Penn State

[bisbee]

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on soccer.

To me...I don't think the Zips are as good as we hoped they would be. They seem to have lots of talent but are not yet functioning as a TEAM at a high level. They are a dangerous team near the goal but they do not aggressively attack. I don't understand the strategy of throwing the ball in from their "10 yard line" and passing it all the way back to our goalie to reset. Is it just to take time off the clock?? I would hope that once we have the ball deep in their end that we would attack...we have creative guys who can score.

In the end...I only care that the Zips win. And they beat Penn State at home. Penn State would never consider coming to Akron in my day.

I don't know how "good" they ought to be. Halfway through a huge rebuilding job and starting 3 freshmen they have only a single loss and are ranked number 5 on latest NSCAA poll. That to me,at this point,is outstanding.

[Doug Snyder]

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on soccer.

To me...I don't think the Zips are as good as we hoped they would be. They seem to have lots of talent but are not yet functioning as a TEAM at a high level. They are a dangerous team near the goal but they do not aggressively attack. I don't understand the strategy of throwing the ball in from their "10 yard line" and passing it all the way back to our goalie to reset. Is it just to take time off the clock?? I would hope that once we have the ball deep in their end that we would attack...we have creative guys who can score.

In the end...I only care that the Zips win. And they beat Penn State at home. Penn State would never consider coming to Akron in my day.

I don't know how "good" they ought to be. Halfway through a huge rebuilding job and starting 3 freshmen they have only a single loss and are ranked number 5 on latest NSCAA poll. That to me,at this point,is outstanding.

I think they are good...maybe can develop to be the best this year. I am very impressed that we are doing this wilth freshmen. My point is I think we are not in the to 5 right now. We need to play together more and learn the system. Way to many bad passes and to much passivity. Again...I am NOT an expert.

Why the pass all the way back to our goalie from deep in their zone?? I just don't understand the strategy.

[bobbyake]

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on soccer.

To me...I don't think the Zips are as good as we hoped they would be. They seem to have lots of talent but are not yet functioning as a TEAM at a high level. They are a dangerous team near the goal but they do not aggressively attack. I don't understand the strategy of throwing the ball in from their "10 yard line" and passing it all the way back to our goalie to reset. Is it just to take time off the clock?? I would hope that once we have the ball deep in their end that we would attack...we have creative guys who can score.

In the end...I only care that the Zips win. And they beat Penn State at home. Penn State would never consider coming to Akron in my day.

I don't know how "good" they ought to be. Halfway through a huge rebuilding job and starting 3 freshmen they have only a single loss and are ranked number 5 on latest NSCAA poll. That to me,at this point,is outstanding.

I think they are good...maybe can develop to be the best this year. I am very impressed that we are doing this wilth freshmen. My point is I think we are not in the to 5 right now. We need to play together more and learn the system. Way to many bad passes and to much passivity. Again...I am NOT an expert.

Why the pass all the way back to our goalie from deep in their zone?? I just don't understand the strategy.

It's a strategy to pull the other team's defense out. You see this a lot with teams that are good at countering. Easier to beat a few defenders with speed than trying to force one through the entire team.

[tbozeglav]

hasily made and totally randomly organized review of the Zips Win over PSU:

• The weather dictated the game more than anything. The slick, wet conditions made it difficult for our guys to make the quick cuts we usually are able to make when in full control of the ball
  
• PSU on the other hand did not seem to have much of an issue with the ball throughout the match, mainly because theyre bigger and not as nimble as our guys. In these instances, quick, nimble, and finess players seem to suffer due to lack of traction and less ability to control the ball.
  
• This was yet another very biased game by the refereeing crew today. I could be wrong (havent seen the foul differential yet), but it seemed PSU was getting pretty soft fouls. However, I will say it was hard for me to see if in those instances PSU got ball before contact. Either way, not very impressed by the refereeing today.
  
