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USA vs. Trinidad & Tobago: Final Score 7-0 as Yanks Blast Soca Warriors at Exploria Stadium

Published

6 years ago

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The United States Men’s National Team remained unbeaten at Exploria Stadium with a 7-0 destruction of Trinidad & Tobago. The U.S. got braces from Jonathan Lewis, Jesus Ferreira, and Paul Arriola, and a goal from Miles Robinson, to improve to 4-0-0 at Orlando City’s home grounds, out-scoring opponents 16-1 in those matches.

Ferreira in particular had a standout game, factoring directly in five of the seven USMNT goals, with three assists to go with his two goals. Meanwhile, two Orlando City players got their USMNT debuts and one got his second career cap.

“What I really liked about the guys was the focus and the intensity,” USMNT Head Coach Gregg Berhalter said after the match. “And after three weeks of training with a relatively new group, a young group, it’s good to be able to see those elements on the game field against a real opponent. I think we know that this wasn’t a World Cup qualifying-caliber team based on who they had available, but nonetheless it was good to see the focus of the team.”

Berhalter did not start any of the four Orlando City players on his roster. New England Revolution goalkeeper Matt Turner got the start between the sticks, earning his first cap. The back line consisted of captain Aaron Long and Robinson in between fullbacks Sam Vines and Aaron Herrera, who also picked up his first cap. Jackson Yueill, Sebastian Lletget, and Kellyn Acosta manned the midfield behind an attacking trio of Lewis, Ferreira, and Arriola.

The first half basically consisted of the United States doing whatever it wanted to offensively, torturing a T&T back line that couldn’t figure out when to step up or when to sag, and which was almost always either too narrow or too wide. The U.S. movement, pace, and passing caused a lot of confusion for the Soca Warriors and things were far too easy for the Americans.

The USMNT struck early. Left back Sam Vines sent a great ball forward to Jesus Ferreira, who beat goalkeeper Adrian Foncette to the ball and took it wide to the left. Ferreira spun and found Lewis in the middle of the penalty area for the easy empty-net goal to make it 1-0 in the second minute.

Arriola got in behind two minutes later but took a heavy first touch, followed by an unnecessary second touch, which took him away from goal. He went down easily under pressure, looking for a penalty that wasn’t — and shouldn’t have been — given. The Yanks had to wait until the ninth minute to double the lead. This time Lewis sent Vines down the left flank for the cross in and Ferreira tapped in the half volley shot at the near post to make it 2-0.

“In terms of Jonathan and Jesus, you know, we worked on a lot of combinations this camp, and I think that what we’re working on with all the guys is to develop that chemistry together,” Berhalter said of the chemistry between Lewis and Ferreira. “And today was an example of two guys just really sticking to the game plan and really executing.”

“I think it just comes with a lot of the work that we put in this camp, three weeks of working,” Lewis said.

Lewis squandered an easy point-blank header in the 16th minute, hitting it back across goal into Foncette, who knew little about his save. Two minutes later, Lletget hit a shot right at the Trinidadian keeper, making a mess of another scoring chance.

The third goal came in the 22nd minute. Arriola got in behind the defense and fired a shot that Foncette could only get a piece of. Ferreira again assisted.

Ferreira should have had a second goal in the 25th minute but couldn’t keep his header down and hit it over the bar. Ten minutes later, defender Josiah Trimmingham nearly put a ball into his own net. Seconds later, Foncette made a nice diving save on a shot from distance on the right to keep the score at 3-0. Herrera got in alone in the 38th minute but couldn’t finish the play, hitting his shot at Foncette.

The lead finally bulged to 4-0 in the 41st minute and it was Arriola again. A poor clearance attempt by right back Federico Pena ended up on Ferreira’s head in the middle of the pitch. His header fell at the running feet of Arriola, who notched his brace.

Acosta should have scored just before halftime, getting in behind the defense but hitting a soft shot at Foncette. That was the final good opportunity of the opening period.

The United States dominated on the stat sheet as well as the scoreboard at halftime, leading in shots (12-0), shots on goal (9-0), corners (2-1), possession (76.7%-23.3%), and passing accuracy (91%-58%).

Orlando City midfielder Andres Perea made his USMNT debut, starting the second half in place of Lletget.

The scoring continued in the 52nd minute. Herrera was fouled on the right side, setting up a free kick. Acosta’s delivery found Long on the far side of the box and the center back headed a cross to his counterpart Robinson, who nodded home to make it 5-0.

Three minutes later, Lewis completed his brace. He ran onto a fantastic ball from Acosta and cut in from the left, smashing home a shot from the top of the area to make it 6-0 in the 55th minute.

Ferreira was next to get his brace, making it 7-0 in the 61st minute after Arriola slipped him in behind the defense.

Orlando City’s Chris Mueller and Daryl Dike — making his USMNT debut — were among four U.S. subs that came on just moments later. With the big lead and all of the substitutions, the game got a lot choppier after that and chances were few and far between.

Trinidad & Tobago finally got an opportunity to score when Perea was called for a high boot foul in the area. The Orlando midfielder was playing an aerial ball and stuck out a foot to clear it when a Trinidadian player ran into it. A spot kick was awarded but Turner made a diving save on Alvin Jones going to his right in the 66th minute to keep his clean sheet in his first USMNT start.

“I think (Turner) did an excellent job, and not only with his feet but making the penalty save was an amazing moment in the game, and (I’m) really proud of Matt, and for what he’s done this whole camp,” Berhalter said.

Dike nearly bullied his way in behind the defense in the 71st minute but a defender got just a touch on it and it skipped away from the big striker. A minute later, Trinidad & Tobago’s first shot from open play came from long range and sailed well over the crossbar.

The next decent chance came in the 82nd minute when Mueller got the ball in the box with his back to goal. He slid it over to Dike, whose left-footed effort would have beaten the goalkeeper but was blocked behind for a corner by the defense.

That was the last decent opportunity of the match and the Yanks ran out the clock on a comprehensive victory against an overmatched opponent. The U.S. led in shots (19-2), shots on target (12-1), corners (3-1), possession (72.4%-27.6%), and passing accuracy (91%-65%).

The only down side was that hometown Orlando City winger Benji Michel did not get to make his USMNT debut.

The USMNT will play next in the March FIFA window, with the younger players taking part in Concacaf qualifying for the Olympics. Meanwhile, the USWNT will play at Exploria Stadium three times in February in the upcoming SheBelieves Cup on Feb. 18, 21, and 24.

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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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