Connect with us

Orlando City

Orlando City at San Jose Earthquakes: Player Grades and Man of the Match

Published

7 years ago

on

For the third time in three years Orlando City and the San Jose Earthquakes failed to produce a winner — this time in a 1-1 draw at Avaya Stadium in the wee hours East Coast time. Considering a huge rotation of the squad by Head Coach Jason Kreis, a point is not a bad result. But, considering the Lions led on a goal in the 81st minute, it still feels like a letdown.

Nevertheless, it’s another point in the standings and a chance to come home with several starters fresh for Sunday’s match with New York City FC.

Here are my individual ratings for Orlando City’s participants in the match.

Starters

GK, Joe Bendik, 6 — Joe made two saves on a night when the Quakes didn’t threaten the goal much, with 11 shots but only three on target. He perhaps could have gotten out to square up on Chris Wondolowski quicker but came in at an angle, allowing Wondo to poke in a floating cross off his arms for the equalizer. He got a hand to a free kick from Jahmir Hyka in the 26th minute on a ball that might have hit the bar or gone over but he did well to take no chances. Made a comfortable save on Marco Urena in the first half. His distribution wasn’t terrible but could have been a bit better. A solid if not spectacular game.

D, Victor “PC” Giro, 8 (MotM) — PC made his MLS debut and it was quite an introduction. His vision in setting up Rivas’ goal was extraordinary and he provided energy all night while maintaining integrity on defense for the most part. He started early, earning a free kick in the ninth minute with a nice overlap with Luis Gil. Nearly opened his account in the 32nd with a stunning strike that beat David Bingham but not the crossbar. He led Orlando in tackles (5) and interceptions (4) and his passing rate of 71.4% was pretty good. His game on this night was better than his previous appearances with OCB this year and he’s earned more minutes.

D, Leo Pereira, 6.5 — Like PC, the young Brazilian made his MLS debut at Avaya Stadium tonight and the moment certainly wasn’t too big for him. Leo played within himself throughout the game, winning balls in the air. He was forced to take a tactical yellow in the 25th minute after a midfield turnover by Servando Carrasco, conceding a dangerous free kick chance. His vital clearance of a cross by Marco Urena in the 43rd minute snuffed out a dangerous chance. In the 79th, he again bailed out Carrasco after a turnover. His passing rate of 67.7% could have been better but he led the team in pass attempts (65) and didn’t make any errors in tight spaces under pressure. He led the team in clearances (5), with two tackles, three interceptions and a blocked shot. Not a bad debut but he was the closest defender to Wondo on the corner kick and lost track of him.

D, Jose Aja, 6.5 — The young Uruguayan took a lot of abuse from the opponents and got very few calls out of it but he stayed focused, kept his anger in check, and played a sturdy game. His two interceptions and two clearances were OK, his passing rate of 73.1% was decent, and contributed a key pass and two shots on offense, one of which just missed a bit high. He paired up well on the right side with Scott Sutter to snuff out most of the danger that came from that side.  

D, Scott Sutter, 7 — Sutter may have been Orlando City’s best player in the first half. He was so cool and calm under pressure and in possession that you could chill your beer on his forehead. His long throw-in led to PC’s shot off the crossbar and he had an early cross for Luis Gil that was on target but a defender got there first. He recorded one tackle, two interceptions and three clearances, and connected well with Matias Perez Garcia up the right channel much of the game. His passing rate of 76.5% led the back four and he contributed one key pass while raining five crosses into the penalty area.

MF, Will Johnson, 7 — Will is probably going to take some heat from fans for keeping Wondo onside on the tying goal, but when the ball fell for Tommy Thompson, he retreated to guard the post and it was just unfortunate that the Earthquakes youngster mishit a shot attempt that somehow worked out for San Jose. His influence was noticeable throughout the game as he was often charged with starting possessions as Pereira and Aja fed him the ball deep to start the play. He passed at a solid 87.1% rate with the second most passes (62). In the 10th minute, he served in a free kick to Cyle Larin but the Canadian’s header was high. He finished with two key passes, four tackles, an interception, two clearances and generally ran his tail off all night.

