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Orlando City vs. Vancouver Whitecaps: Final Score 2-1 as Lions Continue to Struggle Offensively

25 shot attempts, but only four on target.

Published

7 years ago

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Nick Leyva, The Mane Land

Orlando City has probably never had a final stats sheet like the one members of the media received after the Lions’ 2-1 home loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps at Orlando City Stadium.

Possession: 72.5%. Shots: 25. Passing accuracy: 84.8% Total passes: 487 — that’s 384 more than Vancouver. The worst passer on the team, statistically — Yoshimar Yotun — still managed 75.4% accuracy. The team fired 40 (!) open-play crosses. And yet, the Lions lost.

But in the end, the Vancouver Whitecaps leave with all the points because again the Lions could not find much quality to go with all of that quantity. Orlando City mustered only four shots on target out of the 25 attempts. Giles Barnes hit the crossbar late in the game. Both goals against were gifts — an own goal by Tommy Redding within the game’s first 10 minutes, and a second-half giveaway that sprung a Vancouver counter, which ended in the eventual winning goal by Brek Shea, because of course it would be Shea.

Cyle Larin’s 10th goal of the season gave the Lions a lifeline but it turned out to be nothing more than consolation in the end.

All of the effort, possession, and scoring chances mean little if the team can’t convert. And on this night, like so many others we’ve seen recently, the end product didn’t match the effort. Orlando City has put together some good performances recently but the Lions sure aren’t getting rewarded for it.

That’s the kind of thing that eventually saps optimism, amplifies a lack of confidence, and leaves fans screaming for a change, when literally any change will do in order to create a feeling that lessens the helplessness of watching a team with one of the best starts in MLS history slowly bleed to death over the course of several months.

A somber Jason Kreis struggled to put into words after the game what it’s like to watch good performances result in so few goals and even fewer good results.

“The effort the guys are putting forward in the last five or six games now is second to none. The belief they have and the willingness to work until the bitter end is fantastic and I can’t be any more thankful for that,” Kreis said. “But for whatever reason, it seems like it’s bad luck after bad luck after bad luck. And to go through a game tonight where we gave them both goals and we weren’t able to finish one of the plethora of chances we had — it’s difficult. A really, really mentally and emotionally difficult time for us.”

“You look at the start of these games and there’s one team really putting the pressure on and in both of them one small error and we’re punished for it,” goalkeeper Joe Bendik said. “That’s the game in the grand scheme but at some point it’s got to go our way a little bit.”

Kreis sent out an interesting lineup, apart from the usual Bendik at the back and the same back four who have played since Jonathan Spector went out with a knee injury a few games ago. Cristian Higuita, Yoshimar Yotun, Giles Barnes, and Kaká provided a more offensive-minded midfield than we’re used to seeing, while Carlos Rivas joined Dom Dwyer in the starting strike partnership and Cyle Larin sat on the substitutes’ bench.

Orlando City gave up only one scoring opportunity in the first half and of course it was enough, as the Whitecaps got on the board when Redding flicked Nicolas Mezquida’s free kick with his head back into his own net just nine minutes after the start. The Whitecaps didn’t even need a shot on goal to take the lead. It was the second time in three games that the central defense partnership conceded an own goal — as Leo Pereira did at New York — and the second time in three games the Lions conceded a first-half goal without allowing a shot on target.

Dwyer nearly got on the score sheet in the 16th minute, when a cross came in that the keeper got a piece of just before Dom’s arrival. The deflection was just enough to put off the striker’s timing.

Orlando’s best opportunity of the opening period came in the 21st minute. From the left corner, Kaká sent a cross to the top of the box that Dwyer allowed to run through to Yotun. The Peruvian one-timed his shot but sizzled it just over the crossbar. Three minutes later, Yotun took a free kick from near the sideline about 10 yards inside of the midfield line. The Peruvian’s kick was headed on by Barnes and landed just over the bar on top of the net, although Stefan Marinovic appeared to have it well covered.

In the 31st minute, Scott Sutter sent a cross in that deflected off Vancouver fullback Jordan Harvey and nearly deflected in just under the bar, but Marinovic was there to tip it over. Two minutes later, off an ensuing corner, the ball pinballed around the Vancouver box after a Rivas shot attempt but no one could get it on frame, although it appeared Higuita was fouled in the process of heading it on goal.