• Meves... come on, I give you praises last week and this is how you perform? How many times did he kick it out of bounds tonight? 5? I didnt keep track. Point is, those errors on his part could have been costly. I understand, it was wet and hard to really get a good whack at the ball, but come on... put the ball more midfield if youre having issues keeping it in bounds
  
• PSU did a good job today of disrupting our passing and getting in the lanes. It was VERY evident they studied the UCSB game because I saw much of the same play as when we faced UCSB.
  
• Andrw (PSU's goalie), should have gotten carded there at the end when he kept moving the ball up when the ref wasn't looking. That was total bull if you ask me
  
• Speaking of bull, did anyone else see the EXTREMELY delayed reaction to PSU's guy there at the end to stop the clock? I swear i could have counted to 5-6 between the contact and when he finally went to his knees. What a total joke and unsportsmanlike thing to do, if you ask me. Maybe I am wrong, so feel free to chime in there.
  
• Getting back to the actual game... either one of 2 things was happening today: 1) We were AGAIN passing too much inside the box and not trying to take shots, or 2) PSU was doing a fantastic job of defending in that final 3rd. It just seemed as though every time we would press the ball inside the box we'd lose it because of passing. Where's the attack?
  
• Great to see Luke get back into the game today. Made some good moves and looked pretty solid out there. Wonder what it was that kept him from playing?
  
• VERY disappointed to see PSU control the ball as much as they did post-red card. I had flashes of 2010 against OSU when they got a red card about the same time into the 2nd half when that happened. It seemed as though we werent able to posses and control the ball like we should when they're a man down.
  
• To those who still think the Zips played a lackluster game, WEATHER IS THE GREAT EQUALIZER
  

On the side... what was the red card for? I didn't get a chance to see what it was.

[Dave in Green]

I recall last year's Zips team passing all the way back to the goalie more than once, and at some point developing a freight train that roared down to the other end and produced good shots on goal. So I don't have a problem with that strategy. It's just that this young team isn't yet coupling up all the cars in the train.

We know the Zips have a great coach, and we know the Zips get good players, so it may just be a matter of time before they get that train highballing. It's just a littly scary to be halfway through the season with the defending national champs still not playing with a full head of steam.

[Doug Snyder]

It's a strategy to pull the other team's defense out. You see this a lot with teams that are good at countering. Easier to beat a few defenders with speed than trying to force one through the entire team.

Thanks

[Doug Snyder]

WEATHER IS THE GREAT EQUALIZER

Well...we better get used to the weather. This is Akron, not Phoenix

[bobbyake]

Videos from the game:

[bisbee]

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on soccer.

To me...I don't think the Zips are as good as we hoped they would be. They seem to have lots of talent but are not yet functioning as a TEAM at a high level. They are a dangerous team near the goal but they do not aggressively attack. I don't understand the strategy of throwing the ball in from their "10 yard line" and passing it all the way back to our goalie to reset. Is it just to take time off the clock?? I would hope that once we have the ball deep in their end that we would attack...we have creative guys who can score.

In the end...I only care that the Zips win. And they beat Penn State at home. Penn State would never consider coming to Akron in my day.

I don't know how "good" they ought to be. Halfway through a huge rebuilding job and starting 3 freshmen they have only a single loss and are ranked number 5 on latest NSCAA poll. That to me,at this point,is outstanding.

I think they are good...maybe can develop to be the best this year. I am very impressed that we are doing this wilth freshmen. My point is I think we are not in the to 5 right now. We need to play together more and learn the system. Way to many bad passes and to much passivity. Again...I am NOT an expert.

Why the pass all the way back to our goalie from deep in their zone?? I just don't understand the strategy.

Actually right now we have moved ahead of Creighton who lost today. We currently should be at #4. Keep winning and due to the fact that Maryland and North carolina still play each other we control our own destiny and should be a top 4 seed if we can win out. Our schedule makes that extremely likely.

[bisbee]

hasily made and totally randomly organized review of the Zips Win over PSU:

• The weather dictated the game more than anything. The slick, wet conditions made it difficult for our guys to make the quick cuts we usually are able to make when in full control of the ball
  
• PSU on the other hand did not seem to have much of an issue with the ball throughout the match, mainly because theyre bigger and not as nimble as our guys. In these instances, quick, nimble, and finess players seem to suffer due to lack of traction and less ability to control the ball.
  
