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Orlando City vs. Philadelphia Union: Final Score 2-2 as Lions Blow Two-Goal Lead

Another home match against the Union with Alex Chilowicz as the match referee ends controversially, with a 2-2 draw.

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1 year ago

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City built a 2-0 lead against the Philadelphia Union but ultimately dropped points due to a cross that went in the net after missing its target, a howitzer first goal from a guy who will likely never, ever do that again, and an overturned call that was exceedingly questionable in a 2-2 draw at Exploria Stadium. The Lions (7-5-6, 27 points) squandered a two-goal lead on a pair of plays that didn’t seem dangerous at the time and drew the Philadelphia Union (9-5-4, 31 points) after match referee Alex Chilowicz had disallowed a third Orlando goal by Ivan Angulo for a perceived foul in the buildup.

City finishes the season series 1-0-1 against the Union but it could have been more.

Duncan McGuire and Martin Ojeda scored early in each half (although McGuire may end up with both goals after getting a slight touch on Ojeda’s shot) and things looked good for the hosts, but Jack McGlynn’s cross into the box missed everyone and got past Mason Stajduhar at the far post, and then Jose Martinez ran onto a clearance and launched a rocket from distance that left the Homegrown goalkeeper no chance in the 90th minute, as the Lions suffered another late heartbreaking draw at home.

“It was obvious that during the game we were losing energy, but the boys had the personality to overcome and trying to match a good team,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “The frustration that I have and probably everybody with the decision is incredible. But I’d rather just control my words and just worry about getting the things we need to control better and concentrate in those key moments that they’re hurting us on our ways here at home. It’s painful, but we keep going.”

Pareja’s lineup featured Mason Stajduhar making his second straight start in goal, behind a back line of Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Antonio Carlos, and Kyle Smith. Cesar Araujo and Felipe started in central midfield behind an attacking line of Ivan Angulo, Mauricio Pereyra, and Ojeda, with McGuire up top.

The first half was a bit of a mess, with both teams having some good spells of possession but not doing much with them. The Lions were a bit more untidy at the back than the visitors, conceding several set pieces that weren’t necessary.

Philadelphia got the game’s first shot in the fifth minute with Joaquin Torres firing right at Stajduhar for the easy save after Araujo gave the ball away easily at midfield. Torres should have done better with the opportunity.

The teams exchanged blocked shots over the next few minutes. Smith had a chance blocked after Orlando’s first decent spell of attacking possession. A block near the top of the box may have prevented Jack McGlynn scoring off a Union set piece in the 11th minute.

The Lions broke through in minute 13. Pereyra sent an incisive pass through the middle to Ojeda, who flicked it into the path of McGuire. The rookie’s first touch was too heavy but he went to ground to win it back, got up, and slotted inside the left post past former Lion Joe Bendik to open the scoring. It was McGuire’s team-leading sixth goal of the season.

“Great ball from Ojeda,” McGuire said. “I took a poor touch but then I saw the defender coming across really hard. So, I thought that if I could slide, he would maybe fall over and I could get up and it worked out perfectly, I guess, so I’ll take it.”

The Union got a series of set pieces after the Orlando goal and nearly paid one off when a cross in for Jack Elliott found the big defender, but he nodded his shot just over the crossbar in the 27th minute.

Three minutes later, the Lions got a corner and Carlos came within inches of doubling the lead. The Brazilian got his head to the cross and headed it down into the ground. The bounce took it over Bendik but he was able to get a touch to it at the last second to knock it over the bar.

The last chance of the half came in the 42nd minute. The Lions built a nice attack that ended in a shot by Angulo from the right side, but his shot was right at the goalkeeper.

First-half possession was nearly equal, with the Union ekeing out a 50.5%-49.5% advantage. Orlando City had more shots (5-3) and shots on target (3-1), and passed a tiny bit more accurately (86.6%-86.5%). The Union racked up twice the corners as the Lions (6-3).

Felipe’s awful giveaway in the early going of the second half nearly gifted Philadelphia a chance but the Union were called for a foul in the attack in the 51st minute. Seconds later, Stajduhar made a huge save to deny Julian Carranza on the break after another Orlando turnover.

Just as the Union appeared to be growing into the game, the Lions scored their second. Ojeda took a pass from Angulo on the right and cut back into the middle, using the defense as a screen and sent a screamer inside the left post that took a minor deflection off McGuire and beat Bendik, making it 2-0 in the 54th minute. As of this writing, Ojeda has been credited with the goal, although a replay clearly shows it took the smallest of deflections off the rookie striker. Either way, it was a crafty move by Ojeda to deny Bendik sight of his shot.

