Connect with us

Orlando City

Orlando City vs. New York City FC: Player Grades and Man of the Match

Published

3 years ago

on

That sucked. After a great win against the Philadelphia Union on Thursday, a hodgepodge Orlando City lineup got absolutely dusted in a 5-0 loss by a good New York City FC side in Yankee Stadium. Orlando was without its top offensive weapons and had so few players available that it put two goalkeepers on the bench.

This was one to forget, so let’s see how everybody played in this one.

Starters

GK, Pedro Gallese, 7 (MoTM)  — Gallese wasn’t his best in this game, but was easily Orlando’s best player. In the first half, he was a wall, keeping a lackluster Orlando side alive with multiple huge stops. He probably could’ve done better on at least one or two of New York’s goals, especially the third, but I’m not going to criticize him too much. The team around him collapsed and he had to make nine saves, eight of which were in the box. He completed 20 of 29 passes for a 69% success rate, including nine accurate long balls in a performance that was pretty on par from him in terms of distribution. 

D, Emmanuel Mas, 5 — The left back’s debut in MLS was solid. He didn’t look the part of an offensively-adept overlapping fullback, but he did well in a defensive role that was similar to a third center back. Mas made a handful of defensively savvy plays that you hope to see from an experienced player and his positioning disrupted a quality chance on goal for New York and helped clean up a rebound on a great Gallese save. However, when Orlando had the ball, Mas wasn’t particularly good. He completed only 57% of his 21 passes and didn’t do anything offensively. In 57 minutes of play, he finished with a tackle, an interception, and two clearances. It was a solid, although unspectacular, debut for the Argentine.

D, Antonio Carlos, 4.5 — This is the worst game Antonio Carlos has ever played for Orlando City. To his credit, he made several good plays, particularly in the first half, but as the game descended into disaster, he completely fell apart. Two of New York’s goals can be pegged on him, although the first also came from him being grabbed and pushed by Valentin Castellanos. Carlos didn’t look anywhere near the player he can be in the second half. Even when passing the ball he wasn’t particularly good, only completing 77% of his 35 passes. Carlos had no tackles in the match, but had four interceptions and six clearances.

D, Rodrigo Schlegel, 5.5 — This game was one of Schlegel’s weaker performances as a Lion. He occasionally got caught upfield or would put a foot wrong, giving NYCFC dangerous space to attack into. To his credit, he continues to stuff the stat sheet defensively, with three tackles, seven clearances, and an interception. When defending becomes desperate, Schlegel is good at making the necessary play. Like Carlos, he had a hard time building out of the back, with only 74% of his 34 passes finding their mark. Schlegel wasn’t good per se, but there were certainly worse performances on this team. 

D, Kyle Smith, 5 — It was not a great performance from Smith. He finally received a rest in this game, only playing the first half, and he definitely warranted the substitution. He completed 55% of his 22 passes and wasn’t much of a presence pushing forward with one attempted cross that was unsuccessful. His defensive work left something to be desired as he had no tackles or interceptions and made one clearance. NYCFC was dangerous attacking down Smith’s right flank and while he wasn’t terrible, he hardly shut things down. With all that being said, he gets some slack considering the sheer number of minutes he’s played this season.. 

MF, Andres Perea, 4.5 — Perea wasn’t good in this game. He had an excellent chance right on the doorstep to open the second half and perhaps could have changed the tone of the match, but couldn’t get a quality shot on the ball and hit it right at Luis Barraza. If he gets that ball just past the keeper, this could have been a much different game. Despite playing in a key midfield spot, Perea was barely involved in possession, only completing 14 of 18 passes in 90 minutes. That’s nowhere near good enough for a central midfielder, even if he was tasked with a more offensive role in this game. He completed one of his two attempted dribbles, made a clearance, and pressed the ball well, but his impact was barely felt throughout this game.

MF, Uri Rosell, 4 — Maybe I’m a little too harsh here, but I was thoroughly unimpressed with Rosell in this game. His lack of pace cost him when he got caught upfield and he provided next to nothing in terms of tenacity in the middle of the park. Keaton Parks and the rest of the NYCFC midfield were able to cut through Orlando City and routinely run into open space. The entire team is responsible for that, but Rosell was, to me at least, the most noticeably poor of the bunch. Rosell is a player whose passing ability typically compensates for his lack of defensive chops, but he only completed 78% of his 32 passes — though that was still fourth best on the team out of anyone who played more than half the game — and struggled to maintain possession or break the NYCFC defense. Defensively, he did chip in with three tackles.

