BY ADAM SERRANO
Billed as the top quarterfinal match up, the match between the California Golden Bears and Akron Zips lived up to the hype.
The Zips defeated Cal in penalty kicks with MLS prospect Kofi Sarkodie slotting home the final goal to advance to the semifinals in Santa Barbara against Michigan on December 10th. The match was a back and forth affair throughout with several lead changes. It was 3-2 Akron late in the second half when, Cal's David Paul scored with less than two minutes left in regulation to take the match to extra time.
In penalty kicks, both teams had missed efforts when Sarkodie stepped up with the score leveled 2-2 and buried his penalty past Cal goalkeeper David Bingham to send the Zips to Santa Barbara. The victory gave the Zips their second straight appearance at the College Cup. Akron will now take on the Michigan Wolverines, who they defeated 7-1 in their last meeting.
The Golden Bears ended the season with a 14-2-4 record tying a school record for the furthest tournament run in Cal history.
I agree. It almost seems as though they have been allowing teams to stay in the games instead of putting them away when they should. I think they really need to get that hunger and killer instinct back and play 100% for the full 90 minutes. Luckily, they are good enough, that even their lack of desire at times in some games,still hasn’t prevented them from winning.
If they play to their potential for the full 90 minutes,they should beat any team they face,at the college level that is!!!!!
I was behind the opposite goal, but someone who was near the linesman said he was kicked out for swearing at the players. Someone yelled “F— you” very loud from that direction before he was kicked out but I don’t know who yelled it.
I’ve never seen a referee kick out another official. It was very unusual.
There are only 11 players from west of the Mississippi on all 4 rosters in the Div. I final 4, that is only 11 out of about 100 players and 6 of them are on the UNC roster. Each team has a few foreign students. It really is a regional thing and something that says more about the selection critera of coaches compared to what is needed to win games in college soccer. One interpretation (not mine) is that college soccer rewards hard physical play while skill and soccer intelligence are rewarded with spots on the national team. If that is the case why haven’t West Coast coaches got the message and why are there relatively so few East Coast players on the national youth teams? And how to explain the success of Akron who plays with skill and intelligence?
Spector starts for West Ham
This is a good write up of the game and of the issue with the ref and linesman. He says the linesman left after he asked the ref to red card a Cal player who had been jawing at him, and the ref refused.
http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/zips/2010/12/akron-vs-california-soccer-live-updates/
The AR was FIFA Assistant Referee CJ Morgante so it’ll be interesting to hear his side of the story.
How does this writeup not even mention the crazy incident involving the center referee and AR?
There’s reports that the center ref “sent off” the AR for failing to raise his flag for an obvious offside call.
What’s going on with the officials in the NCAA? UCSB was robbed against Cal. Now this?
Wait- isn’t Cal CB Soares considered an MLS prospect too? That gut is a hard-nosed competitor who doesn’t like to lose. Not first on the Quakes’ list of off-season priorities, but wouldn’t mind seeing another promising young defender in camp.
I wrote “standout recruits,” not “most kids.”
Just off the top of my head, Sacha K., Robbie Rogers and Maurice Edu are all SoCal guys that went east for college…granted I know Sacha wasn’t highly touted until after college and I don’t know about Robbie or Mo. Just an example of players going far from home.
Sure, except most kids go to college locally and the Div. !! and Div.III tournaments were similar in that the final 4 teams were all from East of the Mississippi.
It probably has more to do with 1) whether or not top U-17, U-20 prospects go to college and 2) where the top college programs are located — standout recruits aren’t necessarily choosing a college based on staying close to home.
C’mon you Zips!
They’ve been giving up too many goals lately. That defense needs to get it together for those final two games.
Wow!
That eliminates the final school from West of the Mississippi from the tournament.
Odd that the US youth national teams are loaded with Californians and Texans.
This probably says something about what it takes to be part of a successful college program as compared to what it takes to get the attention of the U-17 and U-20 coaches and selection committees.
Or it could just be a statistical fluke.