Match Preview | #ORLvDC - DC United

D.C. United are set to play against Orlando City SC in their 28th match of the 2021 Major League Soccer (MLS) Regular Season on Saturday, October 2, with kickoff set for 7:30 p.m. ET. D.C. United will look to build from the dominant performance in their last match when they travel to Exploria Stadium on Saturday night.

D.C. United are coming into Saturday’s match after a 3-1 midweek win over Minnesota United FC. The Black-and-Red asserted dominance over the visitors to maintain their winning streak at Audi Field. The game scoring started in the 20th minute after Andy Najar was taken down in the box, and a penalty was awarded and converted by Ola Kamara for the 1-0 lead. In the 40th minute, Minnesota found an equalizer after United defender Bakaye Dibassy’s header. However, the goal didn’t go unanswered, as D.C. United took back the lead in the 45th minute when Kamara beat two defenders on the right wing and found Gressel in the box who rifled home to make it 2-1 heading into halftime.

The Black-and-Red resumed the match with the same intensity in the second half. Russell Canouse was fouled in the area, and another penalty was awarded. Kamara went to take it, but Tyler Miller stopped his effort. In a quick turnaround, Bill Hamid made an acrobatic save to deny Minnesota the chance of an equalizer. Paul Arriola looked to double United’s lead after a curling effort into the right corner, but the goal was ruled offside after a VAR review. D.C. United were still on the hunt for another goal, and the breakthrough came in the 85th minute when Edison Flores found second-half substitute Júnior Moreno on the top of the box for his first career goal for D.C. United. 

D.C. United have an all-time record of 6-5-2 against Orlando City SC. The last time the two teams played was earlier in the season, on May 16 at Audi Field. The visitors came out on top with a 1-0 victory with an early goal from Mauricio Pereyra. 

Head Coach Hernán Losada on the Upcoming Match:

“I would like to end up third at the end of the week after Saturday’s game. Every point is important. Every game is important, and we need to keep focus and be humble. We need to keep working, to see the little details, and try to stay fit...There’s not much time to recover, but for sure, we want to go full of hope and energy…I told the team, a good offense wins games, but a good defense wins championships.”

D.C. United’s next match is at Exploria Stadium against Orlando City on Saturday, October 2, with kickoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET. Tune into NBC Sports Washington Plus, TeleXitos, and www.dcunited.com to watch the match.

Adblock test (Why?)

Match Preview | #ORLvDC - DC United
Read More

PREVIEW: Valour FC vs. FC Edmonton — Match #81 – Canadian Premier League - Canadian Premier League

---

2021 CPL regular season — Match #81
Valour FC vs. FC Edmonton
October 2, 2021 at 3 pm ET/2 pm CT
IG Field, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Watch Live: OneSoccer.ca & TELUS Ch. 980 // Tickets available here

---

MATCH PREVIEW

There’s just one Canadian Premier League match this Saturday, but Valour FC and FC Edmonton will expect to provide full entertainment value as they clash for the fifth time in 2021 this weekend, both hoping to put a run of disappointing results behind them.

The visiting Eddies, led by coach Alan Koch, sit seventh in the CPL standings with 20 games played. They’re 4-6-10, with 18 points to put them five back of sixth place. Despite some very positive performances in recent outings, Edmonton are winless in their last three games, with two consecutive defeats carrying them into this game. They took on Al Classico rivals Cavalry FC on Wednesday night, and they nearly came out with an impressive result by equalizing in the second half after going down 2-0, but the Cavs scored a late winner to break the Eddies’ hearts yet again. Prior to that, they held firm on the road against HFX Wanderers FC but fell 1-0.

Valour also enter this match having lost two in a row, falling 3-1 at home to Pacific on Wednesday evening. They’re winless in six, with Valour’s most recent victory coming on August 24 against Edmonton. With this frustrating run of results, the Winnipeg side has fallen to sixth in the league table with a 7-2-11 record (1-2-9 since leaving the Kickoff bubble at the end of July), and they’re six points behind York United for the fourth and final playoff spot.

