Oscar Pareja is thrilled with the character his Orlando City players showed in their 2-2 draw with CF Montreal last time out.
Orlando conceded late against Montreal – in the 88th minute, in fact – but Ivan Angulo scored deep into stoppage time to salvage a point.
It was a result that extended Orlando’s unbeaten streak to four MLS games, as the Lions look to propel themselves up the Eastern Conference standings.
Next up is a home game against Toronto FC, and Pareja was proud of the resilience his team displayed.
He said: “I've seen the character of the team, and the willingness that we have with this group of players is incredible. It has happened already [this season], and then the last good result has shown that this group has a lot of intentions all the time to be upfront and try to propose the game.
“When we are at a disadvantage, we want to equalise with a lot of character, that's what we have. Once we start being more precise in the last third, I think we're going to have less problems, but we are resolving them and, really, I congratulate the players. I think they're doing a great job, they don't give up in any minute and today if we played five minutes more I think we win the game.”
Pareja knows his team must tighten up at the back, though.
He added: “We are trying to have more cohesiveness with the players that are starting or playing in the games. Our lines have to be better. Conceding early goals, or conceding goals especially in the first half for us, is something that we need to resolve, we need to figure it out. How can we be more solid? Not saying that it's just a defender’s problem, it’s a collective problem. We all have to be in charge. We need to be much better.”
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Orlando City – Duncan McGuire
McGuire scored three goals in his first two matches against Toronto. Five players in MLS history have scored in their first three matches against Toronto, most recently Josef Martinez in 2017-18.
Toronto FC – Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty
Marshall-Rutty set up Prince Owusu for Toronto’s lone goal on Saturday. Either Marshall-Rutty (two assists), Owusu (four goals) or both have been involved in each of Toronto’s last five MLS goals.
MATCH PREDICTION: ORLANDO CITY WIN
Toronto FC’s 1-0 win over the New England Revolution on Saturday was its fourth victory of the season, equalling their total from all of last season. Only one of the Reds’ last 25 regular-season matches dating back to late June has ended in a draw.
However, Orlando have lost only one of their last 16 regular-season home matches (W9 D6) dating back to late April 2023, a run that includes a 4-0 win over Toronto in July.
Indeed, Orlando are unbeaten in eight straight matches against Toronto (W6 D2) including winning the last four in a row. This is the Lions’ longest unbeaten run against a single opponent in regular-season play while they’ve won five in a row against an opponent once before, doing so against the Crew from 2018-21.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Orlando City – 59.6%
Toronto FC – 16.1%
Draw – 24.3%
Jamaica, T&T drawn in Group B of League A for 2024/25 Concacaf Nations League
Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago are set to cross swords in the group stages of this year’s fourth edition of the Concacaf Nations League, as both were drawn in Group B of League A for the 2024/25 campaign which is scheduled to kick off in September.
This year’s Concacaf Nations League will again be contested in a three-league format –Leagues A, B and C –and will see the Confederation’s 41 senior men’s national teams doing battle during the FIFA match windows of September, October, and November 2024. The semi-finals and finals of the tournament, which serves as the qualifiers for next summer’s 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup, are scheduled for March 2025.
The teams have been grouped across the respective Leagues based on their results from the 2023/24 staging. The Reggae Boyz and their Soca Warriors counterparts, who contested the business end of the competition for the first time in that campaign, will be hoping to do so again on this occasion.
They are among 12 teams, split in two groups of six teams each to contest League A in a “Swiss style” league system, with each team playing a total of four games (two at home and two away).
Jamaica, last edition’s semi-finalist, and Trinidad and Tobago, who made the quarterfinals, are drawn alongside Honduras, Cuba, Nicaragua, and French Guiana, while Group A comprises, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Suriname, and Guyana.
After group stage play in September and October, the first and second-place finishers of each group, will advance to the quarterfinals, where they will join the four top-ranked League A teams, Mexico, United States, Panama, and Canada. The quarterfinals will be played in a home-and-away format, with the winner of each fixture, on aggregate, set to secure a berth in next year’s Finals.
