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USA vs. Norway, International Friendly: Final Score 1-0 as Christen Press Scores the Winner

Published

9 years ago

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Christen Press scored the only goal and Alyssa Naeher kept a clean sheet as the United States Women’s National Team escaped Norway with a 1-0 win over the host country. It was the second 1-0 win on a trip in which host sides Sweden and Norway should reasonably have expected to take something from the game.

The USWNT was poor by its lofty standards on the trip but managed to take one more chance than either host country in each game, coming home with two wins in as many tries. The U.S. improved to 29-19-2 against Norway in the all-time series and 2-1-1 as the road team in Norway.

Jill Ellis originally planned to line up her team in a 4-4-2 with Press and Rose Lavelle up top, a midfield of (L-R) Mallory Pugh, Samantha Mewis, Allie Long, and Crystal Dunn, and a back line of (L-R) Casey Short, Abby Dahlkemper, Becky Sauerbrunn, and Kelley O’Hara in front of goalkeeper Naeher:

Pugh apparently picked up a knock and so the team came out in a 3-5-2 instead with Meghan Klingenberg coming on for Pugh. O’Hara and Klingenberg served as wingbacks in the five-player midfield in front of a back line of Sauerbrunn, Dahlkemper, and Short.

Here’s how Norway lined up:

Norway jumped on the front foot immediately with some early pressure but couldn’t fashion any kind of final ball. The hosts wasted an early set piece just three minutes in on a free kick that was practically a corner, hitting it over everyone and out for a goal kick.

The USWNT came into the game gradually. The first decent chance for the U.S. came in the ninth minute when Dunn fired wide from the top of the box after Press did well to hold possession and bring others into the attack.

Norway got in a dangerous cross in the 11th minute by Emilie Haavi of the Boston Breakers but the U.S. defense cleared it out. Ada Hegerberg got onto a similar cross in the 13th minute but headed wide as the USWNT looked vulnerable down the flanks.

Dunn fizzed a lethal-looking cross for Klingenberg in the 19th minute but it was just cut out for a corner at the last moment. The U.S. wasn’t able to get onto the cross on the set piece. After withstanding a couple near chances for Norway, Mewis blasted wide in the 26th minute off a nice bit of work from Klingenberg and Press.

Sloppy passing by the USWNT was a problem throughout the first half. Naeher had to come off her line to thwart an excellent chance in the 31st minute after one of the team’s many inaccurate passes. That opportunity came down Norway’s left side, which was an issue for the USWNT that the hosts exploited. O’Hara and Dunn had few answers as several dangerous balls came into the area from that side, leaving Sauerbrunn and Dahlkemper to make numerous clearances.

The Norwegians nearly got a break in the 39th minute on a corner kick. The cross came in and took a hop just in front of Naeher, who went down and blocked it with her arms and then it deflected off her legs, just inches in front of the goal line. Long was able to clear after a nervy few seconds.

That was the last decent chance for either side as the first period came to a scoreless close.

The USWNT had an early flurry after the break. Dunn pinged a cross into the area but it was cutout. Seconds later, Mewis had a go from the top of the box but it wasn’t a threat. Dunn sent in a cross for halftime sub Lindsey Horan — who came on for Klingenberg — in the 49th minute but it was headed out to Lavelle, who fired high on the half volley.

Norway answered with a warning in the 51st minute when Short turned it over and Caroline Hansen sent a back-post cross that three teammates couldn’t get to and could only watch roll inches wide of Naeher’s goal.

Press fired wide moments later, in the 54th minute, as the U.S. continued to fail to bother the goalkeeper. Two minutes later, Norway’s defense did well to block Dunn and Press in the box. The Yanks continued being kind enough not to add to goalkeeper’s Ingrid Hjelmseth’s troubles when Dahlkemper sent a header off frame in the 59th.

The U.S. finally broke through in the 60th minute when Press got onto a long ball out of the back by Sauerbrunn and slotted past Hjelmseth for a 1-0 lead. The goal kind of came out of nowhere but it was typical of Press, who darted in behind the defense, timing it perfectly.

Norway tried to strike back quickly, getting in deep and earning a corner when Dahlkemper made a vital tackle in the box. The cross was just out of reach for the hosts and skipped tantalizingly through the area. In the 70th, a Hansen cross barely landed on top of Naeher’s net and it didn’t appear the U.S. keeper was sure of where it was going.

In the 76th minute, Lisa-Marie Karlseng nearly got to a cross by Ingrid Wold but Naeher got there first and the whistle went for a foul on Norway as the ball skipped off the U.S. keeper’s hands. Moments later, a cross from a free kick hung mesmerizingly in the air for Norway but a push was called, giving the U.S. a free kick.

