Connect with us

Orlando City

Orlando City vs. FC Cincinnati: Final Score 1-0 as Facundo Torres’ Goal Helps Lions Sink League Leaders

Lions take four out of six points on the two-match road trip heading into the international break.

Published

11 months ago

on

Image courtesy of Orlando City SC

Facundo Torres struck just before halftime to lift Orlando City to a massive 1-0 road win over FC Cincinnati at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati, OH. The Lions (13-6-8, 47 points) held off a furious rally attempt by FC Cincinnati (17-4-6, 57 points) with only 10 men after Wilder Cartagena was sent off late, but managed to weather 13 minutes of stoppage time to become the first team all season to beat Cincy on its home field.

The win extended Orlando City’s current league unbeaten streak to five matches (4-0-1), with four of those games coming on the road. In an eight-day span, the Lions defeated the leaders of both MLS conferences.

“The first half was in a very good level that we created most of the chances,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said after the match. “We controlled the game and we should be thinking this is really the consistency that we’re fighting for and playing for. The second half, Cincinnati, who is a very good team, started just putting more numbers up front and we started defending a little lower than we wanted. But today we played very well with the ball and we played even better without it, which you have to know how to do that.”

Pareja’s lineup featured Pedro Gallese in goal behind a back line of Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson. Cesar Araujo and Cartagena started in central midfield behind an attacking line of Ivan Angulo, Mauricio Pereyra, and Torres, with Duncan McGuire up top.

Orlando City played an excellent first road half, keeping Cincinnati penned back through timely pressing and good control of the midfield.

FC Cincinnati, however, tried to open the scoring via the long ball. The first was sent forward for Brandon Vazquez in the sixth minute but Gallese came off his line quickly to knock it away. A minute later, a through ball found Sergio Santos breaking behind the defense. The forward scored but the flag immediately came up. There was a lengthy delay to review the play, as Rafa Santos was not even with his back line teammates, making it a close call. Ultimately, the call on the field was upheld and the game remained scoreless.

Orlando was wasteful over the next few minutes as Torres had a shot blocked behind for a corner and Pereyra tried a tricky through ball for McGuire despite having an open Torres breaking into space on his right moments later. Pereyra then sent a free kick from the left on target, making for an easy punch away for goalkeeper Roman Celentano.

Cincinnati got its first prolonged spell of possession after that and kept it for nearly four minutes before a ball into the area was knocked away by Schlegel.

McGuire went down holding his shoulder in the 27th minute after tangling with Matt Miazga on a 50/50 ball. Pareja was angry that no foul was called and McGuire had to substitute off, needing help to remove his jersey. Ramiro Enrique came on for the rookie on the day the Lions transferred striker Ercan Kara to Samsunspor in Turkey.

“The (other strikers) know and understand that this is an opportunity now for them, and I think they have the talent to do it,” Pareja said. “Duncan, Jack Lynn, and Ramiro, they have to take that position and embrace it in the best way and produce. I’m glad that Ramiro came and participated in that one goal. It’s important for us. He creates different movements. Duncan, Jack, and Ramiro provide different characteristics up front — even Martin (Ojeda). “

Moments later, Gallese went down holding his groin area. He got treatment for a few minutes and was able to continue.

A good chance nearly fell for Araujo in the 35th minute on a corner cross by Torres. Araujo looked to have a tap-in at the back post but Santiago Arias got there just in time to prevent a shot. Enrique followed with a shot that was blocked.

The Lions continued to have the better looks. Angulo shot wide in the 38th minute and Torres had a shot deflect into the outside netting a minute later. Orlando City still found the breakthrough just before the break.

Pereyra sent a ball to Enrique down the left side of the box. The Argentine took a heavy first touch and had to then beat Miazga to the end line, where he slid and knocked it back out in front of goal. The ball found Torres, who slotted home, opening the scoring in the 44th minute with his 11th of the season.

“It was a play where Wilder recovered the ball in the middle of the field and quickly played it over to Mauricio,” Enrique said through a club translator of the winning play. “And it just all kind of happened really quick, where I opened myself up for the diagonal and he hit it, and I hit it on the fast break, but I had a touch there that was a bit too far to control. So, I just kind of hit it back into the middle of the area, and thankfully Facu was there and he hit it, and he was able to score. And thankfully, with that goal, we were able to win tonight.”

The Lions saw out seven minutes of first-half stoppage time and took their slim lead into the break.

Orlando City held the halftime advantage in possession (50.5%-49.5%), shots (7-2), and corners (4-0). The hosts passed more accurately (87%-83.9%). Each team got just one shot on frame, officially.