MF, Servando Carrasco, 5.5 — I guess the word for Servando’s night is “workmanlike.” He finished with a passing accuracy of 89.7% — highest of all starters — but he also made the most glaring giveaways on the night. He had a terrible turnover in the 25th minute that started a San Jose break and forced Pereira to take a yellow and give up a dangerous free kick. He was dispossessed twice and both turned into scary moments for the defense as a result (the second came in the 79th minute). He finished with two interceptions, two clearances and one shot attempt. Overall he did a decent job of shielding the back line but will want to eliminate those giveaways.

MF, Luis Gil, 6 — Much of the night for Gil was spent providing coverage for the young Brazilian defenders behind him. Whenever the Quakes came forward, Gil was there to provide a second pressure point on the ball with PC and/or Pereira. But he wasn’t all defense, though he had two tackles and an interception. He played a nice give-and-go with PC early to set up a free kick when the latter was taken down. He had one key pass and got his one shot on target, though he didn’t get all of it as he tried to use a defender to screen his attempt from Bingham. His passing rate (68.4%) could have been better, though many of his attempts were with guys he hasn’t played with yet.

MF, Gile Barnes, 5 — The Jamaican didn’t leave much of a mark on the game offensively, with only a 40% passing rate and one shot that was off target — although that was the result of taking Fatai Alashe’s studs to his shin and didn’t get him so much as a free kick. His main contribution seemed to be gumming up the the works whenever San Jose tried to play out of the back. He gutted out much of the game after taking that horror tackle from Alashe. 

MF, Matias Perez Garcia, 6.5 — It certainly looked like MPG was in the mood against his old team. The pocket-sized Argentine started the game with a great deal of energy, getting under the skin of his former teammates. He could have played Larin in on goal in the 24th but put too much on his through ball. Started a break in the 44th minute that forced Anibal Godoy to take a yellow card for a tactical foul. He was quick to the ball throughout the match, winning a team high six fouls on the night. He had three key passes, one shot, two tackles, and two interceptions. However, his score could have been much higher if not for a 39.3% passing accuracy. This was one performance where the stats don’t tell the story of the player’s impact on the game.

F, Cyle Larin, 6 — If the Canadian ever figures out how to face a defender out wide and beat him off the dribble, he’ll be an unstoppable force, but too often the Quakes comfortably defended Orlando attacks when Larin got the ball wide. He maybe should have done better in the 10th minute on a free header off a free kick, but headed over the bar. His header in the 18th minute forced a diving save from David Bingham to keep it out of the bottom corner. He earned a couple of early second-half corners — one on a shot blocked by Florian Jungwirth and the other on a dangerous-looking cross. He passed at a 68.4% rate, but there were too many of the unsuccessful ones that could have been a final through ball for a scoring chance. Still, he had one key pass and three shots (one on target).

Substitutions

MF, Kaká (63’), 6.5 — While it wasn’t the captain’s best performance since his return, he did make a big positive impact. He got the hockey assist on Orlando’s goal by drawing two defenders toward him at the top corner of the box and played PC down the left channel for the cross. He had a couple giveaways but did well to track back to defend afterward with a tackle and a blocked shot. It was only a 64% passing night for the Brazilian and he had the game on his foot in the 91st but his shot couldn’t beat Bingham and maybe he could have squared it to a wide-open MPG for the finish there.

F, Carlos Rivas (63’), 7 — In less than half an hour of work the Colombian led the team with five shots and scored what looked like the game winner in the 80th minute. His pace made an impact on the game over the last half hour as he always looked dangerous in space. As usual, he wasted a few shots in the stands, but overall it was a good shift. He passed at an 83% clip created a chance with a ball to Kaká in the 91st minute. Those maddening shots over the net were the only blemishes on Carlos’ night.

MF, Cristian Higuita (85’), N/A — The Colombian came on for Carrasco and he didn’t get booked, which is the most important thing he did (or didn’t do) because he’s sitting on four yellows. He completed all eight of his passes but surprisingly didn’t record any defensive statistics. Not enough time on for a fair grade.

That’s how I saw it. What did you think? Vote for your Orlando City MotM below and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Polling Closed

PlayerVotes
Will Johnson4
Scott Sutter8
PC77
Carlos Rivas40
Other6

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Orlando City

Orlando City vs. CF Montreal, Leagues Cup: Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, Match Thread, and More

The Lions begin their 2024 Leagues Cup quest at home against Montreal.

Published

9 hours ago

on

July 26, 2024

By

Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Welcome to your match thread for a Friday night Leagues Cup matchup between Orlando City and CF Montreal at Inter&Co Stadium (8 p.m., MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+). It’s the first match of the competition for both teams, and tonight’s game marks the third time the two Eastern Conference sides will meet this season. The teams split the points in both regular-season matchups, drawing both times. More on that later.