The Lions dominated possession in the opening half (72.6%) and out-shot Vancouver, 15-1, but Orlando only mustered one effort that actually hit the target, and Marinovic stopped that.

The first half was largely an exercise in frustration as Rivas continually failed to do much of anything with conviction. His shots were further off target than usual, including one about five rows into the upper deck. His passes were rarely properly weighted for their recipients. And he wasn’t even able to use his speed to much effect. By halftime, Kreis had seen enough and Larin came on for the Colombian.

Kreis said after the match that his thought with starting Rivas was he wanted to use the Colombian’s willingness to drop into the midfield and to the sidelines to feed Dwyer as he ran into the box, but what occurred during the game was that there weren’t enough bodies getting into the area to provide other options.

The second half was pretty much an exact replica of the first. Orlando controlled the ball for nearly the same amount of time (72.5% rather than 72.6%). Again, Orlando had the ball, the shots, the chances, but could only hit the target three times. And again, a gaffe by an Orlando defender led to a Vancouver goal. This time Pereira ignited a break that ended up with Shea in alone on Joe Bendik and the former Lion chipped the Orlando keeper to give the guests a two-goal lead in the 53rd minute.

Shea’s goal came three minutes after Dwyer smashed a shot just wide of goal.

Larin pulled one back for the Lions at the 62-minute mark, seemingly reigniting the game. Yotun got down the left flank after taking a pass from Higuita and scorched in an inch-perfect cross for the Canadian to nod home to make it 2-1. It was Yotun’s first MLS assist on a night when the Peruvian played extremely well, creating six chances and getting on the ball often — he led all players with 99 touches.

Vancouver nearly made it 3-1 a couple of times. Second-half sub Alphonso Davies got a fortunate deflection on a counter off Higuita and it fell for him to be alone on Bendik, but he shot high in the 69th minute. The Whitecaps somehow completely bungled a 3-on-1 counterattack in the 73rd without even getting a shot out of it. And Higuita made a vital desperation lunge to block a shot attempt in the box on another dangerous counter.

But the Lions had more opportunities than Vancouver. Off a 78th-minute corner kick, Sutter ended up shooting from above the box. The ball fell in front of Larin with Marinovic on the ground. Larin took a touch and then could not get his foot back onto it to knock it into the gaping net. The ball skipped off Barnes’ attempt to knock it in and eventually came to Dillon Powers — making his Orlando City debut as a second-half sub — who fired a shot that deflected off a defender and out of play.

Dwyer nearly got his head to a cross from point-blank range in the 85th but got a punch to the side of the head from Marinovic just as the ball arrived. A minute later, Barnes drove a blast off the crossbar. Larin nodded a corner cross wide of goal in the 89th.

Referee Hilario Grajeda signaled a minimum of four stoppage minutes and with the Lions coming close time after time, it seemed like that might be enough time. But in the end, as usual, even that didn’t go Orlando’s way. Despite repeated time wasting efforts in injury time by Vancouver that drew warnings from the referee, Grajeda still blew the full time whistle a good 10 seconds before the four minutes were up.

To paraphrase a recurring bit from the old 1970s musical comedy show Hee Haw, if it weren’t for bad luck, the Lions would have no luck at all.

“A little bit of a loss for words, honestly, because I just have never felt like I’ve been in such an unlucky situation,” Kreis said. “We just can’t seem to get anything to go our way. I feel like if we get something to go our way right now we can get a lot of good results because we’re performing well and playing well. But the struggle continues.”

Bendik was visibly dejected after the game, lamenting the team paying for every small mistake while not being able to capitalize on its own opportunities.

“Disappointed. It’s a lot of effort, a lot of heart, and to just get punished for these tiny mistakes…last week Cyle runs with a guy on a free kick and heads it away, it hits the side of a guy’s head and goes in the net,” he said. “This week Tommy makes a challenge, wins the ball but can’t get enough on it and I can’t make the save. Really disappointed.”

The season is still mathematically alive, but with Columbus, Atlanta, and even Philadelphia earning points tonight, coupled with the way every break seems to be going this summer, it’s probably best for your sanity to just enjoy the games while we’ve got them and look forward to a good off-season at this point.

The Lions are at New England next Saturday to make up the postponed game from back in March. Hey, we’ll be here to cover it.

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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!

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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!

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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

13 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!

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