PawedCast Episode 79: Columbus Crew Preview, Pride, OCB, USMNT and More

Orlando City went through its second bye week in a month due to the international break, although six MLS teams did play this past weekend. One of those teams was Columbus Crew SC, which just happens to be the team hosting the Lions in Orlando’s first road trip of the 2017 season.

We’ve got Patrick Murphy from Massive Report with us to give us a full account of the Crew’s season so far. Columbus is a much improved team from a year ago and Pat lets us know about their season to date, the Crew’s commitment to defense, a return to form from the attack, and much more.

But first, we discuss the Pride’s preseason match at South Florida, their preparations for the 2017 NWSL season, Alex Morgan’s French adventure, and a trialist who is impressing for Tom Sermanni’s group. We also break down the I-4 Derby a bit and tell you why we’re not stressing over OCB’s loss to the hateful rivals over in Tampa Bay.

Plus, the Luis Gil rumor seems to have some legs and we’ll discuss why the rumored move would be a positive one for Orlando City.

After our talk with Pat Murphy, we delve into the USMNT’s delightful 6-0 win over Honduras and how the team played in its first competitive match since Bruce Arena took over again. And we’ve got our key match-ups and score predictions for Saturday’s game in Columbus.

Here’s how it all unfolded:

0:11- The Pride squeak out a win over South Florida, OCB gets outplayed but it still takes a penalty for the Rowdies to win in the USL opener, and why Luis Gil to Orlando makes sense.

32:26- Pat Murphy jumps on and lets us know who’s injured for Columbus, how the Crew most likely will line up, and details of the season so far for the yellow MLS team.

52:23- USMNT puts Honduras on full blast, Christian Pulisic is American Messi, and our laughably wrong unanimous score prediction.