Here’s what you need to know ahead of the match.

History

The Lions are 8-9-5 against Montreal in the all-time regular-season series and 9-10-5 in all competitions since they joined MLS. OCSC is 4-4-3 in its home stadium against Montreal and 5-4-3 in the greater Orlando area when including a win in the knockout rounds of the MLS is Back Tournament in 2020.

The two sides last met in Montreal on April 20, trading goals back and forth in a 2-2 draw at Stade Saputo. Mason Toye opened the scoring early but Facundo Torres equalized from the spot a few minutes later. Ariel Lassiter appeared to win it late in normal time for the hosts, but Ivan Angulo struck in stoppage time to earn Orlando City a road point. These teams opened the 2024 season against each other in Orlando and played to a 0-0 draw. The Lions dominated the stat sheet but had a goal waved off for offside and simply weren’t lethal enough in front of goal.

The teams met twice in 2023, completing the season series on Sept. 30, 2023, with the Lions winning 3-0 in dominant fashion. Jonathan Sirois’ own goal opened the scoring, and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson and Torres added strikes for Orlando City. That was a good measure of revenge for OCSC, after Montreal defeated Orlando City 2-0 and handed the Lions their first road loss of the 2023 MLS season on May 6 at Stade Saputo. A Robin Jansson own goal got Montreal started in the second half and Romell Quioto added a second goal four minutes later.

These two sides played their biggest game against each other in the 2022 MLS playoffs, with CF Montreal knocking Orlando City out of the postseason by a 2-0 scoreline on Oct. 16, with goals by Ismael Kone and Djordje Mihailovic — the latter coming deep in stoppage time from the penalty spot.

Each team won at home in the two-game, regular-season series in 2022, with Montreal thumping Orlando 4-1 on May 7. Joel Waterman, Mihailovic, Joaquin Torres, and Zachary Brault-Guillard did the damage on the scoreboard and Orlando City managed just two shot attempts, with Joao Moutinho’s goal on a set piece helping the Lions avoid a shutout. Orlando City did not have either starting center back for that match, and it showed. The teams also met on opening day of the 2022 season, when Orlando City captured a 2-0 home win behind second-half goals from Alexandre Pato and Benji Michel.

In 2021, the teams met in Montreal on Decision Day, with the Lions earning a 2-0 road victory at Stade Saputo to clinch a playoff spot. Sebas Mendez and Daryl Dike provided the goals. That season’s matchup in Orlando came on Oct. 20, 2021, with the visitors managing a 1-1 draw. Chris Mueller struck for the Lions just before halftime, but Rudy Camacho answered on a corner kick header shortly after the restart. The first meeting of 2021 took place Sept. 15 in Orlando with the Lions falling 4-2 and finishing the game with just nine men after both Nani and Andres Perea were sent off. Quioto led Montreal with a goal and two assists. Mathieu Choiniere and Quioto put Montreal up 2-0, but despite already being down one man, Jansson and Ruan tied things up. The visitors got two more from Lassi Lappalainen and Sunusi Ibrahim.

The teams met at Red Bull Arena in late 2020 as the team then known as the Montreal Impact played home games in New Jersey due to the pandemic. Orlando City got a Dike goal in the 39th minute to win 1-0 on Nov. 1, 2020. It was the second meeting of the 2020 season, with Orlando also beating Montreal 1-0 in the MLS is Back Tournament knockout rounds on July 25 to advance to the quarterfinals. Tesho Akindele scored the game’s only goal on a Montreal defensive mistake.

Orlando City snapped a six-game winless streak against Montreal (0-5-1) in MLS regular-season play dating back to 2016 when the Lions put the Impact to the sword in a 3-0 drubbing at Stade Saputo on June 1, 2019. Nani (penalty), Akindele, and Will Johnson supplied the offense that day. The Lions fell 3-1 at Exploria Stadium back on March 16, 2019, and Ignacio Piatti was a big reason why, scoring his ninth and 10th career goals against Orlando, adding to a strike by Orji Okwonkwo. Dom Dwyer added a cosmetic goal late for Orlando City to spoil the clean sheet.

