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• St. Louis City v Los Angeles FC: Carnell hopes to continue 'buzz' around Citypark

  St. Louis City head coach Bradley Carnell is aiming to continue the "buzz" around their Citypark home when Los Angeles FC visit for the midweek MLS clash.

  Carnell's side maintained their unbeaten run at home this campaign after sweeping aside Chicago Fire 3-1 in their last outing.

  They have four wins and three draws at Citypark in the league this year – with Carnell desperate to keep that streak up.

  "There's a certain buzz and an energy in this stadium and a certain enjoyment and how we like to play," Carnell said.

  "I'm very happy with the way we are continuing to apply the principles, to apply the game plan, and very happy to have a response when we conceded the equalizer [against the Fire]."

  St. Louis, who are ninth in the Western Conference standings, may fancy a third straight home win at Citypark but LAFC have also won their last three matches.

  Steve Cherundolo's men eased past Vancouver Whitecaps 3-0 on Sunday thanks to Cristian Olivera's brace.

  "It's been a long road for Kike [Olivera] to become more prolific. He's put a lot of individual work in the training field with coaches," said head coach Cherundolo.

  "He has the ability also to learn and get better. I think that's what you're seeing, so we're very happy with his progression and his production."

  Full-back Sergi Palencia, who plays behind Olivera on the right flank, echoed Cherundolo's sentiment.

  "It's just marvellous to see how hard this man works," Palencia added. "We have to tell him to take it easy and slow down at training because this guy only goes one level and that's full intensity."

  PLAYERS TO WATCH

  St. Louis City – Rasmus Alm

  Rasmus Alm scored 84 seconds into St. Louis City’s 3-1 win over Chicago, the earliest goal in MLS play for City.

  Alm's strike was 28 metres from goal, the longest non-free-kick goal in club history – a warning sign that LAFC must heed from set-piece chances.

  Los Angeles FC – Denis Bouanga

  Denis Bouanga notched three assists against the Whitecaps, his sixth MLS game with three or more goal contributions since the beginning of last season.

  No other MLS player has more than four such games in that time (Lionel Messi, Christian Benteke – four each).

  MATCH PREDICTION – ST. LOUIS CITY WIN

  St. Louis are the favourites for this clash, coming off the back of their 3-1 win over the Fire.

  Carnell's side are unbeaten in their last 19 MLS matches when not conceding multiple goals in a game, with that defensive solidity the key to St. Louis' success.

  Yet it is by no means a foregone conclusion for another home win here.

  LAFC collected four points in two meetings with St. Louis City last season, winning 3-0 at home and playing a scoreless draw away, becoming only one of four teams to keep a clean sheet at Citypark in the regular season.

  OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

  St. Louis City win – 44.5%

  Los Angeles FC win – 28.1%

  Draw – 27.4%

• Pass the past: Busby focused on fresh start with Reggae Girlz; targets 2027 World Cup in new tenure

  Using the famous Chinese proverbs "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” as his mantra, Jamaica’s senior Reggae Girlz Head coach Hubert Busby Jr is focused on leading the country’s women’s programme to new heights with a renewed sense of purpose and determination.

  By all indications, the sexual misconduct controversy that marred, and eventually ended his previous tenure as Head coach in 2021, is now firmly in Busby’s rearview mirror, as he was cleared of any wrongdoing by FIFA. He has since replaced the past events with a firm focus on success and progress, as he strives to breathe new life into the senior Reggae Girlz setup.

  "As you can imagine, it has been a little bit of a whirlwind, but in everything, you just want to make sure you're giving yourself the best opportunity to be successful. Me being successful means giving the players and the programme the best chance to be successful, so that's where it's at, and I just need to focus on that. What occurred in the past is neither here nor there for me anymore,” Busby, who is currently in the island, told SportsMax.TV.

  While his reappointment may come as a surprise to many, for Busby it was a matter of letting fate take its course.

  “I wouldn't know if it was surprised. I think I've always…even through this (controversy of the past), I think I've always had a good relationship with the federation, and I understood their rationale and reason why they needed to do what they did. I do wish we could have obviously cleared some things up a lot sooner, but in everything I realized it's not my timing, it is God's timing, and this was just the right time,” he shared.

  

  Despite his familiarity with the players, Busby pointed out that the approach will be one of new beginnings as opposed to picking up where he left off, as the programme itself has been through some turbulent times since his departure.

  After Busby was sidelined, Vinimore ‘Vin’ Blaine took over for a short time before a scathing letter from the players forced his resignation, after which Lorne Donaldson was brought back and led the Girlz to an historic appearance in the knockout stage at last year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup, before he too departed, as the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) opted not to renew his contract.

  Since then, the JFF and members of the World Cup squad had been at loggerheads, and that eventually resulted in Ambassador Cedella Marley resigning her post out of frustration, and she pulled the support of Bob and Rita Marley Foundation with her. Still, the players held firm in their stance and withdrew their services over non-payment and mistreatment from the JFF.