• This was yet another very biased game by the refereeing crew today. I could be wrong (havent seen the foul differential yet), but it seemed PSU was getting pretty soft fouls. However, I will say it was hard for me to see if in those instances PSU got ball before contact. Either way, not very impressed by the refereeing today.
  
• Meves... come on, I give you praises last week and this is how you perform? How many times did he kick it out of bounds tonight? 5? I didnt keep track. Point is, those errors on his part could have been costly. I understand, it was wet and hard to really get a good whack at the ball, but come on... put the ball more midfield if youre having issues keeping it in bounds
  
• PSU did a good job today of disrupting our passing and getting in the lanes. It was VERY evident they studied the UCSB game because I saw much of the same play as when we faced UCSB.
  
• Andrw (PSU's goalie), should have gotten carded there at the end when he kept moving the ball up when the ref wasn't looking. That was total bull if you ask me
  
• Speaking of bull, did anyone else see the EXTREMELY delayed reaction to PSU's guy there at the end to stop the clock? I swear i could have counted to 5-6 between the contact and when he finally went to his knees. What a total joke and unsportsmanlike thing to do, if you ask me. Maybe I am wrong, so feel free to chime in there.
  
• Getting back to the actual game... either one of 2 things was happening today: 1) We were AGAIN passing too much inside the box and not trying to take shots, or 2) PSU was doing a fantastic job of defending in that final 3rd. It just seemed as though every time we would press the ball inside the box we'd lose it because of passing. Where's the attack?
  
• Great to see Luke get back into the game today. Made some good moves and looked pretty solid out there. Wonder what it was that kept him from playing?
  
• VERY disappointed to see PSU control the ball as much as they did post-red card. I had flashes of 2010 against OSU when they got a red card about the same time into the 2nd half when that happened. It seemed as though we werent able to posses and control the ball like we should when they're a man down.
  
• To those who still think the Zips played a lackluster game, WEATHER IS THE GREAT EQUALIZER
  

On the side... what was the red card for? I didn't get a chance to see what it was.

I don't know what sort of cleats the players were wearing. In wet weather,on grass,studs are the thing you want.

[fknbuflobo]

Wish I understood soccer better. I just can't understand how a team like PSU that's obviously not great can be a man down on the Zips home field and be taking all the action to the Zips' end. The Zips appear to be a skilled team, yet they're playing flat. It's almost as if they're playing conservatively for a 1-0 win, and taking a big risk that one of the PSU attacks is eventually going to score and even things up. You'd think a team of the Zips stature would be focused on putting the nail in the coffin and scoring another goal. Yet they just can't seem to get connected at the other end.

The more I watch soccer, the more confused I get!

Do not be confused; you are seeing things correctly. See Porter's post game interview. He says pretty much what you said. That second half was NOT championship soccer.

[jem101]

Couple quick thoughts:

1) Zips played the ball through the middle the whole night. Once they got towards the box the ball went to the center of the box. Yedlin and Stevenson hardly saw the ball. Yedlin especially kept trying to make runs, but wasn't getting any passes. Wonder if that was intentional due to the size of #4 for PSU. Maybe they didn't think they'd have much luck connecting with crosses? Seemed ant-Porter soccer to me though.

2) Schmitt played great last night! He had some incredible moves and hustled all over the place. Love the way he plays! Wouldn't mind seeing a Schmitt, Mattocks and Holmes front line.

3) Barson almost scored a SC Top Ten goal. That bike would have been sick! Keeper wasn't quite far enough off his line though. Also, in the Rowdies' celebration afterwards, Barson's eye looked pretty nasty. Hope he is OK from that high kick!

[fknbuflobo]

Couple quick thoughts:

1) Zips played the ball through the middle the whole night. Once they got towards the box the ball went to the center of the box. Yedlin and Stevenson hardly saw the ball. Yedlin especially kept trying to make runs, but wasn't getting any passes. Wonder if that was intentional due to the size of #4 for PSU. Maybe they didn't think they'd have much luck connecting with crosses? Seemed ant-Porter soccer to me though.

I noticed the same thing. Curious.

#4 will likely play at the next level, maybe A league. He is pretty good; I remember him from previous years.

2) Schmitt played great last night! He had some incredible moves and hustled all over the place. Love the way he plays! Wouldn't mind seeing a Schmitt, Mattocks and Holmes front line.

Schmitty is in form!

3) Barson almost scored a SC Top Ten goal. That bike would have been sick! Keeper wasn't quite far enough off his line though. Also, in the Rowdies' celebration afterwards, Barson's eye looked pretty nasty. Hope he is OK from that high kick!

I've had worse. He probably has had worse too. As long as the eyeball if intact, he will be fine. Doctors inspected him thoroughly on the sideline.

[Ando]

Did porter sound a little under the weather during the postmatch interview to anyone else?

[zip37]

Frenchie thought the ref saw the 'head stomp' as intentional, the streaming crew after review [i suppose] agreed. CP sounded like hw had a touch of something.

[jem101]

Frenchie thought the ref saw the 'head stomp' as intentional, the streaming crew after review [i suppose] agreed. CP sounded like hw had a touch of something.

I didn't see the stomp, but have to give the ref credit for going over and talking to the linesman before making the decision.

[bigzipguy]

As far as the red card call, I was at the opposite end of the field and did not witness what exactly happened. Going over to the Penn State web site, they are stating that it appeared the Lion player was just coming up from the ground and was trying to jump over the Akron player to get back into play??

[Crew8]

One thing that was annoying last night was the amount of substitutions Penn State used. I know it was due to the red card, but this might of been partly the reason our boys couldn't take over the game down the stretch in the second half being up a man. Penn State used 17 different players in 19 substitution situations. (3 before the Red card). Akron made 2 substitutions (1 due to Barson's injury for 5 minutes). So in reality Akron would've only used 1 sub.

Similar matches were Cal Northridge and Cal Poly(lots of subs used)

Just goes to show Porter prepares and develops his players for the next level.

[Doug Snyder]

One thing that was annoying last night was the amount of substitutions Penn State used. I know it was due to the red card, but this might of been partly the reason our boys couldn't take over the game down the stretch in the second half being up a man. Penn State used 17 different players in 19 substitution situations. (3 before the Red card). Akron made 2 substitutions (1 due to Barson's injury for 5 minutes). So in reality Akron would've only used 1 sub.

Similar matches were Cal Northridge and Cal Poly(lots of subs used)

Just goes to show Porter prepares and develops his players for the next level.

Are there any substitution retrictions in college soccer?? I thought the rules were similar to international rules.

[Dave in Green]

Do not be confused; you are seeing things correctly. See Porter's post game interview. He says pretty much what you said. That second half was NOT championship soccer.

Thanks. I was hoping my eye for sports would carry over at least a little for soccer. The more soccer I watch, the less boring the lack of scoring gets. There's a lot going on outside of scoring that's both interesting and entertaining.

Others have already made the point that the Zips are more of a finesse team, and the teams with bigger, stronger players try to counter that with physical, intimidating play. PSU did seem to be playing a similar style to UCSB, only without the same talent level that allowed UCSB to come out on top.

While I'm a little concerned about what one of the top physical teams might do to the Zips if we were in postseason play right now, there's still time for the young Zips to gel.

Watching the webcast last night, there were clearly times when the Zips' quick passing, ball control offense was almost there, but continued to falter with minor breakdowns.

It's easy to imagine this Zips team with a little more experience together and fine-tuning being able to control the game and score more often against even the top physical teams.

[Crew8]

One thing that was annoying last night was the amount of substitutions Penn State used. I know it was due to the red card, but this might of been partly the reason our boys couldn't take over the game down the stretch in the second half being up a man. Penn State used 17 different players in 19 substitution situations. (3 before the Red card). Akron made 2 substitutions (1 due to Barson's injury for 5 minutes). So in reality Akron would've only used 1 sub.

