Happy Thursday, beautiful readers. Decision Day is almost upon us, but we can’t go getting too far ahead of ourselves just yet. There’s plenty of soccer news taking place in the here and now, and that news is what we need to talk about this morning. Let’s have a gander at today’s links.

Lions Set for International Duty

Three Orlando City players have been called up (so far) to represent their nations in the upcoming November international window. Justin Ellis will join the United States Men’s National Team as it faces Haiti across two legs in a Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal.

Maxime Crepeau is back in the fold for Canada for its Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal matches against Guatemala.

Finally, David Brekalo will join Slovenia for a pair of matches against North Macedonia and Switzerland.

Congratulations to all three players, and good luck!

Mauricio Pochettino Names November Squad

In addition to Justin Ellis, Mauricio Pochettino has named the full 25-player roster that will take on Haiti in the Concacaf Nations League. Former Lion Alex Freeman is unsurprisingly included, and the roster also sees the return of big guns like Weston McKennie, Christian Pulisic, Chris Richards, Tyler Adams, and Folarin Balogun. Philadelphia Union youngster Cavan Sullivan is in too, while defender Reed Baker-Whiting and midfielder Santiago Castaneda will have chances to earn their first caps with the USMNT. The first leg of the quarterfinals will take place on Nov. 14 at Inter Miami’s Nu Stadium, with the second leg set for Nov. 17 at FC Cincinnati’s TQL Stadium.

UEFA Champions League Recap

Matchday four of the UEFA Champions League is in the books, and we were treated to a wild Wednesday of games. The most eye-popping result of the day belonged to Cesc Fabregas’ transcendent Como side, which went on the road and thrashed Lens 9-1 to settle nicely into fourth in the table. Fenerbahce scored in the 73rd and 79th minutes to come back and secure a 3-2 win over Liverpool at home, while Real Madrid got a 92nd-minute winner from Federico Valverde to break the hearts of AEK Athens fans in the Greek capitol. The other big result of the day was Porto putting a 4-1 beatdown on Napoli at Estadio Do Dragao, and with Napoli eighth in Serie A and 27th in the UCL table, Massimiliano Allegri’s days at the club could be numbered.

Transfer Rumor Roundup

Every season is transfer season, so let’s take a look at some of the most interesting rumors floating around at the minute. We start with Juventus, which is reportedly contemplating moves for Benjamin Sesko and Folarin Balogun in the January window, as the Italian side is said to be on the hunt for a physical striker. Real Madrid is reportedly close to signing former Manchester United youth player JJ Gabriel, who asked to leave the Red Devils in September. Sunderland is said to be interested in signing Almeria midfielder Stefan Dzodic, although the club would likely face competition from Atletico Madrid and several other English clubs. Finally, Napoli reportedly intends to submit a bid for Barcelona midfielder Gavi during the January window, as he has had difficulty securing regular playing time for Hansi Flick this season.

Free Kicks

• Orlando City celebrated Wilder Cartagena after the midfielder made his 100th appearance for the team.

• Martin Ojeda has been honored with a special card in EAFC 27.

• Check out this teaser for a biopic about Marta.

• A mind-melting 51 red cards were shown in a South American youth game. Rodrigo Schlegel is smiling somewhere.

That’s all I’ve got for you today. Vamos Orlando!

Welcome to Wednesday, Mane Landers. It’s a bit odd to be writing the first Lion Links following the news we dropped yesterday that The Mane Land will be ceasing operations after the end of this season. The outpouring of supportive comments we’ve received has been greatly appreciated by all of the staff. We’ve always done this as a labor of love for the the teams we cover, but more importantly, for you, our readers. Of course, we’re not done yet, so let’s get to the links.

Orlando City’s Decision-ish Day

Orlando City thankfully heads into the Decision Day match against the New England Revolution already guaranteed a place in the playoffs. That’s not to say that the result doesn’t have ramifications. A win combined with some other results can see the Lions climb back into seventh place, avoiding the play-in match. It won’t be easy, given New England sits in third place in the Eastern Conference. Orlando City is just above the line at ninth, and is No. 18 in the final MLS power rankings of the regular season.

Another Banda Nomination

There were only two NWSL players nominated for the FIFPRO 2026 Women’s World 11, and Barbra Banda was one of them. Gotham FC goalkeeper\ Ann-Katrin Berger was the other. The list was decidedly European, with Banda also being one of only four non-European players making the list. Fortunately, the powers that be didn’t lose their collective minds enough to leave Banda off the list.