Still looking for the first win of the Phillip Dos Santos era after the new coach took over from Rob Gale just over a week ago, Valour will be very keen on turning their fortunes around and finally getting back into the win column. Unfortunately, they’ll have to do so without leading scorer Austin Ricci, whom Dos Santos confirmed will miss the remainder of the season after undergoing surgery this week.

“Most important for him now is to recover and make sure that he takes care of himself and comes back stronger,” Dos Santos said. “It adds to the challenge for us, but also gives the opportunity for others to step up, and that’s what we want to see.”

Matches between these two sides have, more often than not, been high-tempo affairs this season, with three out of four of them seeing one of the two sides score three goals. Edmonton won their last meeting 3-0 at IG Field, but Valour beat the Eddies by the same scoreline just a couple weeks before. Edmonton also won the first of this matchup in 2021, 3-1, and the fourth contest was a 0-0 draw at Clarke Stadium.

Edmonton will have a little added help for this game in the form of Prince Amanda, who has returned to the squad after playing for the Eddies in both 2019 and 2020 at the CPL level. Amanda signed a new deal with the club this week to help them see out the 2021 season.

This won’t be the first time Koch and Dos Santos have coached against each other — they were combatants at the USL level while Koch was with FC Cincinnati and Dos Santos was with Indy Eleven, and then again in MLS once Dos Santos moved to the Vancouver Whitecaps and Koch’s Cincy side moved up to the top flight.

“It’s interesting because I remember Edmonton and their identity in the old NASL, I coached against them many times,” Dos Santos added. “They always seem to have the same type of threats, a team that is dangerous on set plays, a team that looks a lot to play through the balls and be very pragmatic in putting balls in the box. So it looks like I’m looking at an FC Edmonton of old, I know these teams are difficult and dangerous to play against… I know Alan, I know the coaching staff, I think they understand the importance for them of this game as well and they understand they’re coming into a road game so I think it’s a team that’s going to be pragmatic and trying to be efficient.”

---

Make your match picks prior to kickoff at canpl.ca/predictor for a chance to win prizes, including the grand prize of a trip to the 2021 CPL Final!

Watch all Canadian Premier League matches on OneSoccer, or on TELUS Optik TV channel 980.

---

3 THINGS TO WATCH:

• Set-pieces starting to click for FCE? One of the very first things Alan Koch said to the media as head coach of FC Edmonton was that he wanted his side to become a well-oiled machine on set-pieces. It’s certainly difficult to put that in place in the early stages of building a team, but it seems things are starting to come together for the Eddies now. On Wednesday against Cavalry, both of their goals came from corner kick routines — both of them being perfect deliveries to the head of Amer Didic, although the first was knocked on for Easton Ongaro to finish before Didic scored the second one himself. Fraser Aird’s deliveries have always been good, but it seems the Eddies have started imposing themselves more in the box and making runs to disrupt the defence and create open lanes for Didic — one of the greatest aerial threats in the CPL. Edmonton are joint-highest in the CPL in headed shots on target, and they lead the league in aerial duel win percentage (56.3%) by some margin; they’ve never had trouble getting to the ball in the air with Didic and Ongaro, but now they may be starting to capitalize on that strength. Koch said on Friday: “The great thing about both of the goals we scored on set-pieces is we worked very, very hard on those. Those weren’t lucky set-pieces, those were completely by design and I give the players credit for going out and executing exactly what we asked them to, but we want to build on that of course, we’ve got a lot of set-pieces that we work on.”

• Act, don’t react: These two teams — the Eddies especially — have drawn positives from some disappointing results this season in the way they’ve responded after conceding a goal or two. Look no further than Edmonton’s two-goal comeback on Wednesday to draw level with Cavalry (for a brief spell). Valour, too, equalized after falling behind to Pacific on Wednesday, although they couldn’t hang onto that result either. Alan Koch said after that loss to Cavalry that, as much as we can talk about how good it is for his team to fight their way back into the game, they’d be much better off not putting themselves in that position in the first place — “There doesn’t need to be an action to see a reaction,” he said. Trying to get that kind of performance out of a team from minute one will be a key focus for both managers heading into Saturday. “Making sure that we come out with the right intentions, right from the start of the game, that’s multi-faceted,” Koch added on Friday. “It’s the tactical approach, but it’s also the psychological approach, coming out on the front foot. Both of those are equally important, making sure we have the tactics in place, but then there has to be a psychological adaptation in terms of this is how we have to play right out of the gates.”