Montreal did not allow a goal against the Lions in 2018, sweeping the two-game set from Orlando, and the Impact shut out Orlando City in three of the six meetings in that 5-0-1 run. The lone draw in that time frame was a 3-3 shootout in Orlando in 2017, in which the Impact led deep in stoppage time, only to see Jonathan Spector’s well-placed header steal the Lions a point.

Orlando won the first two meetings in 2016 by a combined score of 6-2. The teams split three meetings in 2015, with each going 1-1-1.

Match Overview

Orlando City enters this match on a five-game unbeaten run (4-0-1). The Lions are coming off a tightly contested 1-1 home draw against New York City FC on Saturday. The only Orlando goal was provided by Ramiro Enrique, but the Lions conceded a Hannes Wolf strike five minutes later. Enrique is in fine form, having scored goals in each of his last four games. Regardless of Orlando’s form, this competition is not part of the MLS regular season, so it’s difficult to know how teams and players will approach it. In addition, it’s not like the Lions have lit it up at home in 2024, amassing a poor record of 3-5-4 at Inter&Co Stadium. However, the Lions have been better of late, going 2-0-1 in their last three at home.

Montreal sits four spots and seven points behind Orlando in the Eastern Conference standings at the Leagues Cup break, struggling to defend in 2024. CF Montreal has allowed 49 goals this season, which is just one fewer than D.C. United’s conference-worst 50. The Canadian club, which is coming off a 1-0 home loss to rival Toronto on Saturday, is 2-7-4 on the road this season and is 0-7-3 in its last 10 road games against MLS competition (0-7-4 on the road in all competitions in its last 11).

A new competition offers hope for both teams, especially Montreal. There is not as much pressure to get a result for the underdog visitors, and it’s a chance to reset and chase a trophy. Ibrahim and old nemesis Josef Martinez are offensive players the Lions must account for, as they are Montreal’s leaders with six and five goals, respectively. Former Lion Ruan will present enough speed to keep up with Orlando City’s Angulo, so that will be an interesting battle to keep an eye on tonight (assuming both play).

“First, we are very excited to participate in this tournament. Last year, I thought it was a successful one, and the experience we had playing the two leagues was good,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said ahead of the match. “We played against Houston [Dynamo] and Santos [Laguna], which is one of the best teams in Mexico, and the experience was good. Overall, we are preparing and respecting the tournament as much as we can. Everyone is excited to be a part of it.”

As of this writing, it doesn’t appear that availability reports will be a thing for the Leagues Cup, but it’s fair to say the Lions will be without Duncan McGuire (international duty), Mason Stajduhar (lower leg), and Michael Halliday (knee).

Match Content

Official Lineups:

Orlando City (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: Pedro Gallese.

Defenders: Kyle Smith, Robin Jansson, David Brekalo, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson.

Defensive Midfielders: Cesar Araujo, Wilder Cartagena.

Attacking Midfielders: Facundo Torres, Martin Ojeda, Nico Lodeiro.

Forward: Ramiro Enrique.

Bench: Javier Otero, Rafael Santos, Luca Petrasso, Alex Freeman, Rodrigo Schlegel, Felipe, Jeorgio Kocevski, Favian Loyola, Yutaro Tsukada, Luis Muriel, Jack Lynn.

CF Montreal (3-4-1-2)

Goalkeeper: Sebastian Breza.

Defenders: Fernando Alvarez, Joel Waterman, Gabriele Corbo.

Midfielders/Wingbacks: Joaquin Sosa, Nathan Saliba, Victor Wanyama, Ruan.

Attacking Midfielder: Mathieu Choiniere.

Forwards: Matias Coccaro, Sunusi Ibrahim.

Bench: Jonathan Sirois, Lassi Lappalainen, Dawid Bugaj, Bryce Duke, Ilias Iliadis, Ariel Lassiter, Joseph Martinez, Kwadwo Opoku, Tom Pearce, Rida Zouhir.

Referees:

REF: Adonai Escobedo González.
AR1: Enrique Bustos Díaz.
AR2: Enedina Caudillo Gómez.
4TH: Lizzet Garcia Olvera.
VAR: Melissa Borjas Pastrana.

How to Watch

Match Time: 8 p.m.

Venue: Inter&Co Stadium — Orlando.

TV/Live Stream: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+.

Radio: FM 96.9 The Game (English).

Twitter: For rapid reaction and live updates, follow along at @TheManeLand, as well as Orlando City’s official Twitter feed (@OrlandoCitySC).