Both players were gracious about who should get the goal.

“I’m not going to take that goal away from Ojeda,” McGuire said.

“I’m not sure who’s going to end up being credited with the goal,” Ojeda said. “It’s kind of divided. If it’s me, it’s me. If it’s Duncan, then it’s Duncan. But I’ll say that Duncan apologized to me afterwards.”

The two-goal lead lasted only six minutes. McGlynn sent a good cross into the box but it fizzed over the heads of his striker and two defenders. Stajduhar realized too late that the ball’s curl would take it inside the post and he reacted late to it, giving the Union life in the 60th minute.

With the Lions starting to look leggy in the final half hour — Orlando City was on short rest compared to Philadelphia, which hadn’t played in 11 days — Pareja switched to a three-man back line, sending Rodrigo Schlegel and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson on for Smith and Felipe. Angulo became the right wingback opposite Santos.

Angulo should have put the game to bed in the 73rd minute. A scramble to the right of the goal had Bendik out of position and McGuire laid off a pass for him to hit into the empty net but from only eight yards out he somehow got under it enough to send it over the bar on a terribly wasteful effort.

Pareja tried to combat tiring legs by replacing Ojeda with Ramiro Enrique, McGuire with Ercan Kara, and Santos with Gaston Gonzalez. McGuire needed attention from the trainers before leaving but walked off under his own power and after the match said he was fine.

The Lions appeared to put the game to bed in the 86th minute as Angulo atoned for his earlier miss. Kara held off Martinez and made a run forward with the ball, muscling past the defense, drawing Bendik out of position, and finding Angulo for the easy goal. The 17,516 in attendance erupted but Chilowicz signaled that he would look at the replay. He came back, disallowed the goal, and booked Kara for fouling Martinez in the buildup. Kara’s arm came up to hold off the midfielder but Martinez made a complete meal of little contact and it was nothing worse than happened a dozen other times in the game.

“I saw the ref already and it is incredible,” Pareja said about the controversial play. “I mean, we need to protect the game. That’s our frustration tonight. It’s happened before. Nothing we can say.”

“I thought it was unfair,” McGuire said of the play. “I thought (the goal) should have been given, but at the end of the day you’ve got to play the game. After that, it’s still game on and you have to finish the game out. I definitely think it should have been a goal but, can’t do anything about it now, sadly.”

Chilowicz, you may recall, was the same official who overturned an offside call on a Daniel Gazdag goal in this exact same fixture last year after reviewing the play and then ruled that a mugging of Carlos in the box at the end of that match was not a penalty because of an exceedingly minor and routine shirt grab happened before the mugging.

Disaster, which has struck now in three of the last four home games, struck again in the 90th minute. The Lions were handling everything Philadelphia threw at them and what appeared to be a routine clearance out of the box off the head of Carlos bounced in front of Martinez. The midfielder smashed a wicked blast off the right post and in, giving Stajduhar no chance. The Lions went from having a two-goal cushion to being level in just minutes.

Without having seen any goals from any of the other games tonight, I’m certain this will be MLS Goal of the Week.

“Unbelievable goal from Philadelphia and not much you can do about that but I think as a whole group we can maybe do a little bit more to take the three points at home,” McGuire said.

Both teams went for the win after Martinez’s equalizer. Enrique had a golden opportunity on the left in the 94th minute but sent his shot off the crossbar. Two minutes later, a ball into the box found Mikael Uhre, who put his attempt off the crossbar at the other end. Moments later, the game was over.

Philadelphia ended up with more possession (55.2%-44.8%), shots (10-8), shots on target (5-4), corners (7-4), and passing accuracy (82.3%-77.2%). Despite the statistical advantages, Orlando City rarely appeared to be in danger of conceding until the two vastly different goals went in.

“For the players, nothing but my respect for that effort tonight,” Pareja said of his side.

“After a game that we definitely think we should have won, I definitely think we are excited and eager to get on the road and play another game to show that maybe tonight was a fluke and we can get three points against a tough Seattle team,” Mcguire said.

The Lions have a quick turnaround, flying out Thursday ahead of Saturday’s match at the Sounders.

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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

10 hours ago

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July 26, 2024

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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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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

11 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

14 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.

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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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