• Valour looking to find rhythm under Dos Santos: It’s been a whirlwind of a week for Valour FC, ever since they received news last Thursday that Phillip Dos Santos would be taking over as head coach from Rob Gale. They’ve played twice since then — a pair of defeats to York United and Pacific — but even so, they’re very much in a transitional period under a new manager. Dos Santos will be looking to find the right way to get the best out of this players and pull them out of their slump, with the season still alive, and it feels like a result in this game would go a long way toward lifting spirits. He suggested that, despite losing 3-1 to Pacific and 2-1 to York, he felt the Pacific match (the second of the two) was, by a distinct margin, the better performance. “I feel that when you have a clear idea of what you want to build, it’s easier to make an assessment on individuals because you do it based on what you want to build and create here,” Dos Santos said Friday. “Some players have already responded in a way that make me be very comfortable with what I want this club to look like, and not only the identity on the field but also off the field and the type of players that we have here.”

ALL-TIME SERIES

Valour FC wins: 5 || FC Edmonton wins: 3 || Draws: 2

Previous match:

September 7, 2021 — Valour FC 0-3 FC Edmonton

KEY QUOTES

 “Every game for us needs to be a must-win game. No matter where you are in the standings, you need to try and build the mentality, because if not you’re just going to accept that some games are meant to be won and others are meant to be lost… I want the players to realize that playing to win, and having the sense that winning is mandatory is something that this club goes about.” — Valour FC coach Phillip Dos Santos

“They’re looking for a bump, and I think you could see it the other night some of their players were flying all over the place… I’m sure Phil and his group are going to come to the game and give everything they can tomorrow just like we are, and just like we need to. To put your own imprint on things takes time.” — FC Edmonton coach Alan Koch

Adblock test (Why?)

PREVIEW: Valour FC vs. FC Edmonton — Match #81 – Canadian Premier League - Canadian Premier League
Read More

Chelsea v Southampton: match preview - The Guardian

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

Chelsea v Southampton: match preview  The Guardian
Chelsea v Southampton: match preview - The Guardian
Read More

Jaguars match Lions for second-longest losing streak in Super Bowl era; third-longest in NFL history - CBS Sports

Getty Images

The Jacksonville Jaguars had their opportunities to beat the Cincinnati Bengals and end the longest losing streak in the NFL. Instead, Jacksonville is climbing up the NFL record books in futility. 

Thanks to Evan McPherson's 35-yard field goal as time expired, the Bengals defeated the Jaguars 24-21 and sent Jacksonville to its 19th consecutive loss. Jacksonville is just the fifth team in NFL history to lose 19 consecutive games, tying the 2007-2009 Detroit Lions for the second-longest losing streak in the Super Bowl era. The 1961-1962 Oakland Raiders also lost 19 consecutive games in the AFL.

The 1976-1977 Tampa Bay Buccaneers have the longest losing streak in the Super Bowl era at 26 games. The 1942-1945 Chicago Cardinals lost an NFL record 29 consecutive games, also splitting the 1944 season with the Pittsburgh Steelers as the Chicago/Pittsburgh Cardinals-Steelers (due to player shortages from World War II). 

Jacksonville can become the second team in the Super Bowl era and third team in NFL history to lose 20 consecutive games with a loss to the Tennessee Titans in Week 5. Jacksonville plays Tennessee and the Miami Dolphins at home before heading into the bye week. 

Here are the Jaguars' next eight games:

• Week 5 -- vs. Titans
• Week 6 -- vs. Dolphins
• Week 7 -- Bye week
• Week 8 -- at Seahawks
• Week 9 -- vs. Bills
• Week 10 -- at Colts
• Week 11 -- vs. 49ers
• Week 12 -- at Falcons
• Week 13 -- at Rams

Certainly not an easy schedule for the Jaguars. Urban Meyer, Trevor Lawrence, and Co. have a tough road ahead. 