Horan got away with an elbow to the face of Ingvild Isaksen on an aerial ball in the 79th minute that could easily have seen her sent off. That could have changed the game considerably. The referee spotted the blood immediately but apparently missed the infraction.

The U.S got more bad news in the 84th minute when Lavelle pulled up with an apparent hamstring injury trying to get onto a long ball. Carli Lloyd came on to replace the Boston Breakers’ young star.

Karlseng sent in an effort in the third minute of stoppage time after several failed U.S. chances to clear the area, but the Norwegian couldn’t get much on her shot and it was comfortable for Naeher. Norway continued to pour forward against a defensive-minded U.S. side but couldn’t get passes through Dahlkemper and Sauerbrunn to bother Naeher.

After a generous five minutes of stoppage time, the final whistle blew and the U.S. had its second 1-0 win of the trip despite not playing particularly well on this brief Scandinavian tour.

The USWNT will reconvene in late July for the Tournament of Nations on the west coast, opening the event against Australia on July 27 in Seattle.

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Orlando City

Orlando City vs. San Jose Earthquakes: Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, Match Thread, and More

Orlando City restarts its 2026 MLS campaign late tonight out west at San Jose.

Published

1 month ago

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July 22, 2026

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Image of Braian Ojeda taking a shot in a friendly against FC Dallas.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Justin Glatt

Welcome to your match thread for a late night midweek matchup tonight between Orlando City (4-9-2, 14 points) and the San Jose Earthquakes (10-3-2, 32 points) at PayPal Park (10:30 p.m., Apple TV). This is the only scheduled meeting between the teams in 2026 and the first time the teams have met since 2024.

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

History

Orlando City is 3-1-3 in the previous seven MLS meetings with the Quakes since the club joined Major League Soccer in 2015. The Lions got their only away win in the series in the last meeting and enter tonight 1-1-2 on the road against San Jose.

The teams last met on May 18, 2024, with Jack Lynn coming off the bench to score the game’s only goal. Lynn’s strike in the 89th minute broke the scoreless deadlock and lifted the Lions to a 1-0 victory.

The teams met in Orlando most recently way back on June 22, 2021, with the Lions beating the Quakes down, 5-0. Orlando got things started with an early penalty kick goal by Nani, followed by braces from Benji Michel and Daryl Dike to easily put the game away. The lasting memory from the game is Michel’s celebratory dance wearing a cowboy hat that came out of the stands.

Prior to that Orlando City romp, the last time the teams met was on Aug. 31, 2019 when the Lions got freight trained 3-0 at Avaya Stadium, giving the Quakes their first win in the series. San Jose’s offense came via a Chris Wondolowski brace and an early opening goal by Magnus Eriksson. Orlando looked flat and weary out of the gate.

The Lions were victorious in Exploria Stadium in the 2018 meeting on April 21, a 3-2 Orlando win. It was the first win in the series for either side after three straight draws. Chris Mueller, Sacha Kljestan, and Dom Dwyer gave the Lions a 3-0 lead before Florian Jungwirth pulled two back in the game’s late stages.

The Lions led all of the first three matches in the second half only to see San Jose pull level, with two of those tying goals coming late. In the 2017 meeting, Carlos Rivas finally broke the scoreless tie and gave Orlando City the lead in the 81st minute, but Wondolowski spoiled the Lions’ night with an equalizer two minutes later as the teams drew at Avaya Stadium, 1-1.

In 2016, the Lions were gut-punched in the 94th minute in an emotional match that ended in a 2-2 draw. It was the first home match following the Pulse nightclub tragedy and what appeared to be a storybook ending to a cathartic win turned sour on a last-gasp equalizer by Shea Salinas. Seb Hines — now the Orlando Pride’s head coach — opened the scoring for Orlando, only to see Chad Barrett tie it up. Julio Baptista restored the lead in stoppage time, but Salinas ruined everything.

The two teams also drew in the first meeting, a 1-1 affair at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, with the Lions down to 10 men after Brek Shea was sent off in the first half. Kaká and Wondolowski each scored from the penalty spot four minutes apart in that initial meeting.

Overview

The teams meet tonight to get their post-World Cup portion of the season started. Orlando City has been terrible on the road all season long, keeping only one MLS opponent under two goals all year away from home and allowing five goals twice (at New York City FC and Nashville) and six goals twice (at LAFC and in the team’s most recent match away at FC Cincinnati just before the break).

