“The Zip’s men’s soccer team lost a hard fought match to the defending Major League Soccer champions, The Columbus Crew, by a score of 1-0 on Sunday. There were 1,662 fans in attendance for the entertaining match. The Crew was composed of many developmental players as well as former Zips Ossie Michalson and Matt Tutich.”
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The Zip’s men’s soccer team lost a hard fought match to the defending Major League Soccer champions, The Columbus Crew, by a score of 1-0 on Sunday.

There were 1,662 fans in attendance for the entertaining match.

The Crew was composed of many developmental players as well as former Zips Ossie Michalson and Matt Tutich.

Tutich was the only scorer in the game thanks to a header in the 48th minute. He was assisted by a pass from Alex Grendi.

First of all, what a fantastic atmosphere for the game, said UA head coach Caleb Porter. I want to thank the students, faculty and community for coming out to support our team. Although our players were disappointed with the result, I felt we gave the Crew all they could handle. In the end, we didn’t capitalize on our chances and they did, which ended up being the difference.

The good thing about our team is that we have established such a high standard that this was a game we believed we could win. Unfortunately, we fell short but individually and collectively we will gain a lot of growth from this just like every game this spring.

The rather slow first half had a slight advantage to the Crew as they had a shot advantage of 5-2.

The Crew only let the Zips have one scoring opportunity, a shot by Teal Bunbury which went over the net.

Freshman goalkeeper, David Meves, along with the Zips defense handled the attack of the Crew well. Meves had a pair of saves in the first half.

Early in the second half, Matt Tutich put a header in for the Crew to put them up by a score of 1-0.

After the Crew scored, the Zips came out on the offensive side.

Shooting was no problem as the Zips outshot the Crew by a count of 6-5.

The Zips had many opportunities to score, but could not convert on former Ohio State goalkeeper, Casey Latchem.

During one key attempt, Latchem went out to cover Bunbury who was pressuring. Bunbury made a pass to freshman Yoram Mwila who could not convert on the shot.

Mwila finished with two shots on the day.

Latchem is not an unfamiliar face for the Zips, as he played against them in the 2007 season during his days at Ohio State.

For the second game in a row, the Zips were short handed. They were without Freshman All-American Kofi Sarkodie, Chad Barson and Scott Caldwell who are currently training with the U.S. Under-18 national team while veteran midfielders Anthony Ampaipitakwong and Michael Nanchoff were held out due to injuries.

The Crew finished with a slight advantage on shots at 10-8. The Crew also had more corner kicks with six to Akron’s three.

A physical game by the crew led to 15 fouls and the only yellow card of the game. Akron finished with only seven fouls.

With the loss to the Crew, the Zips finished an impressive preseason with a record of 3-2-1. Akron posted wins over Oakland, Michigan and Wake Forest, while earning a tie at North Carolina.

I can honestly say I have never had a team make such strides in a spring season, Porter said. Our players have worked very hard to establish a strong platform to build on for next fall and they have accomplished that just about as well as they could have. Facing five of the better college teams in the country and a professional team, we have gained confidence and a belief that we are capable of beating anyone.

At the same time, we also found that we still have areas that need improving in order to reach our potential. I am extremely excited for next fall and have never been more confident that this team has all the ingredients to have a very successful season.

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