Please check the opt-in box to acknowledge that you would like to subscribe.

Thanks for signing up!

Keep an eye on your inbox.

Sorry!

There was an error processing your subscription.

Adblock test (Why?)

Jaguars match Lions for second-longest losing streak in Super Bowl era; third-longest in NFL history - CBS Sports
Read More

Guess the Starting XI - Match 27 vs. San Jose - Eighty Six Forever

Welcome back everyone,

After a pretty dreary 0-0 contest with Houston (stop me if you’ve heard that before), the Vancouver Whitecaps will be looking to rebuild some positive momentum in the playoff push as they matchup with the San Jose Earthquakes this Saturday night at BC Place.

San Jose currently sits just a point behind Vancouver in the Western Conference standings, but with an extra game played in comparison to the Whitecaps, it’s crucial for the Earthquakes that they take advantage of a possible six-point scenario.

While each of the matches this week have been important for Vancouver in the playoff race, it is undoubtable that this fixture with San Jose could represent the biggest swing in their playoff fortunes. This matchup will also set the table for a reverse fixture on October 24th at PayPal Park.

San Jose’s attacking midfielder Chofis (Javier López) was red-hot over the last span of matches for the Quakes, but their momentum was stalled mid-week by Seattle, as they fell 3-1 to the top team in the West.

Overall, San Jose has been a much improved squad since the addition of Brazilian defender Nathan to the backline, who alongside Oswaldo Alanis and JT Marcinkowski in goal, have brought some much needed stability to the defensive unit. The Earthquakes dropped 7 of their first 11 matches in MLS play this year, but since that poor stretch, they hold an overall record of 5 wins, 8 draws and 3 losses over their last 16 matches.

For Vancouver, injury status and squad rotation remain the main talking points. Currently, the Whitecaps find themsleves shockingly thin at certain positions, and we’ll have to see just how creative Vanni Sartini wants to be against San Jose. The Quakes, by contrast, have a decently deep squad, so this could give the Whitecaps trouble as the match goes on this Saturday night, especially considering Matías Almeyda’s fondness for mass substitutions.

One would have to imagine that most (if not all) of the substitute appearances from the Houston fixture (Ryan Gauld, Brian White, Russell Teibert, Deiber Caicedo & Florian Jungwirth) will find themselves in the starting XI vs. San Jose.

Alright, on we go to the rules and standings:

• Predictions will be ‘valid’ if posted HERE (or more accurately, the correct match thread) prior to the lineup being officially announced, usually about an hour before kickoff.
• You receive 1 point for every player you correctly guess to be in the Starting XI. You receive 4 bonus points for correctly predicting all 11 starters.
• You get 5 points for correctly guessing Win/Lose/Draw, this doubles to 10 if you also predict the right score-line along with the result.
• That means, if you correctly predict the Starting XI, Final Score, and Winner, you can earn 25 points!
• At the end of each quarter, the contestants lowest score of that period will be deducted from the cumulative standings.

Adblock test (Why?)

Guess the Starting XI - Match 27 vs. San Jose - Eighty Six Forever
Read More

Asia's gig workers strive to match global gains on labor rights - National Post

Author of the article:

Reuters

Rina Chandran, Thomson Reuters Foundation

Article content

* Workers getting more vocal with demands for better terms

* Lawsuit in India could turn tide for millions of riders

* Singapore studies global gig worker rulings in reform push

By Rina Chandran

BANGKOK, Oct 1 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Emboldened by the victories of delivery riders from New York to the Netherlands, gig workers in Asia are increasing pressure for better conditions from app-based businesses that have thrived during the pandemic.

The platforms, like their counterparts in the United States or Europe, have taken advantage of lax labor protections to demand long hours in exchange for low wages and few benefits like sick pay or health cover, rights advocates say.

Advertisement

Article content

“The platforms have been able to fudge it,” said Balaji Parthasarathy, principal investigator at FairWork India, which rates gig economy companies.

“This is where regulation can help – it will define when they can be treated as employees and when as partners, and what benefits they should receive,” he said.

As scrutiny of app-based businesses increases across the region – partly due to workers’ protests – authorities are starting to call for tighter legal protections.

Chinese regulators in July ordered online platforms to ensure delivery riders earn above the minimum wage and have access to insurance coverage, while Singapore’s government is looking into increasing protections for such workers.

In India, where about 5 million people work in the gig economy, a social security law was introduced last year to extend benefits to the segment – but it has not yet been implemented by the states.

Advertisement

Article content

Last week, a union representing about 35,000 Indian gig workers filed a petition in the nation’s top court seeking social security benefits from platform companies including Uber, Ola, Zomato and Swiggy – the first such lawsuit in the country.

“It’s a big milestone; platform companies are quite new in India, and while we’ve seen some localized strikes, workers didn’t have a united front before,” said Pradyumna Taduri, a researcher at FairWork.

“But workers have begun to assert themselves vocally and push back. And the visibility of the sector – especially the food delivery workers, the drivers – makes it hard to ignore them,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

UNPROTECTED

The gig economy – where people pick up work in a flexible manner from app-based platforms – boomed during COVID-19 lockdowns, as people needed goods and food delivered to their homes, and as millions of newly jobless looked for work.

Advertisement

Article content

But many people drawn to gig work for its flexibility have said they are being exploited.

With platforms generally classifying workers as independent contractors, half of online workers earned less than $2 an hour, with workers in developing countries earning 60% less than those in developed countries, according to the United Nations.

Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, said he was “especially concerned” about delivery workers who are “just like employees” yet lack basic job protection and find it harder to afford housing, healthcare and retirement.

The city-state is looking into providing gig workers – particularly delivery staff and drivers – better retirement and housing provisions, injury insurance and negotiating rights, said Danny Quah, vice-chairman of a government advisory committee set up to study the sector.

Advertisement

Article content

“Flexibility doesn’t mean unprotected,” said Quah, an economics professor at the National University of Singapore.

“We want platform workers to have an appropriate level of protection in the immediate present and for their future … this is important not just for Singapore but for any nation,” he added.

Part of the problem is that workers are not classified as employees, meaning their associations do not have the same clout as trade unions, said Yeo Wan Ling, an advisor to the National Delivery Champions Association and the National Private Hire Vehicles Association.

“We are calling for stronger legislative backing to better represent these workers,” she said.

London-based Deliveroo, which has about 9,000 riders in Singapore, said it welcomed the move to improve conditions for its delivery workers – as long as their freelance status did not change.

Advertisement

Article content

“Riders should have flexibility and security and we’re in favor of increasing riders’ protections, as long as this does not compromise their self-employed status,” a spokesperson said.

BALANCING INTERESTS

There were nearly 800 digital labor platforms – from food delivery to web design – around the world last year, up from about 140 a decade earlier, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The boom is an opportunity for the economy, said Quah, adding that the goal in Singapore was to “find a way forward that balances the interests of all.”

Part of that involves studying gig worker rulings from around the world, and seeing how they might be adapted to local conditions.

In contrast to North America or Western Europe, in poorer countries such as India the app-based jobs “are not gigs, but livelihoods,” said Parthasarathy.

Hundreds of thousands of workers in India depend on these companies for their livelihood, said Shaik Salauddin, national general secretary of the Indian Federation of app-Based Transport Workers (IFAT) which filed the court petition.

After strikes and petitions to state governments fell on deaf ears, Salauddin said they had been inspired by the legal victories of fellow gig workers around the world.

“We’ve seen that in many places like London and Los Angeles, workers like us are being given rights – that is what we also want.” (Reporting by Rina Chandran //news.trust.org)

Share this article in your social network

Advertisement

Adblock test (Why?)

Asia's gig workers strive to match global gains on labor rights - National Post
Read More

Match Preview - Mumbai vs Capitals, IPL 2021, 46th Match - ESPNcricinfo

Big picture

In 2014, Mumbai Indians sneaked into the playoffs in dramatic fashion (Aditya Tare loses his shirt, Rahul Dravid loses his cap, everyone loses their minds) despite starting the season with five straight losses. A season later, they began with four Ls in a row, and went on to win the title.

