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USA vs. the Netherlands, 2019 World Cup: Final Score 2-0 as Yanks Repeat as World Champions

Published

7 years ago

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In a tight and physical World Cup final, the United States wore down the Netherlands, scoring twice after halftime to repeat as champions of the competition, 2-0. Megan Rapinoe converted a penalty won by Alex Morgan and Rose Lavelle added a golazo to lift the Yanks to their second consecutive and fourth overall World Cup championship at the Stade de Lyon.

The Dutch, FIFA’s No. 8 team in the world, were game opponents in the final, entering without having lost a match or even trailed in the competition, but the U.S. ground them down over 90 minutes in the heat of Lyon’s Décines-Charpieu suburb.

For the final, Jill Ellis went with the lineup equivalent of an old pair of running shoes. It’s got a few holes in it and no longer offers the support it once did, but it feels good, it’s comfortable, and the prospect of breaking in a stiff new pair will just have to wait for another day.

Orlando Pride striker Morgan started up top in her usual spot between Rapinoe on the left and Tobin Heath on the right. The midfield (left to right) consisted of Sam Mewis, Julie Ertz, and Lavelle. The usual back line configuration of Crystal Dunn, Becky Sauerbrunn, Abby Dahlkemper, and Kelley O’Hara started in front of goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher.

Both teams played well defensively in the first half. The Netherlands forced the U.S. to play long diagonal balls to the wings and the Yanks struggled to find runners in the box for dangerous opportunities.

Most of the U.S. chances came from balls pinging around the area off set pieces, as the nature of playing early to outside runners kept the USWNT from getting enough bodies into the area to beat the numbers presented by the Dutch.

The first half chance came from a corner kick, as Heath headed toward goal and Lavelle picked up the rebound and attempted to fizz a cross through but goalkeeper Sari van Veenendaal grabbed it and held on.

The first half chance for the Netherlands came in the 26th minute with a long ball for Lineth Beerensteyn looked dangerous until Naeher came outside her box for a last-second clearance.

Two minutes later, Lavelle crushed a shot but left it too close to van Veenendaal, who parried it away. O’Hara jumped on the rebound but skied her shot way over the crossbar.

The U.S. looked to have a legitimate penalty shout in the 37th minute when Alex Morgan won a race to a ball in the box and was shoved in the back, sending her face first into the turf. The referee saw nothing wrong with it, which was consistent with the nothing wrong she saw with several other times Morgan was clobbered by the Dutch defense in the opening half.

A minute after the no-call, Mewis hit van Veenendaal in the ribs with a diving header that would have opened the scoring. Morgan nearly scored seconds later, flicking a Rapinoe cross toward the near post but van Veenendaal made a good reaction save to keep it out by touching it off the post and prevented any rebound.

Morgan freed herself with an excellent touch and sized up a blast with her left foot in the 40th but van Veenendaal made a spectacular diving save to keep the game scoreless.

At the end of the half, Lavelle looked to be clearly fouled just outside the area out in front of goal. It wasn’t given and neither was it called when Rapinoe was bundled over, allowing the Netherlands to counter. It resulted in an eventual corner and after a few nervy seconds in the area the U.S. finally cleared and the halftime whistle blew with the teams still scoreless.

The U.S. held a slight possession advantage (53%) and out-shot the Dutch, 5-1 (4-0 on target), holding a 71%-64% advantage in passing accuracy.

Pride defender Ali Krieger replaced O’Hara after halftime, as the latter had sustained a clash of heads late in the first half and began showing concussion-like symptoms during the break.

The USWNT came out of the break looking to take control of the match. Morgan won a corner in the first minute and Ertz headed wide on the set piece. A weak Rapinoe shot at van Veenendaal and a shot well wide from distance by Dunn over the next couple of minutes were merely warning signs that the Yanks were coming and the Oranje were starting to crack under the pressure.

The game finally turned on a typical Morgan hustle play in the area. Stefanie van der Gragt came in with a flying kick that missed the ball and caught Morgan’s shoulder. The play was initially ruled a corner kick for the U.S. but after reviewing the play herself, the referee correctly awarded a penalty to the United States. Rapinoe’s spot kick froze van Veenendaal and that allowed the attempt to go in to the keeper’s left in the 61st minute, despite it not being very close to the corner.

That goal took the Golden Boot away from Morgan due to having played fewer minutes, although her campaign was aided in part by being the team’s penalty taker.

After falling behind, the Netherlands changed up the game plan and stopped sitting back, but that only served to open up the Oranje at the back. The only thing that kept the U.S. from going on and scoring half a dozen goals were off-line passes and heavy touches.

Lavelle doubled the lead in the 69th minute with a nice goal, stepping onto a pass from Mewis — after Dunn won the ball back — and using pace to get behind the midfield. She attacked the back line and used a Morgan outside run to free up space and drilled a perfect blast into the lower right corner where van Veenendaal couldn’t reach it.

Heath had several opportunities to add a third goal down the stretch but, looking exhausted, she tried to slow the game down in the box and look for the perfect shot, which never came.

Morgan had an opportunity to regain the Golden Boot in the 72nd minute, but she took a heavy touch that allowed van Veenendaal to come off her line and smother it. Dunn was sent in moments later by Rapinoe but fired her shot at the Dutch goalkeeper.

The Netherlands finally got a decent look at goal in the 77th minute, when Beerensteyn cut inside Krieger and fired a shot that went right at Naeher. Sherida Spitse sent a free kick just wide to the left in the 80th minute.

A few half-chances the U.S. shot right at the keeper and some excellent game management in the corners from Morgan and Krieger helped kill the game off and the USWNT subs ran onto the pitch to celebrate with their teammates.

Shots were 17-6 (9-1) in favor of the dominant U.S., which held 53% of the possession and a narrow advantage in passing accuracy (70%-69%).

Rapinoe was named the MVP of the match and added the Golden Ball to go along with her Golden Boot.

That’s a wrap on the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup! After a parade in New York City this week, expect some kind of USWNT victory tour to ensue at some point and steal three key players from further Orlando Pride matches this season. The United States will add that fourth star, and now we can look forward to the controversy turning from goal celebrations to how many players refuse their invitations to the White House. But who cares? We’re champions again, y’all.

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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

2 weeks ago

on

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

3 weeks 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

3 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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