Orlando Pride Off-Season Begins

We’re all familiar with the “one weird trick” articles, which is kind of what this article about what one question each already eliminated NWSL club needs to answer this off-season is. For the Orlando Pride, that question is “Can Barbra Banda get some help?” That is an important question, but it’s also only one of a dozen things that need to be addressed starting yesterday. It will be up to Caitlin Carducci do get the ship righted over the next few months.

Hayes Names Preliminary USWNT Roster

USWNT Head Coach Emma Hayes named a 51-player preliminary roster for the upcoming Concacaf W Championship matches at the end of the month. Hayes will need to whittle that roster down in the next few weeks. Even former Orlando Pride defender Emily Sams made the list — at least for now. There are some NWSL players that have impressed, and others that have not, for the NWSL.

Free Kicks

• Antoine Griezmann’s jersey is ranked fifth in the Top 10 jersey sales in MLS. I think that is pretty impressive, given he wasn’t here all season.
• Mauricio Pochettino will be selecting a squad for the upcoming Concacaf Nations League quarterfinals. He will also need to deal with several injured USMNT players in his selection process.
• AS Monaco has added USMNT striker Folarin Balogun to the squad for the Conference League now that he is staying at the club.
• The Asian Cup has been postponed due to a series of attacks in Saudi Arabia including one at Riyadh’s airport.
• The MLS Disciplinary Committee fined Charlotte FC forward Allan Saint-Maximin for not leaving the field in a timely manner after being sent off in the match against Orlando City.
• The Western Conference also has Decision Day drama with six teams competing for three playoff spots.

That will do it for today.

Over the last 12 years, I’ve written 3,598 stories for The Mane Land before this one, but I’ve never written one that I wanted to post less than this one (no. 3,599). To rip off the Band-Aid, The Mane Land is closing shop at the end of the 2026 season. We will continue to cover the club through Orlando City’s postseason and provide some retrospective posts and whatever daily news requires coverage before calling it a day in the coming weeks. We will also stop producing The Mane Land PawedCast and SkoPurp Soccer: An Orlando Pride PawedCast at that time.

After starting as a free WordPress site on Sept. 23, 2014; quickly building an audience and becoming part of the SBNation family of sites on Nov. 24 of that same year; and then having to regroup and become a new, independent site nine years later on March 29, 2023; it is with a great deal of sadness and regret that I have to inform you The Mane Land will not continue.

This isn’t a money thing. We’re used to having to pay to play after going independent following SBNation’s decision to cut a huge chunk of its soccer sites three years ago. We’ve recouped some of our expenses through an insanely successful initial GoFundMe drive and a far less successful Buy Me a Coffee subscription campaign since 2023.

But the rigors and stress of being plugged in 365 days a year (give or take a few), running the site, and covering a growing schedule of games each year with dwindling staff resources has taken its toll. It is time to call it a day.

I don’t have a lot of regrets about running TML the last 12 years, but I have one major one — my inability to recruit replacements for staff members who have left. A lack of manpower has forced TML to scale back over the years when I would rather have grown it, and it is a constant source of frustration that we can’t provide a lot of what I originally envisioned, or indeed some of the things we used to be able to provide (e.g., weekend Lion Links, OCB previews, more feature stories, video content, Pride player grades, etc.). Friends and family I’ve spoken with have suggested keeping the site going but only covering the MLS site. That’s just not in my DNA. Women’s sports need to have their signal boosted far more than the men do. Others have suggested just scaling back to a few days a week. I don’t know how to do that and still cover double game weeks. As it is, there are only a few folks on staff that physically live in town and can cover matches in person.

I still enjoy doing this. I’m willing to pay the costs of the annual registrations, renewals, filings, hosting fees, etc., even though they add up to hundreds of dollars annually. It’s about the attrition of the staff over the years. All of us still here are experiencing some level of burnout, and although I’ve willingly stepped in and filled in for others for various reasons as staffers have cut back on contributions, adding to my own already nonexistent bandwidth, the proverbial wall has been hit. I scaled back my activities this season only because Matt and Don joined us and provided some relief, allowing me to take off most of Orlando City’s road games and for Sean, dealing with his own burnout, to attend Pride home games as a Season Ticket Member rather than work the matches.

