Lion Links: 12/22/14

Orlando City fans needed the entire weekend to recover from #FantasticFriday. The team announced the time and date of its first ever match in Major League Soccer against New York City FC. The Lions also formally introduced the newest member of the team, Brek Shea.

Head Coach Adrian Heath wasted no time in jabbing at our opening day opponents:

Them's fightin' words!

Without further ado, here are a few links to help get you through your Monday.

Orlando City Backroom Deals

Just a really phenomenal piece of reporting here by the Orlando Sentinel's Orlando City man Paul Tenorio. He takes a thorough look at the last 30 days of deals and drafts for Orlando City and explains how it all went down.

Key Points:

• Orlando negotiated with Portland to reduce Donovan Ricketts’ 2015 salary cap hit
• Orlando agreed not to select any Real Salt Lake players in the Expansion Draft in exchange for NYCFC passing on the rights to sign Brek Shea
• Even Orlando City’s mock drafts turned out to be way off!

Getting His Degree

Georgetown’s Joshua Yaro has decided to return to school for his junior year to try to win a championship with the Hoyas. Many had projected the Ghanaian as the top pick in this year’s MLS SuperDraft, which of course belongs to Orlando City. The pick would have made sense, as center back still remains a position of need for the Lions, even after the acquisition of Heath Pearce.

Goff is about as solid a soccer source as you’ll get, so I’d take this as close to fact. Still, it sounds like the kid’s really got his head on his shoulders, so good for him. See you in 2016/17, Joshua!

Home Openers Announced

In addition to the Orlando vs. NYCFC match, Major League Soccer also announced the entire opening weekend schedule. Aside from Orlando, other marquee matches include Portland vs. RSL on Saturday, and Seattle vs. New England at Century Link, following the Lions’ match on Sunday.

Yedlin Gets Work Permit

The Seattle Sounders defender has been granted his UK work permit on appeal, and should now be set to officially join Tottenham FC in the Premier League as soon as January. At this point, the United States could really use a success story in England who does not play keeper. Jozy Altidore has been a failure of epic proportions disappointing, and others like Brek Shea and Michael Bradley failed to live up to the hype in England. Do you really want Geoff Cameron to be the best American field player in England?

That’s it for today. If you’re off work/school already, we hope you enjoyed sleeping in! Otherwise, we hope we helped get your Monday off to a fantastic less crappy start. If you come across any interesting links or news, let us know in the comments section.