Similar matches were Cal Northridge and Cal Poly(lots of subs used)

Just goes to show Porter prepares and develops his players for the next level.

Are there any substitution retrictions in college soccer?? I thought the rules were similar to international rules.

Nope, unlimited substitutions. However, a player cannot re-enter a game in the same half that he left in.

EDIT: No re-entry in the first half - One re-entry in the second half

[bisbee]

Couple quick thoughts:

1) Zips played the ball through the middle the whole night. Once they got towards the box the ball went to the center of the box. Yedlin and Stevenson hardly saw the ball. Yedlin especially kept trying to make runs, but wasn't getting any passes. Wonder if that was intentional due to the size of #4 for PSU. Maybe they didn't think they'd have much luck connecting with crosses? Seemed ant-Porter soccer to me though.

2) Schmitt played great last night! He had some incredible moves and hustled all over the place. Love the way he plays! Wouldn't mind seeing a Schmitt, Mattocks and Holmes front line.

3) Barson almost scored a SC Top Ten goal. That bike would have been sick! Keeper wasn't quite far enough off his line though. Also, in the Rowdies' celebration afterwards, Barson's eye looked pretty nasty. Hope he is OK from that high kick!

I totally agree with your observation about not playing the ball to the outside. I have noticed this to be a problem all season long. Too much emphasis on playing straight ahead. Playing laterally consistently would open up the middle and allow an attack to occur from any point on the field. They are being too predictibe.

[Z.I.P.]

One thing that was annoying last night was the amount of substitutions Penn State used. I know it was due to the red card, but this might of been partly the reason our boys couldn't take over the game down the stretch in the second half being up a man. Penn State used 17 different players in 19 substitution situations. (3 before the Red card). Akron made 2 substitutions (1 due to Barson's injury for 5 minutes). So in reality Akron would've only used 1 sub.

Similar matches were Cal Northridge and Cal Poly(lots of subs used)

Just goes to show Porter prepares and develops his players for the next level.

Are there any substitution retrictions in college soccer?? I thought the rules were similar to international rules.

Nope, unlimited substitutions. However, a player cannot re-enter a game in the same half that he left in.

EDIT: No re-entry in the first half - One re-entry in the second half

I wish I knew for sure -- I thought it was the opposite -- no re-entry for second half. Can someone find the actual rules on line? -- I've looked and can't find.

[bisbee]

One thing that was annoying last night was the amount of substitutions Penn State used. I know it was due to the red card, but this might of been partly the reason our boys couldn't take over the game down the stretch in the second half being up a man. Penn State used 17 different players in 19 substitution situations. (3 before the Red card). Akron made 2 substitutions (1 due to Barson's injury for 5 minutes). So in reality Akron would've only used 1 sub.

Similar matches were Cal Northridge and Cal Poly(lots of subs used)

Just goes to show Porter prepares and develops his players for the next level.

Are there any substitution retrictions in college soccer?? I thought the rules were similar to international rules.

Nope, unlimited substitutions. However, a player cannot re-enter a game in the same half that he left in.

EDIT: No re-entry in the first half - One re-entry in the second half

I wish I knew for sure -- I thought it was the opposite -- no re-entry for second half. Can someone find the actual rules on line? -- I've looked and can't find.

If you start second half you can be subbed out and come back in. If you sub in in second half and then come out you are finished for the game.

[bisbee]

Wish I understood soccer better. I just can't understand how a team like PSU that's obviously not great can be a man down on the Zips home field and be taking all the action to the Zips' end. The Zips appear to be a skilled team, yet they're playing flat. It's almost as if they're playing conservatively for a 1-0 win, and taking a big risk that one of the PSU attacks is eventually going to score and even things up. You'd think a team of the Zips stature would be focused on putting the nail in the coffin and scoring another goal. Yet they just can't seem to get connected at the other end.

The more I watch soccer, the more confused I get!

Do not be confused; you are seeing things correctly. See Porter's post game interview. He says pretty much what you said. That second half was NOT championship soccer.

I think that is the first time this season that Porter seemed genuinely displeased with the teams' efforts.