There just isn’t any solution here that I’m happy with, so I’m going to take care of my mental health.

My deepest thanks to the staff members who have volunteered to cover the club with me over the years. In addition to myself, there are 94 other people who have either contributed to at least one story, provided photography services, copyedited, served as social media or comments admins, or some combination of those tasks since 2014. That’s a lot of people, and although there are far more who contributed for less than six months than who contributed for at least five of the last 12 years, every single contribution has my deepest appreciation.

Not many people make any money as soccer bloggers, and certainly no one at this site has made anything more than a few bucks’ worth of beer money, and even that hasn’t happened since 2024. So, it is astounding that apart from just a couple of guys who joined prior to the 2026 season (Matt [last name redacted at his request] and Don VanDemark, who are the only reason this post didn’t come 11 months sooner), this current staff has people who have been with The Mane Land for: two years (Andrew DeSalvo), six years (Joshua Taylor), eight years (Dan MacDonald), nine years (Ben Miller), 10 years (Marcus Mitchell), 11 years (David Rohe), and 12 years (Sean Rollins — the 10^th contributor ever to join the staff, just days before we moved to SBNation).

Without the folks above and dozens like them who have come and gone through our virtual office (and who are listed below this post) our local coverage of Orlando City, the Orlando Pride, and OCB would never have happened. I could not have done it without them all, especially the last few years.

I offer my sincere thanks to our readers and podcast listeners who have volunteered to do something/anything to help us out. I couldn’t even find the time before the season started to onboard a couple of prospective volunteer editors. This is my failing and no one else’s, and I own it. I’ve known for years that I’ve been overextended. For a while, I was hosting four different podcasts and writing three blogs in addition to working my day job. It was never sustainable, but I always felt like if I could just keep things going a little longer, some new staff members would eventually come along. Fool that I was. I have cut back in other areas but it hasn’t been enough, and some of those other side gigs pay enough that I have to keep them.

It’s a sad time for us, but I am excited that our staff will get a much-deserved break. They have earned it. They’ve been so damn great over the years. And I haven’t always been easy on them…burnout, frustration at not realizing my vision, mounting losses by the club we cover…they add up. I don’t mean to take any of that out on anyone but find myself doing it anyway and usually don’t even realize it until later. Big thanks to all of them for putting up with me.

Quick side story, if you’ll indulge me: I went on a three-day cruise a couple of years ago and I did not buy the internet package, leaving the staff to take care of things during my absence. I came back feeling 10 years younger, clear of mind, and more refreshed than I’ve felt in a long time. That feeling didn’t wear off for a few weeks after the trip. It was a wake-up call telling me how hard I’ve been grinding since I was in my late 40s (I turned 60 in September). My mind needs more quiet. I want to have the time to read books again. I want to go to concerts on Saturday nights sometimes without checking the soccer schedule. Beach weekends. You get the idea…normal people stuff. My daughter, who was not yet a teenager when our blog began, graduates from high school in the spring. I want to be as present as I can for her before she leaves the nest and becomes her own person.

I’m so proud of what our little site has accomplished over the years. We are the longest-running source of daily local coverage covering OCSC and have covered the College Cup, the Copa America, the FIFA Club World Cup, international friendlies, the Florida Cup, U.S. World Cup qualifiers, and more, in addition to covering three local professional teams regularly. We got to cover Orlando City’s U.S. Open Cup championship and the Orlando Pride’s 2024 double. It’s been a while, but we’ve even broken some stories about the club from time to time, even though that’s not really our main focus, and do you have any idea how hard it is to beat Paul Tenorio to any story? Didn’t happen often, but the couple of times it did, it felt like winning a trophy. It was a treat to spend a couple years in the pressbox next to him, just absorbing.

Big thanks to my comrades in arms in the Orlando City and Orlando Pride pressbox over the years: Paul Tenorio, Alicia Del Gallo, Jordan Culver, Julia Poe, (former TML contributor) Austin David, Mike Gramajo, and (former TML contributor) Kyle Foley. I know there were many others, but that was the core of press row, and I enjoyed spending time with them all.