MF, Joey DeZart, 5 — I like DeZart and thought he showed flashes of quality in this game, but it wasn’t good enough. He’s a solid linking player, but lacks the ability to control the game with his passing. He completed 93% of his 27 passes, including a key pass. DeZart was a little too conservative with his passing and was generally too slow with the ball, being dispossessed twice. His technical ability is good, but the speed at which he plays and sees the game was not at an MLS level in this game. Defensively, he made eight ball recoveries, but got walked through at times alongside Rosell. He also had a shot, but it wasn’t much of a chance. In a better lineup, DeZart could be a solid role player, but in this setup, he lacked the quality the Lions needed. 

MF, Alexander Alvarado, 6 — It was the first MLS start for the Ecuadorian winger and it wasn’t bad. In a terrible offensive performance for Orlando City, Alvarado was the closest thing to a threat offensively. He created one of the only good chances for the Lions in the game, sliding Silvester van der Water in behind with a good through ball, and looked comfortable and occasionally dangerous with the ball. He completed 17 of his 21 passes for an 81% success rate and drew four fouls. However, Alvarado is still a little too slow with the ball and has a tendency to turn the ball over, being dispossessed twice in this game. He did make an interception and three ball recoveries defensively. 

F, Silvester van der Water, 6 — The Dutchman wasn’t outright bad in this game, but he hasn’t come close to his early season form. In his first few appearances, van der Water looked like a dynamic playmaker out wide, but he’s created nothing for himself or others in recent weeks. In one half of action, he only had 19 touches, but several of those were promising. He had a shot that forced a save out of Barraza, as well as a key pass and three successful long balls. For all the good some of these underlying stats show, he just wasn’t a particularly effective wide forward. Maybe if he continues to build his fitness and acclimate to Orlando and MLS he can perform more consistently, but right now he’s not much of a weapon for Orlando. He completed nine of his 11 passes and also had an interception. 

F, Benji Michel, 4 — Michel was in good form heading into the match, but he was completely ineffective playing up top against New York. He had no service and didn’t get into dangerous areas, registering no shots in 90 minutes. Michel also had a key pass and was successful on one of his four attempted dribbles. He needed to be more dangerous and much better in holdup play. To be fair, this isn’t really his fault as Michel has evolved into a legit inverted winger and isn’t effective as a striker. When Orlando switched to a 3-5-2, Michel looked a lot better, able to drift further wide with more numbers around him in attack. He also got back for some defensive work, finishing with five ball recoveries and a clearance. His passing stats were unsurprisingly low, with only 11 completed passes on 16 attempts for a 69% success rate.

Substitutes

D, Ruan (46’), 5 — Welcome back, Ruan! After a seemingly endless injury absence, the quick Brazilian made his return to the lineup, playing the entire second half. He did look dangerous on a few attacks, burning down the touchline with his blistering pace, but he lacked the final ball. He completed six of nine passes and completed a dribble but never had a big offensive moment. Defensively, he wasn’t great, giving up a lot of space for New York to attack into. He made a clearance, but wasn’t in good positions and made no impact on that side of the ball. But he received minutes and should give Orlando a serious boost once he’s back to his best. 

D, Robin Jansson (46’), 5 — A facemask-wearing Jansson came in to give Orlando a third center back in the second half, but he wasn’t particularly good. While solid with the ball, completing 11 of his 13 passes for an 85% completion rate, Jansson did little to prevent the onslaught from New York late in the half. He made two interceptions and two clearances, but his overall defensive performance left a lot to be desired. I don’t think Jansson was too terrible individually, but he wasn’t at his best and the entire defense was awful. 

D, Joao Moutinho (57’), 5.5 — The left back pushed forward and looked like an offensive threat, even though none of his four crosses found their mark. Moutinho finished with a pair of clearances and he completed eight of his 12 passes. This was a step forward for him as he continued to show some forward thrust, and hopefully he can reach his form from last year in a stronger lineup. 

D, Michael Halliday (69’), 4.5 — The Homegrown Player was on the field for 20 minutes, but was almost completely invisible. Halliday only had seven touches and completed both of his attempted passes. On defense he made a clearance, a ball recovery, and an interception. Frankly, it was an unremarkable outing from the young fullback.

MF, David Loera (69’), 5.5 — Loera has played sparingly for Orlando City, but got about 20 minutes of play in New York. He completed all four of his passes and looked solid on the ball in his eight touches. Loera even put a shot on target, one of just three all game for Orlando. I really wish there was a U.S. Open Cup this season, because that seems like a perfect setting for Loera to receive more minutes. He’s an intriguing player, but might not be good enough to contribute at an MLS level right now.

That’s how I judged this one, what were your thoughts? Leave your ratings below and vote for your man of the match.

Polling Closed

PlayerVotes
Pedro Gallese35
Alexander Alvarado1
Rodrigo Schlegel1
Other (Comment Below)3

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