In the second half, Orlando City was content to play solid defense and look for counterattacking opportunities and that helped the hosts take the lead in time of possession and most of the other categories. Orlando City’s block was forced lower and lower but the Lions defended resolutely and the hosts didn’t create many clear-cut chances. They wasted the few they did create.

Cincinnati kept more of the ball after halftime and it started right away, as the hosts held possession for over a minute after kicking off to restart the game. The possession broke down on a pass too far in front of Luciano Acosta. Jansson did well to deny a cross intended for Vazquez in the 51st minute.

Enrique nearly got in behind moments later after beating Miazga in the open field but second-half sub Yerson Mosquera ran him down from behind to thwart the counter opportunity. Anguo cut inside and fired a shot in the 55th minute but Miazga blocked it.

Acosta finally got a good look at goal in the 58th minute, when he got through the right side of the defense, but his shot was at Gallese, who made the save. Three minutes later, Cincinnati should have scored. A great, curling long ball wrapped around the Orlando defense and found second-half sub Aaron Boupendza, who made a mess of his shot while 1-v-1 with Gallese and sent it trickling softly wide to the left.

Orlando then controlled the attack for the next few minutes but couldn’t do anything with a couple of good crosses from Angulo.

Gallese was called into action again in the 69th minute as Santiago Arias fired a shot from the right, but El Pulpo was up to the challenge.

The defense in front of Gallese blocked a dangerous Acosta free kick from just outside the area in the 74th minute after Santos was called for a foul.

Boupendza headed wide in the 82nd minute on a rare moment of a Cincinnati attacker being left alone in front of goal. Just after that, Pareja sent on defensive reinforcements, bringing on Junior Urso, Michael Halliday, and Kyle Smith for Torres, Santos, and Thorhallsson.

Drew Fischer added eight minutes of stoppage time that grew to 13 after he went to the monitor to check whether Boupendza deserved a red card for an arm to Cartagena’s face. His decision was merely to caution the Cincinnati striker.

Moments after the check, there was a foul on Orlando City from distance and tempers flared. Cartagena got knocked down, then got back up and got into an opponent’s face. Fischer showed him a straight red, although there didn’t seem to be anything to warrant it. However, Fischer did not go to the monitor to re-check the decision and the Lions finished the match a man down.

The closest Cincinnati came to equalizing was in the 97th minute, when substitute Marco Angulo got a head onto a cross but sent it just wide. Acosta missed the net entirely from the top of the box in the 100th minute.

The last opportunity came in the 13th minute of stoppage time when the ball was sent in from the left. Mosquera tried to knock it on frame but it was a bit high for him and his intercession prevented Miazga from getting a chance at the back post.

That was it as the whistle blew for full time and the Lions had a huge win, finishing the season 1-0-1 in two matches against the team that should go on to win the Supporters’ Shield, barring a collapse in the final games of the season.

FC Cincinnati finished the game with the advantage in possession (56.7%-43.3%), shots (13-10), shots on goal (4-1), and passing accuracy (87.4%-81.6%). Orlando City won more corners (5-2).

“It was a great game by us. It was a very important victory,” Enrique said. “You know, they’re the first-place team in the entire league and this was their first loss at home. And, you know, coming into the game, we knew that it was going to be a difficult game, and that’s the way it was, and thankfully we stuck together as a team and we were able to come out with the win.”

“There’s a lot of things that we have to be proud of,” Pareja said about the performance. “But then we have many as well that we need to get better. If we keep this mentality we can fight. And I’m glad that the feeling that we can relate to it, but you have to maintain that consistency.”

The Lions will have a week off due to the upcoming international window before hosting the Columbus Crew on Sept. 16 at 7:30 p.m.

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

8 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

Projected Lineups:

Orlando City (4-2-3-1)

Goalkeeper: Pedro Gallese.

Defenders: Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson.

Defensive Midfielders: Cesar Araujo, Wilder Cartagena.

Attacking Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Martin Ojeda, Facundo Torres.

Forward: Ramiro Enrique.

CF Montreal (3-4-2-1)

Goalkeeper: Jonathan Sirois.

Defenders: Joaquin Sosa, Fernando Alvarez, Joel Waterman.

Midfielders/Wingbacks: Raheem Edwards, Mathieu Choiniere, Samuel Piette, Ruan.

Attacking Midfielders: Ariel Lassiter, Jules-Anthony Vilsaint.

Forward: Josef Martinez.

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

9 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

11 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