I would be remiss if I didn’t thank so many of the club’s helpful communications professionals over the years: Lenny Santiago, Jhamie Chin, Rafa Cabrera, Lucas Casas, Jacky Ramos, Jackie Maynard, Hannah Drosdick, Rob Hildreth (my fellow Buckeye!), Omar Gonzalez, Lucas Medeiros, and Harrison Garner. I’m sure I’m forgetting some. That happens over the course of a dozen years.

Perhaps the best part of having run The Mane Land all these years has been meeting so many fantastic people through the years, both in the soccer world and in our readership/podcast audience, and I feel beyond blessed to have shared the last 12 years with you all.

This is especially true of our amazing Founders. Without those who contributed an astonishing amount to our pivot to independence after we got whacked by SBNation, we would have closed up shop three years ago. You guys financed us for a couple of years on that one fundraising drive. I also want to give a shout out to our Buy Me a Coffee membership subscribers and donors. It was a small but mighty group, and every little bit helped us keep the lights on. We can’t thank you enough.

What happens next? Well, we have already established an internal series of potential dates for our final posts. Those dates are dependent upon when Orlando City is eliminated or (far less likely, but we’re here for it) wins the whole damn thing. We will end SkoPurp Soccer in another couple of weeks. We’ll keep The Mane Land PawedCast going slightly past the end of the Lions’ postseason run.

The website itself will be up for at least a year. I want to archive the stories, even if I never look at any of them again, because hey…you never know. Maybe I take a year off, discover I’m feeling great and miss the writing, find a larger group of writers and editors itching to cover the club the way we did in the early days, and pick up where we left off. You never know what the future will bring.

Again: thank you all. We aren’t quite finished yet, but in the interest of transparency, it was important to let you know what’s coming.

Below is a full list of all TML staff members from start to end in the order they joined. They all have my eternal gratitude and all are part of this site’s history.