Enjoy the match. Go City!

Continue Reading

Orlando City

Examining the Sustainability of Ramiro Enrique’s Scoring Explosion

Is Ramiro Enrique’s scoring outburst sustainable, or is a regression to the mean on the horizon?

Published

10 hours ago

on

July 26, 2024

By

Dan MacDonald, The Mane Land

Since Orlando City’s 5-0 thumping of D.C. United back on July 6, Ramiro Enrique has tapped into a red-hot vein of form. He’s got four goals in four games, matching his scoring output from the entirety of the 2023 season, and doing so in four matches and 245 minutes, as compared to 30 matches and 1,019 minutes last year. That brings us to the big question: is this sort of output sustainable?

We’ll start by looking at the expected goals on each of his four tallies. While xG isn’t a perfect statistic, it provides a fairly good measure of how good a chance is. To get a clearer picture, we’ll also take a look at each goal to help gauge how difficult the chance is.

Against D.C. United, Enrique latched onto a flicked-on header from a corner kick and used a header of his own to score the Lions’ fifth and final goal of the night. That strike had an xG of 0.1. In truth, that number seems a bit low to me, as once Enrique’s in front of his defender, he has the whole net to aim at, and the ball comes in at a great height for him to get his head on it. He makes no mistake and sticks it into the side netting, where the goalkeeper has no hope of reaching it.

Against the New England Revolution, the Argentine again scored from a corner, sneaking in front of goalkeeper Aljaz Ivacic and flicking the ball past him before he could collect Cesar Araujo’s header. His second goal of the season had an xG of 0.4. That number seems more reasonable to me. Once he does the hard work of losing his marker and getting across Ivacic, the goalkeeper is helpless to stop any ball that isn’t coming straight at him, and it’s a good finish.

Against Nashville, he collected a pass from Ivan Angulo a few yards outside of the six-yard box and blasted it off the crossbar and in. The tight angle from which he scored means the xG of 0.04 isn’t too surprising. Once again, Enrique managed to lose his defender and got himself into a really nice area of open space. The finish is outstanding, but it wouldn’t have been surprising to see a save or shot off target from this angle.

His fourth goal of the year had elements of skill and luck, as he redirected Martin Ojeda’s shot against NYCFC. The effort from Ojeda took a deflection off Enrique that caught the goalkeeper leaning the wrong way and had enough pace to carry it into the net, for an xG of 0.11. Again, I’m surprised the number is as high as it is. That’s probably due to the deflection happening in the box and leaving Matt Freese next to no time to react. While it was a clever touch to redirect it, there was also a good deal of luck involved.

Those totals add up to 0.65. In other words, Enrique would be estimated to score 0.65 goals off those chances (or one, rounding up, as there are no fractions of goals), and he instead bagged four. There are a couple ways you can view that. The optimist would say that he’s simply a good finisher and has been making the most of the chances that have come his way, even when they aren’t very good ones. The pessimist would say that him converting low percentage chances at this rate isn’t sustainable, and he’s due to regress back to the mean soon.

We can also look at the bigger picture of his statistics up to this point in the year. Across 11 games and 483 minutes, Enrique has taken 18 shots, put nine of them on target, and scored from four of those. He’s also got a season xG of 3.52, which is pretty much in line with his goal total of four, although he’s slightly outperforming it. That isn’t a bad thing though, as the best strikers score difficult chances too, not just the easy ones. Cristian Arango, Christian Benteke, and Denis Bouanga are the top three scorers in the league, and Bouanga is the only one not outperforming his xG (17.68 xG compared to 16 goals).

In my opinion, the truth of Enrique’s case lies somewhere in between. He’s put 50% of his shots on target this year, which is a great number, and getting the ball on frame is half the battle in this sport, so that’s an encouraging place to start. Each of his first three goals in 2024 came as a result of getting into space in a dangerous area and making no mistake with his finish once the ball arrived. Against D.C., he did well to get in front of his defender. In New England, he snuck in from the blind side of the defense. And against Nashville, he found space in the box and stayed onside until Angulo was able to find him. That sort of movement and ability to get yourself into dangerous areas is something that can be replicated, even if finishing low-percentage chances like the strikes against Nashville and NYCFC probably isn’t.

