The more I see from this team, the more I think they have the look of a team that can repeat. They've had 2 player of the week honors in a row and 2 more on TDS' Team of the Week. Looking at the schedule there shouldn't be any more bumps in the road, seems safe to put them in the tournament as a Top 4 seed. Their 2 Draws and 1 Loss have come again solid teams and the rest of the schedule is pretty soft. Am I crazy in thinking they can repeat, is their record just a mirage of an easy schedule??
Sure, they CAN repeat. But there's a big difference between that and WILL repeat. I still think they're a year away because of the youth and new players but, it wouldn't be a huge shock if they made it Birmingham and from there, anything can happen. The Holmes kid makes them much better on offense. He's better than I expected.
This past game the Zips unveiled a new scheme that allows them to have both Luke Holmes and Thomas Schmit on the field at the same time. (Holmes is playing a MF role and Schmit F). It also moved Will Trap to DM which has increased the distribution out of the back. Outside of MAC teams, they have 2 big 10 and 1 ACC program left to beat. I think they will make a deep tourny run, possibly to the Cup. I obviously hope they win it all but I would be happy with a return to the Cup. Maybe they should start practicing on the baseball diamond to prepare for it. Also of note this past win was Porter's 100th which I think makes him the fastest to 100 which he did in 6 seasons.
Michigan enacts a (very) small measure of revenge from last year's Final Four, beating the Zips 1-0 in OT. Latif Alashe (who I think is a legit MLS prospect at MF) scored the game-winner. Of course, both teams barely resemble the teams that met last year because so many players graduated/turned pro/transferred.
Very nice goal by Michigan (pains me to say that). I loved at the end the announcers said this was the biggest victory in the history of the Michigan program.
I'll have to watch the replay, but I didn't catch it the first time, but I wasn't really looking for it. I was more upset when I think it was Quin had a breakaway and the Michigan player grabbed him by the collar and dragged him down and all we got was a corner instead of a PK. Or the blatant Michigan handball in the box. But those are no excuses for the Zips. We had our chances and couldn't convert. I must say that both goalies had outstanding games.
Thanks . I agree that blown calls are not why a team loses although if they are very blatant it makes it hard not to see it that way.
It may take Michigan another 10 years before they make another run to the cup. We'll see about them. Tman.
Here is the video from the UM website: http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-soccer/mich-m-soccer-body.html The scoring play starts around 3:30. The camera angle is perfect as you can see that the Akron player toe-pokes the ball away from the UM attacker, but it goes directly to another UM attacker who appears to be in an offside position. Because the ball was played by the Akron defender there can be no offside called. Good no call and nice goal. Someone mentioned the horse collar on Quin and I have to agree that's at least a yellow card. Another referee friend and I are discussing it right now: yellow, red card even? It's right on the line of just a professional foul that still gave the attacker an advantage to score or DOGSO and the player should be sent off. Tough call. FYI...I'm a grade 7 USSF ref from South Carolina, NISOA referee, and my brother plays football at Akron, so I may be a little biased but I think the UM goal was good.
Thanks you beat me to it. I also found a video online and my immediate reaction was that UM was clearly offsides. On second viewing of the video I came to the same conclusion that Akron toe poked it away. Thats the way the ball rolls sometimes. This Michigan game is our Cleveland State game of last year (losing to a poor team). I hope it lights a fire under the players and gets them better prepared for the tourny.
I am of the opinion that you need to lose during the regular season at least once or twice before the playoffs, as opposed to playing poorly but still winning. It shakes the cobwebs out, clears the head, and focuses players before the big games begin. It worked last year, here's hoping it works again.
The collar tackle, while egregious, was nowhere near the box, so only a free kick would have been awarded. A yellow for sure, but he didn't even exercise that option after the play was dead like a good referee should - he just awarded the corner and acted as if nothing happened. Certainly not a red. Okulaja completely swallowed his whistle the entire second half for both sides, and the game suffered for it. As for the handball: meh. I've seen those let go a lot more often than get called. It's a nearly impossible situation for the defender, and I think referees give the benefit of the doubt most of the time. It never should have come to OT, so that's all on Akron's lack of killer instinct this year. Yeah, I never even considered offside because Yedlin clearly poked the ball away (and he was in one of those nightmare situations for defenders - hauling ass toward your own goal, trying to clear or prevent an imminent shot).
What has this Akron team done to lead someone to think they can win a title (look who they beat for the wins)? The best result by far on the year is a tie against new mexico at home. As for last night, while Michigan winning is a surprise for sure, the bigger one is the amount of good chances they had to score before the break through. They rang some balls off the post, and missed some sitters. After watching Akron play 3 games on tv this year (New Mexico/UCSB/Michigan) I have no idea how this group of guys is considered a national title contender, other than the fact that the school had an amazing group of players the past 2 years and that somehow means the school is a juggernaut. I think this team would do very well and should be proud if it gets to the sweet 16 or elite 8. They are VERY young, and a mixed bag of international and transfers with some very talented young freshmen. However, if you took the name "2010 national champs" off the top of the resume, look at the schedule and who they beat and who they've lost to...and tell me it looks like the resume of a legit national title contender. Now if you wanna say they are in position to contend for the 2012 national title (assuming yedlin and trapp don't get home grown contracts) I would be on board with that.
... or just standing in between raising his hand for offside instead of sprinting to the line or pressuring the ball. Very freshman move.
Biggest problem is offensive production. Other than Mattocks there are no other scorers. Last season it was a totally different situation. Still at this point in the season I give them props for being 10-2-2. The Michigan loss was terrible but other loss was to an inspired UCSB team playing at home. As far as schedule goes when you don't play in a decent conference you try and schedule OOC as best you can. Clearly a team has no control over how their opponents season goes. Not making ANY excuses but I think all of us Akron fans expected another team like the past few seasons and that truly would have been a miracle considering how many players we lost from last years' team. Good thing this year is that the playoff picture seems wide open and probably the teams that get really hot within the next few weeks will wind up in Alabama.
In the games you didn't see, they've posted 10 wins and a tie, so as long as you don't watch, they're shoo-ins for the national title.
Not sure what he could have done even if he had been standing on the line. And let's be serious here, throwing your hand up and looking at the linesman happens in every game at every level, freshman or not.