• Michael Citro (Sept. 2014-Current) – Founder, Managing Editor
• Andrew Marcinko (Oct. 2014-July 2015) – Writer, Editor
• Joseph Morgan (Oct. 2014-Dec. 2014) – Writer
• Kevin Mercer (Nov. 2014-Oct. 2015; Feb. 2017-Nov. 2018) – Writer
• John Rey (Nov. 2014-Feb. 2015) – Writer
• Austin David (Nov. 2014-Aug. 2017) – Writer
• Jeff Milby (Nov. 2014-Oct. 2016) – Writer
• Casey Moore (Nov. 2014-Dec. 2014) – Writer
• Jeff Leadbeater (Dec. 2014-May 2015) – Comments Moderator
• Sean Rollins (Dec. 2014-Current) – Writer
• William Crawford (Jan. 2015-Feb. 2015; March 2017-April 2017) – Writer
• Austin Siegel (Jan. 2015-Sept. 2016 ) – Writer
• Andrew Harrison (Jan. 2015-Oct. 2016; June 2017-Sept. 2017) – Writer
• Wade Williams (Feb. 2015-Nov. 2016) – Writer
• Joshua McKinney (Feb. 2015- May 2016) – Writer
• Nick Leyva (March 2015-Aug. 2019 ) – Photographer
• Matthew Rosado (March 2015-March 2015) – Writer
• Cole Kellogg (March 2015-April 2015) – Writer
• Scott Crumbly (March 2015-Sept. 2019 ) – Writer, Editor
• Mike Levin (April 2015) – Writer
• Kyle Foley (April 2015-March 2016) – Social Media Manager, Writer
• Austin Warren (May, 2015-Jan. 2017) – Photographer
• Ryan Randall (June 2015-July 2015) – Writer
• Gavin Ewbank (June 2015-Oct. 2017) – Writer
• Allen Etzler (June 2015-Dec. 2016) – Writer
• David Rohe (June 2015-Current) – Writer
• Brent Petkus (June 2015-Aug. 2016 ) – Writer
• Daniel McGann (July 2015-Oct. 2016) – Writer
• Rich Shock (July 2015-May 2016) – Editor
• Robert Vega (Nov. 2015-May 2016) – Writer
• Richard Paolillo (Nov. 2015-Jan. 2016) – Social Media Manager
• Luis Hernandez (Nov. 2015-Aug. 2016 ) – Writer
• Brad Newton (Nov. 2015-Aug. 2016) – Writer
• Meg VanDyk (Nov. 2015-Feb. 2017 ) – Writer
• Lindsay Harrison (Nov. 2015-June 2016) – Writer
• Daniel Byrd (Dec. 2015-Aug. 2016) – Writer
• Eric Ely (Jan. 2016-March 2016) – Writer
• Gianluca Lia (Feb. 2016-May 2016) – Writer
• Logan Oliver (March 2016-Dec. 2018) – Writer
• Matt Starkey (March 2016-Aug. 2016) – Photographer
• Josh Green (April 2016-Aug. 2016 ) – Graphic Artist
• Nick Morales (May 2016-Sept. 2016 ) – Writer
• Jeremy Croston (June 2016- Oct. 2016) – Writer
• Carlos Romero (June 2016-Sept. 2020) – Photographer
• Tiffani Hubbert (June 2016-Jan. 2017) – Social Media Manager
• Robby Torrence (June 2016-Sept. 2016 ) – Social Media Manager
• Saul Garcia (Oct. 2016-Nov. 2016 ) – Writer
• Marcus Mitchell (Oct. 2016-Current) – Editor/Writer
• Bryan Nelson (Oct. 2016-May 2017) – Editor
• Adam Dupere (Nov. 2016-June 2017 ) – Writer
• Tommy Leinenweber (Nov. 2016- Dec. 2016) – Writer
• John Adair (Nov. 2016-Feb. 2017) – Writer
• Guilherme Torres (Dec. 2016-July 2021) – Writer
• Jorge Gallardo (Dec. 2016-June 2017) – Graphics/Video
• Michael Neiemeier (Dec. 2016-July 2017) – Writer
• Scott Carnevale (Dec. 2016-July 2021) – Writer
• Braeden Mueller (Jan. 2017-Feb. 2017) – Writer
• Alfredo Martinez (Jan. 2017-April 2017) – Writer
• Daniel Turcios (Feb. 2017-April 2017) – Writer
• Alex Mohr (Feb. 2017-April 2017) – Editor/Writer
• Dan Garza (Feb. 2017-July 2017) – Writer
• Jonathan Foreman (Feb. 2017-Aug. 2017) – Writer
• Ben Sundock (March 2017-April 2017) – Writer
• Bill Johnson (March 2017-Aug. 2017) – Writer
• Ryan Nagel (April 2017-June 2017) – Writer
• Matt Clark (May 2017-June 2017) – Writer
• Ben Miller (Aug. 2017-Current) – Writer
• Tom Saunders (Aug. 2017-March 2020) – Writer
• Mike Spillane (Aug. 2017-Nov. 2017) – Writer
• Brandon Turton (Aug. 2017-Sept. 2018) – Writer
• Gabbi Feulner (Aug. 2017-July 2018) – Photographer
• David Gray (Jan. 2018-March 2018) – Writer
• Ethan Smith (Feb. 2018-Sept. 2018) – Writer
• Alek Pierce (March 2018-March 2020) – Writer
• Dan MacDonald (May 2018-Current) – Photographer
• Jennifer Warren (Feb. 2019-Aug. 2019) – Writer
• Jenn Glasheen (Feb. 2019-Jan. 2021) – Writer
• Andrew Sharp (Feb. 2019-Oct. 2019) – Writer
• Pablo Pinedo (March 2019-June 2019) – Writer
• Mushtaq Nizamdin (July 2019-Aug. 2019 ) – Writer
• Elliot Evans (Feb. 2020-July 2020 ) – Editor
• Joshua Taylor (Feb. 2020-Current) – Writer
• Daniel Finton (June 2020-May 2021) – Writer
• Christopher Adams (Nov. 2020-Jan. 2021; April 2021-Nov. 2021) – Writer
• Adrian Barragan (Nov. 2021-Aug. 2022) – Writer
• Mike Kennedy (Nov. 2021-June 2022 ) – Writer
• Ryan Smith (March 2022-May 2025) – Writer
• Josh Munsey (March 2022-Oct. 2022) – Writer
• Michael Rice (March 2022-June 2022 ) – Writer
• Nic Josey (Nov. 2022-Aug. 2025) – Writer
• Mike Gambill (March 2024-March 2024) – Writer
• Sam Denker (April 2024-Dec. 2024) – Writer
• S. Andrew DeSalvo (June 2024-Current) – Writer
• Don VanDemark (Jan. 26-Current) – Writer
• Matt [Last Name Redacted at his Request] (Jan. 26-Current) – Writer