@ University California, Santa Barbara

[fknbuflobo]

Looking forward to this one! Wish I could fly out there! RPI points aplenty, ripe for the picking!

Time for Zips to fix their Defense!

[GauchoMike]

Looking forward to this one!

Me too!

Feel free to drop by our Akron match thread over on our board. You can say hi to GauchoDan too

http://ucsbgauchos.yuku.com/topic/19400/Akron-PreDuringPost-Thread#.VgQ-BpebGgY

[zippyfan34]

The video keeps freezing on me. I'm going to bed as I can't get 5 seconds without freezing

[zippyfan34]

As I was typing I saw the last 2 seconds of us putting the ball in the net but must have been offsides since game cast still shows zeroes

[fknbuflobo]

UCSB 0-1 Akron HT

[Z.I.P.]

Goal by Livapool Sammy, as he stole a backpass for the SB keeper. What a crowd!! As big or bigger than 2010 College Cup.

[TennZip]

video is much worse in 2nd half

jesse garcia aguilar playing well

danilo radjen in starting lineup for 2nd half

[Z.I.P.]

Seemed in first few minutes that I was able to watch video (lost the feed after 10 mins) that UCSB was looking to pass over Zips' heads every time they touched the ball. It didn't work, and while shots were even for about 20 minutes, we ended up with a 7-3 advantage at the half.

[Z.I.P.]

Akron is peppering Gaucho goal right now, and Sonny Vom Steeg is getting a workout. Keep it up, boys! Shot difference of 12-3, 8-1 sog.

[Z.I.P.]

Gauchos finally get first shot of second half, after 23 minutes! Holthusen finally subbed in for Souders with 16 minutes remaining.

[TennZip]

stuart goal 87 minutes!!!!

[Z.I.P.]

Well, this one is IN THE BOOK! Holthusen scores his first goal at 88' to make it 2-0. Sorry to Big Mike and the Locos!

[bigzipguy]

That's better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[malonepioneer12]

Great win!!! 2-0

[TennZip]

live stats show akron 13-6 in shots

and 9-1 in shots on goal

great effort by the zips....

very glad to see Stuart contribute well in the last 16 minutes

[fknbuflobo]

Radgen played entire match at left back?

[TennZip]

gaucho dan.....shows the zips moving from 18 to 11 in rpi with this win

and UCSB dropping from 16 to 25 with the loss

thank you, gaucho dan....for your real time rpi update.....

[ZachTheZip]

The defense looked much improved. If they can play like that consistently, the Zips will go far this year.

[SwitchIt]

Big changes defensively tonight. Looked like Souders to RB, add Radjen as CB w Ruhaak, Shultz LB, De Vera and Dambrot did not play.

Soares as second HM, Balena in after he got a card. Excellent oressure on the ball all over the field, created SB mistakes. Announcer said Zips were best team they played all year by far. I suspect some UCLA let down came into play, they are better than tonight, but still an outstanding game and will gain allot of respect out West.

[fknbuflobo]

My video feed was horrible. I could barely watch it.

SwitchIt,

Back 4 were?

You say it was:

Shultz - Radjen - Ruhaak - Souders

Please confirm.

Because I thought it was:

Radjen - Souders - Ruhaak - Shultz

Whatever. The addition of Radjen seemed to work, right? And I (sorta) called the Soares at DMF.

Clean Sheet!

[Dave in Green]

Right now the Zips appear to be playing better on the road than at home. Winning on the road later in the season is what they'll have to do to make a run in the NCAA tournament.

[SwitchIt]

Fknbuflobo

My feed was poor and the audio was split off and on a separate channel that ran well ahead or behind when I restarted it so best I could tell Souders RB first half and Radjen was right center but I could not really see numbers. Then again Embick could have been RB and I would have had a hard time telling!!

The left side firmed up and Souto was himself again both sides of the ball. Balena seemed to struggle at times w physicality of play this year whereas Soares, while less nimble, is imposing. That may be a key for Souto, not having to carry so much load and he plays more naturally.

Regardless, coaches took risk and it paid off, while the entire squad worked tirelessly to almost completely stifle their UCSB student return game with tacos a flying. Well done.

[skip-zip]

If we keep winning, and get solidly into the Top 10, hopefully we won't even have any road games until the College Cup, or possibly one game before that.

[fknbuflobo]

Yes, the Webstream was extremely poor, albeit free. I would actually rather have paid for a good connection.

Good coaching, be it Embick, Chappell, or whomever. Nice adjustment!

I never would have guessed Radjen as impacting any match this season. I love it when these guys are smarter than I am; they should be!

But even I recognized that Belana was struggling with the physicality of Holding Midfield in the NCAA. Soares is less agile, less technical, but much tougher. So, there is flexibility now at HMF, depending upon the opposition, as to who will be the battery mate to Souto.

Zips fixed their Defense! Let us build on that.

[SBZipfan]

Hey, Zips fans! I'm an Akron-area native (Mogadore) who's been living in Santa Barbara for the past 30 years, and a casual soccer fan. I attended last night's game (wearing my 2010 College Cup Zips T-shirt!), and found the 20 or so other Akron fans clustered in the stands (outnumbered overall by about 350 to 1). I ended up sitting next to Jake Fenlason's mom & dad, who were up from San Diego

I don't have the expertise to analyze the game. At first it seemed like the Gauchos were in control, and the ball spent most of time in the Zips end, but as the game wore on the Zips seemed to take charge. Both Zip goals were off opportunistic steals.

Here's a summary from Gaucho fan buc on their board:

Friday was the day the Gauchos got a good old fashioned ass-whipping. We looked good the first ten minutes but then Akron's defense took control. I must give them credit. They were smothering on D as seidom did we have an uncontested pass, they always seemed to have 2-3 guys on the Gaucho with the ball and their passing was nearly flawless as they moved it around. At one point I counted how many men they had on ther field, it seemed like they hd 12-13. They would build out of the back and constantly had penetration into the 18. We were lucky the score wasn't worse. They spread their D and basically took away the outside and the middle and forced us into the long ball dump that never quite worked. They seemed to win every ball and their passing was oustanding , as they seldom made a bad pass.

I give the Gauchos credit for holding tight as both goals could have been prevented by better decision making on clearing the ball out of our own end. With 17 minutes left in the half I felt this game would hinge on a mistake and 2 minutes later it happened. We did have a couple good chances with balls that passed through the 18 on crosses and corners but nobody was able to finish. I can't remember once after the opening 10 min. that we built out of the back and threatened. Nick had a couple decent chances as did Ahinga, but they were never a big threat.

I'd love to say someone played an outstanding game but unfortunately only Justin Vom Steeg had an outstanding night , but that means he was working way to hard to prevent scores. We didn't play bad we were overmatched. Faud was a welcome addition to the D be even he had a couple questionable plays. I am not a Randy Mendoza fan. Can't we find someone else to play the left side. Brockaway was overmatched several times as he ended up on the ground with the attacker still dealing. I did like Strong playing the right back. Acheampong once again got caught too many times holding the ball and attempted dribbling when he should have been passing, but he wasn't the only one. It seemed 90% of our passes were backwards to the goalie. I could note other plays but in a nutshell hats off to Akron as we saw a top level team beat a good team.

http://ucsbgauchos.yuku.com/topic/19408/Actual-Akron-thread#.VgbyVrR_vd4