Orlando City is a putrid 1-6-1 on the road this season, and now the Lions must face the Western Conference co-leaders tonight before coming home to face Supporters’ Shield-leading Nashville SC at home on Saturday. They’ll have to play at least tonight’s game without Martin Ojeda, who is out with a thigh injury sustained some time between his first-half goal a week ago in a friendly against FC Dallas and the time the availability report dropped on Tuesday.

But it isn’t all bad news for the Lions, who should have both Antoine Griezmann and Dike in the lineup. Griezmann was the club’s highly prized and widely publicized summer Designated Player signing, while Dike’s return to Orlando came together more recently, following his departure from West Bromwich Albion. They’ll help the club’s offense, but the attack hasn’t been the issue in 2026 — it’s been the historically porous defense, which is on pace to shatter the MLS record for goals conceded.

Meanwhile, San Jose is one of the first half of the season’s biggest surprises, as the Quakes have been outstanding in 2026. Scoring 34 goals while conceding just 15, San Jose is among the league leaders in goals scored (tied for third), goals conceded (third), and goal differential (+19, third).

The Earthquakes are 4-2-1 at home and are coming off a 3-1 road win at Portland in their last game prior to the World Cup break. San Jose boasts Golden Boot challenger Preston Judd, who leads the Quakes with 11 goals, adding two assists in his 15 appearances. Ousseni Bouda has chipped in five goals and three assists. Niko Tsakiris leads the team with seven assists to go along with his two goals, but he’s still recovering from a lower body injury and is not available tonight. However, the arrival of Timo Werner (four goals and five assists in just seven games) has truly elevated Bruce Arena’s Quakes, and he’ll need to be one of the main focal points for the Orlando defense.

To have any shot at taking something from this game, the Lions will need to play better road defense than they have all season. Orlando can score goals, but with Ojeda out, Griezmann will need to adapt quickly, and someone other than the team’s leading scorer will need to find the net.

The Lions will play without Ojeda (thigh), Joran Gerbet (knee), Nolan Miller (knee), Colin Guske (international duty), and Clovis Archage (international duty). In addition, Marco Pasalic may or may not have returned to the team after the World Cup. He was not in training Monday, although interim head coach Martin Perelman said he expected the Croatian back soon. The Earthquakes will be without Nonso Adimabua (lower body), former Lion Earl Edwards Jr. (lower body), DeJuan Jones (lower body), and Tsakiris (you guessed it, lower body…come on, San Jose).

Match Content

Official Lineups:

Orlando City (4-4-2)

Goalkeeper: Maxime Crepeau.

Defenders: Adrian Marin, David Brekalo, Robin Jansson, Griffin Dorsey.

Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Braian Ojeda, Eduard Atuesta, Tiago.

Forwards: Justin Ellis, Antoine Griezmann.

Bench: Javier Otero, Bernardo Rhein, Tahir Reid-Brown, Zakaria Taifi, Iago, Wilder Cartagena, Luis Otavio, Harvey Sarajian, Tyrese Spicer

San Jose Earthquakes (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: Angus Gunn.

Defenders: Jamar Ricketts, Reid Roberts, Daniel Munie, Benjamin Kikanovic.

Defensive Midfielders: Beau Lerouox, Ronaldo Vieira.

Attacking Midfielders: Timo Werner, Nick Fernandez, Ousseni Bouda.

Forwards: Preston Judd.

Bench: Jonathan Gonzalez, Dave Romney, Paul Marie, Jack Skahan, Jack Jasinski, Ian Harkes, Francesco Montali, Max Floriani, Darius Johnson.

Referees

REF: Elijio Arreguin.
AR1: Adam Wienckowski.
AR2: Mike Nickerson.
4TH: Timothy Ford.
VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero.
AVAR: TJ Zablocki.

How to Watch

Match Time: 10:30 p.m.

Venue: PayPal Park — San Jose, CA.

TV/Live Stream: Apple TV.

Radio: AM 810 FOX Sports Radio Orlando (English), Mega 97.1 FM (Spanish), Nossa Rádio 1160 AM-WRLZ (Portuguese).

Social Media: For rapid reaction and live updates, follow us on Bluesky Social at @themaneland.bsky.social or follow Orlando City’s official Twitter (@OrlandoCitySC) or Bluesky (@OrlandoCitySC) feed.

Enjoy the match. Go City!

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Podcasts

PawedCast Episode 542: Tampa Bay Friendly, McGuire Traded, OCB Beats Cincinnati, and More

Lions maul the Rowdies in friendly action, OCB wins on the road, and it’s transfer season.