They didn't begin quite as poorly this season, but in the context of their recent domination of the league, this has been their worst IPL in quite a while. It's now that time in the season, however, when they invariably build serious steam, and they're now in fifth, with only net run rate separating them from fourth, with three games left to play.

Two of those games, their last two league matches, are against the bottom-two teams, Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad.

This is why every other playoffs contender will want the Delhi Capitals to beat Mumbai on Saturday. If you're hunting for an IPL title, you want the team with the most experience and title-winning know-how out of the picture as soon as possible.

Capitals are currently in second, one win away from sealing a playoffs spot, but cast your mind back to last season, when they were in a similar situation only to lose five of their last six league games and find themselves with a more or less must-win fixture on their last day of league play.

They won't want that sort of drama this time around, especially given their playoffs run-in. After Mumbai, the Capitals' last two league opponents will be the teams currently in first and third, Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Given the importance of a top-two finish, neither will be in any mood to do a title rival any favours.

In the news

Prithvi Shaw sat out Capitals' match against the Kolkata Knight Riders with an injury, and their captain Rishabh Pant said after the game that there was an 80% chance he would be fit to face Mumbai. Pant, meanwhile, said it might take Marcus Stoinis "a match or two" before he's fully recovered from the hamstring issue that's been keeping him out of the Capitals' recent games.

While Steven Smith took Shaw's place against Knight Riders, Capitals may now have one other option for that slot, with Sam Billings out of quarantine and available for selection.

Likely XIs

Delhi Capitals: 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Prithvi Shaw/Steven Smith/Sam Billings, 3 Shreyas Iyer, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), 5 Shimron Hetmyer, 6 Lalit Yadav, 7 Axar Patel, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Avesh Khan, 11 Anrich Nortje.

Mumbai Indians: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Saurabh Tiwary/Jayant Yadav, 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Nathan Coulter-Nile, 9 Rahul Chahar, 10 Trent Boult, 11 Jasprit Bumrah.

Strategy punt

Of the seven matches Jayant Yadav has played for Mumbai over three seasons, four have been against Capitals. In three of those four games, he's returned exactly the same figures, 1 for 25, while finishing with 0 for 18 from three overs in the other game. In short, he's been a Capitals specialist, and he's done his job with an almost machine-like precision each time.

The reason why Mumbai use the offspinner so often against Capitals is, of course, their left-hander-heavy line-up. Jayant has terrific IPL records against Shikhar Dhawan (41 balls, 47 runs, one wicket), Rishabh Pant (23-21-0) and Axar Patel (10-5-0), but as a welcome byproduct for Mumbai, he's also done well against Capitals' right-hand batters. He's gone 17-19-0 against Shreyas Iyer, 11-11-1 against Prithvi Shaw and 13-10-0 against Ajinkya Rahane. It's quite likely, then, that he'll be matched up against his favourite opposition once again.

Stats that matter

• The Capitals have lost four out of their five games against Mumbai in the last two seasons, but R Ashwin has still managed an excellent record in those games, going 31-32-2 (balls-runs-wickets) against Quinton de Kock, 29-28-0 against Ishan Kishan and 22-28-1 against Rohit Sharma, while only conceding one run in five balls against Krunal Pandya. He has struggled against Suryakumar Yadav, however, returning a 29-46-0 record.
• Rohit Sharma is two big hits short of becoming the first Indian batter to hit 400 T20 sixes. The others who've achieved the feat are Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson and AB de Villiers, with Aaron Finch currently on 399.
• Mumbai have struggled with the bat in the death overs this season, with a scoring rate of only 8.23. It's the worst they've ever done in that phase in any season of the IPL. For some context, they went at an all-time-best 12.56 last season.

Karthik Krishnaswamy is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

Adblock test (Why?)

Match Preview - Mumbai vs Capitals, IPL 2021, 46th Match - ESPNcricinfo
Read More