Meanwhile, League B will feature 16 teams divided into four groups of four teams. Each team will play every team in its group twice. The groups were drawn as follows:
Group A -El Salvador, Montserrat, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Bonaire
Group B -Curacao, Saint Lucia, Grenada, and Saint Martin
Group C -Haiti, Puerto Rico, Aruba, and St Maarten
Group D -Dominican Republic, Bermuda, Antigua and Barbuda, and Dominic
Matches in each group will be played at a centralized venue instead of the previous home-and-away format, to alleviate travel challenges that Member Associations face.
The third best-ranked teams in each group will host the September matches, the second best-ranked teams will host the October matches, and the best-ranked teams will host the decisive November matches.
Over in League C, which consists of nine teams, divided into three groups of three teams, the format takes a similar shape, where each team will play every team in its group twice.
Group A -Barbados, Bahamas, and US Virgin Islands
Group B -Belize, Turks and Caicos Islands, and Anguilla
Group C-Saint Kitts and Nevis, Cayman Islands, and British Virgin Islands
Where centralized venues are concerned, the second highest-ranked teams in each group will host the September matches, and the highest-ranked teams will host the October matches.
Schedule:
Group Stage: September 2-10, October 7-15, and November 11-19, 2024
Quarterfinals: November 11-19, 2024
Semifinals: March 20, 2025
Final and Third Place Match: March 23, 2025
'I will keep fighting' - Ten Hag adamant he is the right manager for Man Utd
Erik ten Hag insists that he is the right man for the job at Manchester United despite their 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Crystal Palace on Monday.
Michael Olise netted twice against a sorry United team at Selhurst Park, with Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also getting on the scoresheet.
It is the first time that Palace have done the double over the Red Devils in the Premier League, as United extended their winless run on the road to five games.
There has been a lot of speculation over Ten Hag’s future following a disappointing second campaign in charge, with just one year left on his contract.
Asked if he was the right manager for United, he told Sky Sports: "Absolutely. If the right players are there and available, we have a good squad, but are missing the whole backline – we had problems.
"I will keep fighting. I prepared the team in the best way I could do. It was not good enough, by far – I have to take responsibility for that. But I will find energy and prepare them for Sunday’s game.
"At the end of the day, I have to do it with the players who are available. All season, we have huge [injury] problems. Many times we have sorted it out. Today we didn’t."
United have struggled with injury problems all season, with Harry Maguire and club captain Bruno Fernandes joining the lengthy list of players missing against Palace.
Ten Hag highlighted the lack of defensive options at his disposal but did not make excuses for the poor performance, adding: "It’s clear and obvious – this is underperforming. It’s not good enough. We are very disappointed in this. Our fans were behind us all the way – we should have kept fighting like the fans did.
"There are always reasons. Everyone sees our backline, we have huge problems, but at the end of the day we have to deal with it – we should have done better than we did.
"We know [how damaging it could be], but we have nine points to play, so we have to fight for the nine points."
Man Utd thrashing a 'big statement' but Palace are not surprised, says Eze
Eberechi Eze says Crystal Palace's 4-0 thrashing of Manchester United is a "big statement" but insists there should be little surprise that it happened.
Micheal Olise scored twice as Palace ran riot against the sorry Red Devils at Selhurst Park on Monday.
Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also got in on the act as Palace sealed their first league double over United.
Palace have now won four of their last five Premier League games, with Oliver Glasner having turned the tide in the past few weeks.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Eze said: "It says a lot, it's a big statement, but we're not surprised.
"We know what we're capable of, we know what we can do. The quality we've got in the dressing room is high – we don't see it as a surprise. We know what we came here to do today, it worked.
"You can see we’re creating chances, we're not worried about what's going on behind us. We're attacking, pressing, we're aggressive – we're going to continue to create chances for sure."
Also speaking to Sky Sports, Glasner said: "Congratulations to the team. I think in the first half, we didn't play as well as we could, but we were very efficient and scored very nice goals.
"At half-time, we made some adaptations, and the second half was much better. We created a lot of chances, scored some nice goals, and it's a great win.
"We know we have quality when we get our players in situations to score a goal.
"Good players, a good team spirit, but we must always stay humble. It's not so long ago we were struggling [in a relegation battle]. We are doing well, but we have a lot to improve."
This was Palace's biggest Premier League win since beating Leeds United 5-1 in April 2023, while it also marked their biggest on home soil in the competition since a 5-0 victory over Leicester City in April 2018.
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