  Then came the interim appointment of Xavier Gilbert, who lead an inexperienced team through a failed Gold Cup qualifying campaign and a few other fixtures.

  Now, with Gilbert still to serve as his assistant, and the World Cup players back in the fold after almost nine months, coupled with his reappointment, Busby views the cycle as an opportunity for all and sundry to start afresh.

  "It's the beginning of a new cycle, obviously, the Girlz created history at the last World cup and accomplished something that the country and all Jamaicans should be proud of. But really, it's about a new beginning, and with that comes new expectations and a new level of commitment that's needed both on and off the field to ensure that we have success,” Busby declared.

  

  “The first step to every relationship is to have clear and open lines of communication and transparency. I think that's where it starts. We are not always going to agree with everything, but there has to be a common line where we're doing the best we can for the programme and the best we can for the people of Jamaica. That should be the guiding principle on which we go forward, but it's going to require a lot of work to ensure that we are communicating and operating at a very high level to ensure that the programme concedes full potential,” he added.

  As he sets his sights on finalizing his technical staff, as well as to work with the JFF to iron out any kinks, Busby also expressed confidence in the potential and talent pool of the women’s programme to continue on the path to success.

  “There's no doubt that we have a great core of players, and there are also some really young players that emerged in the last nine months that really need to be considered and there are other players that we've been monitoring as well. So, I think the next few windows are really about continuing to evaluate the pool of players to ensure that we're putting together a truly cohesive team that can go into the World cup qualifiers,” the former national goalkeeper reasoned.

   “I think familiarity, obviously would have played a key role in my reappointment for sure. I think this way it allows for the foundational pieces to be built on, because it is important that we continue to build and grow. But above everything else, knowing what the players can do, knowing who they are, and understanding how we can get the best out of them are some things that I want to continue to work on. So, we're looking forward to utilizing each and every window to get ready for 2025,” he noted.

  That said, Busby could not have asked for a higher calibre opponent than Brazil as first assignment to hit the ground running. The tactician and his team are set to depart the island next Sunday for the South American nation where they will engage a two-match friendly series on June 1 and June 3.

  

  Both teams crossed path at the 2019 and 2023 World Cups where Brazil won the first meeting 3-0, while the Girlz battled gallantly for a goalless stalemate last year which booked their spot in the Round of 16. However, Busby will be without prolific striker Khadija 'Bunny' Shaw and winger Kalyssa 'Kiki' Van Zanten due to injury, while young attacker Solai Washington, who was a part of the World Cup squad, misses out on this occasion.

  “That Brazilian team now has also gone through a tremendous restructuring, they've gone relatively young, but they've also kept some really important players because I think Marta is still there until the end of the year, through the Olympic Games. But they have a lot of talented young players in their system, and they're hungry and dynamic as well, so these two games will pose a lot of questions for us, and I must say I've been impressed with what the new coach has been able to do with them already,” the tactician said as he assessed the opponents.

  “So, for us, I think the idea is, therefore, to try to keep things a little simple. We're going to do the best we can to get our players up to speed in the time that we have them. But this is really the first step in what will be a journey.

  “Obviously, we'll go out there to be competitive, it goes without saying that we've got all these tremendous athletic qualities as a nation, but being able to keep the ball a bit more and be able to dictate the tempo a bit more is something that we want to be able to improve on. But it really is about focusing on the process of getting better each and every camp and every, each and every time that we're together,” he ended.

• Ten Hag confident over Fernandes stay despite reported Bayern interest in Man Utd star

  Bruno Fernandes is reportedly drawing interest from Bayern Munich and Saudi Arabian clubs but Erik ten Hag remains confident the midfielder will stay at Manchester United.

  The Portugal international, who joined the Red Devils from Sporting in January 2020, is said to be attracting attention from numerous clubs in the Saudi Pro League.

  Bundesliga giants Bayern are also reportedly weighing up their options in attempting to sign Fernandes, though under-fire Ten Hag expects him to remain at Old Trafford.

  When pressed at Tuesday's press conference on Fernandes' future, Ten Hag responded: "It is the same question as last week. So I answered.

  "The same answer. Now in all the years he was, he was a tremendously important player for Manchester United and creating the most chances across the Premier League.

  "So many assists, so many goals. It's clear he's a very important player for us."

  Indeed, since his debut against Wolves on February 1, 2020, Fernandes leads United for chances created (644), goals (79) and assists (63) across all competitions.

  In the same period, the 29-year-old also leads the way among Premier League players overall in chances created, ahead of Kevin De Bruyne (519), Trent Alexander-Arnold (424) and Pascal Gross (388).

  Though Ten Hag is keen to keep Fernandes in Manchester, Raphael Varane has announced his intentions to leave the Red Devils at the end of the current season.

  Casemiro is also said to be of interest in Saudi Arabia, where clubs are reportedly targeting moves for the likes of Mohamed Salah, De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku.