Not since Sigi Schmid’s UCLA teams and Bruce Arena’s teams at Virginia has a college soccer team been as celebrated as the Akron Zips this year.

The 2010 NCAA champions went 22-1-2 en route to a 1-0 national championship win over the Louisville Cardinals last month. However, the accolades don’t end there. Five Zips were signed to Generation adidas contracts and will ply their trade in MLS next season. Couple that with the two seniors who are also expected to be selected early in the draft and the SuperDraft will have a decidedly Akron feel to it next Thursday.

Sounders FC midfielder Steve Zakuani has a lot of familiarity with those seven players, having played at Akron in 2007 and 2008 before coming to the Sounders with the first overall pick in the 2009 SuperDraft. He has seen first-hand the success of head coach Caleb Porter’s team and knows quite a bit about the players.

Here is Zakuani’s take on the five Generation adidas players from Akron: