan D....was a top 100 rated recruit Dyson Clapier......Before the 2023 season started, Dyson was rated as the 4th best college player in the nation by TDS. We all remember that the 2018 season was saved when Marcel Zajac went on an unbelievable spell of incredible, top notch soccer. Does Dyson or Stefan have the ability to do what Zajac did in 2018? That is to be determined. This team.....has a lot of new faces. They have the talent to recover from an 0-1-3 start. It will not be easy. The coaches will need to make adjustments and continue to learn what each new player is capable of. The players will have to focus for a full 90 minutes and they will have to keep each other positive. They need to get several wins in a row before the Big East season begins.

Mercyhurst University in Erie, PA......did something tonight...that the zips were unable to do on Labor Day Cleveland, OH. - It was a historic night for the Mercyhurst Men's Soccer team as they not only picked up their first win of the season by defeating Cleveland State 2-0, but it was their first win as a Division 1 program.

Georgetown had a good 1-0 win over a solid UNC- Greensboro team former Akron GK Seth Wilson made 5 saves for UNC-G Cleveland State 3 Chicago State 1 Michigan State 1 Villanova 0 Marquette 1 Yale 0

Akron led 15 to 8 in shots Akron led 8 to 3 in shots on goal Akron led 7 to 4 in corner kicks Akron appeared to have the majority of the time on the ball However, Akron was called for 19 fouls. Akron players were getting knocked down everywhere... WMU was only called for 9 fouls. https://wmubroncos.com/news/2024/8/30/mens-soccer-mens-soccer-ties-akron-1-1.aspx

Proud of the zips they got kicked in the teeth on Sunday night they fought and battled today Dyson Clapier was very active today......his best game this year. Prayers and good thoughts for Ashton Kamdem. His injury does not look good.

interesting adjustment to switch Dyson from left wing to right wing and move Stefan to left wing Having Dyson and Malik on same side....is a lot of speed nice assist by Malik.....on the goal..... young Canadian freshman Simon Guardiero....doing well in first start...

Simon Guardiero getting the start as Beto Ydrach will miss the next several matches due to playing for Puerto Rico national team

when WMU released their fall schedule, they bragged that they were 3-1-1 from 2019 to 2022 against the zips.