If Enrique continues being clever with his movement and finding dangerous spaces, Orlando’s offense has begun to look fluid enough that his teammates will find ways to get him the ball. As long as he keeps getting shots on frame and his finishing stays sharp, it isn’t unreasonable to assume that he’ll grab some more goals this year. It probably won’t be at the rate he’s done so in July, but if nothing else, he should be able to provide some extra firepower to an OCSC attack that has woken up in recent weeks. Keep your fingers crossed, folks. Vamos Orlando!

Continue Reading

Lion Links

Lion Links: 7/26/24

Orlando City plays CF Montreal tonight, USWNT wins against Zambia, Marta provides assist in Brazil’s win, and more.

Published

12 hours ago

on

July 26, 2024

By

Image courtesy of Orlando Pride / Mark Thor

Happy Friday! I hope the work week has gone easy on you as we get ready for a weekend filled to the brim with soccer to enjoy. The Olympic opening ceremony is also today, and I’m interested to see what the organizers in Paris have come up with. But for now, let’s get this Friday started with today’s links!

Orlando City Takes On CF Montreal Tonight

The Leagues Cup kicks off today and Orlando City will host CF Montreal tonight in its first of two group games. The Lions will then take on Atletico de San Luis on Aug. 4. It’s worth noting that these games will go into a penalty shootout if the score remains level after 90 minutes, with the winner of the shootout getting an extra point. The top two teams of each group advance to the next round and Orlando will play the Philadelphia Union, Cruz Azul, or Charlotte FC if it survives the group stage.

USWNT Beats Zambia in Summer Olympic Opener

The United States Women’s National Team started its Olympic campaign with a dominant 3-0 win against Zambia. The USWNT’s attack looked free and dangerous, with Trinity Rodman striking first and Mallory Swanson scoring twice in quick succession to give the USWNT a comfortable lead. Those goals also came before Zambia was reduced to 10 players after a red card to Pauline Zulu. The Orlando Pride’s Barbra Banda and Grace Chanda both started for Zambia, although Chanda was subbed out in the first half when Zambia had to make changes due to the red card.

There is some bad news along with the good for the USWNT though. Jaedyn Shaw missed out on playing in the opener due to a leg injury, and Sophia Smith had to exit in the 42nd minute.

Marta Assists in Brazil’s Olympic Win

The USWNT was far from the only team to win its first game of this year’s Olympics, as there were no draws after the first round of games. Pride star Marta provided the assist on Brazil’s only goal in a 1-0 win over Nigeria. Marta did well to pick out Gabi Nunes from a tough angle, and the striker had a great first touch and strike to put it away. Pride defender Rafaelle helped secure the shutout, with Brazilian goalkeeper Lorena coming up with huge saves as well. Elsewhere in Group C, Spain’s Aitana Bonmati had a goal and an assist in her team’s 2-1 win against Japan.

New Zealand struck first against Canada in Group A, but the Canadians rallied to come back and win 2-1. France scored three goals in the first half and survived a rally from Colombia in the second half to win 3-2. Germany may have had the most impressive win so far, beating a talented Australian side 3-0.

Analyzing New Zealand Ahead of Olympic Clash

The United States Men’s Olympic Soccer Team will aim to bounce back from a loss to France when it faces New Zealand on Saturday. New Zealand beat Guinea in its first game and is coached by Darren Bazeley, who led New Zealand to the knockout stage of the 2023 U-20 World Cup. Minnesota United center back Michael Boxall and Viking FK midfielder Joe Bell are two of New Zealand’s overage players and give the team some stability. Goalkeeper Alex Paulsen, who joined Bournemouth this summer, is capable of coming up with acrobatic saves to give the U.S. fits as well. As for New Zealand’s attack, midfielder Sarpreet Singh and striker Ben Waine are a couple of the dynamic players the U.S. will have to keep in check.

Bev Priestman Removed From Canadian Olympic Team

Canada will have to go the rest of the Olympics without Head Coach Bev Priestman, who was removed from the team by the Canadian Olympic Committee. This decision comes amid a scandal involving spying on New Zealand’s training, which led to Canada Soccer suspending Priestman for the rest of the tournament. Reports have also surfaced that Canada’s men’s and women’s teams have tried to spy on opponents for years, including during the women’s team’s winning campaign in the 2021 Olympics. Only time will tell if Priestman will coach the team after this tournament and if punishments for the team’s actions will be handed out.

Free Kicks

That’s all I have for you today. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday and rest of your weekend. Enjoy the Olympics!

Continue Reading

Trending