Published

1 month ago

on

July 14, 2026

By

Image of Antoine Griezmann and Ivan Angulo celebrating a goal in a friendly against the Tampa Bay Rowdies.
Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City welcomed I-4 Derby rival Tampa Bay to Inter&Co Stadium for a friendly match on Wednesday and then proceeded to bludgeon the Rowdies with a couple of hammers named Antoine Griezmann and Justin Ellis. The two attackers combined for a goal and four assists in a 6-0 beatdown of the team from the Gulf Coast, with five different Lions scoring and Griffin Dorsey forcing an own goal. We discuss Griezmann’s first minutes with Orlando City, what the team showed in its formation, and how good Justin Ellis’ vision is.

Oh, and it’s also transfer season now. Duncan McGuire is on his way out and Marco Pasalic reportedly will follow soon, while a new left back may be headed from Spain to Orlando.

Following all of that, we discuss Maxime Crepeau being added to the MLS All-Star Team and the announcement that he’ll participate in the 2026 MLS All-Star Skills Challenge.

Our mailbagbox asked us about which World Cup semifinalist players we’d want to join Orlando this season (if we could only pick one), and more. Remember, if there’s anything — and we do mean anything — you want us to address on the show, just ask us by tweeting it to us at @TheManeLand with the hashtag #AskTMLPC, or hitting us up on Bluesky Social with that same hashtag.

After the mailbagbox, we dive into OCB’s 2-1 road win at FC Cincinnati 2. It wasn’t the prettiest game by the Young Lions, but they managed to do enough to earn three points on the road, where they’ll stay to face Chattanooga on Saturday. We briefly preview that game.

Finally, Orlando City will be in Dallas Wednesday for the second of two friendlies leading up to the restart of the MLS season. It’s unlikely we’ll get a lot of details about that one, but we’ll see what happens. Maybe the FC Dallas folks will help us out.

Be sure to rate and review our show wherever you get your podcasts. Remember, we’ll read any five-star reviews we get on Apple Podcasts on the next show.

If you’d like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we’d love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.

Here’s how No. 542 went down:

0:15 – Orlando City crushed the Rowdies, the transfer season is in full swing, plus: hey now, Crepeau’s an all-star.

28:50 – The mailbagbox is always good for a hypothetical scenario.

36:54 – The Young Lions slipped past Cincy and head to Chattanooga, while the senior Lions head to Dallas.

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Podcasts

SkoPurp Soccer Episode 119: International Break, USWNT, Louisville Preview, and More

The Pride return from a long international break looking to get their first-ever road win against Racing Louisville.

Published

4 months ago

on

April 22, 2026

By

Image of Haley McCutcheon scoring the opening goal in Orlando's home playoff win over Seattle.
Image courtesy of Orlando Pride / Jeremy Reper

It feels like months since the Orlando Pride last took the field, but the calendar says otherwise. If you believe calendars, it’s only been a little less than three weeks, but time moves strangely in the post-pandemic apocalyptic world.

Anyway, we don’t have a match to recap, so we touched on a couple of Pride players putting the ball in the net during the international break and chat a bit about the United States Women’s National Team’s three-game friendly series against Japan. Emma Hayes used a lot of players, and the team looked solid for two of the three matches, but the rotated middle game seemed a bit disjointed. Hayes has greatly expanded the player pool and will have plenty of options when the World Cup approaches.

Our mailbagbox had questions about a potential change in the NWSL schedule, as the league explores adopting the fall-to-spring slate, and opposition own goals. Remember, you can ask us anything by hitting us up on Twitter at either @TheManeLand or @SkoPurpSoccer and using the hashtag #AskSkoPurp. You can use that same hashtag and hit @TheManeLand.bsky.social up on Bluesky. Or you can visit our show page, scroll down, and fill out the handy form. We’d also appreciate any ratings or reviews you can leave wherever you get your podcasts, and if you do that on Apple Podcasts, we’ll find them easily and read them on the show.

After the mailbagbox, we turned our attention toward Friday’s late afternoon tussle with Racing Louisville in Kentucky. The Pride have never won on the road against Louisville, and it’s about high time they did. This match begins a congested push to the June World Cup break, and although Friday’s hosts aren’t high in the table, the Pride must be at their best to get a road result in this fixture. We look back at the series history, compare the two sides, provide our key matchups in the game, and make our final score predictions.

If you’d like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we’d love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.

Here’s how Episode 119 went down:

0:15 – We open the show with a little banter about the Pride in the international break and the USWNT’s series vs. Japan.

9:03 – The mailbagbox features questions via both eletronic mail and social media. We welcome all modes of delivery.

19:59 – The Pride travel to Louisville to face Racing. They’ve never won in Kentucky, but we inform them how to do so.

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