Lion Links: 3/23/15

I’m sure everyone’s recovering from Saturday’s loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps, which probably caused its fair share of hangovers across the Orlandoverse. Here are some links to check out while you stew about Octavio Rivero and Canada.

Do you really want to relive that horrendous evening?

Yeah, why not? I usually throw a link to highlights from the previous game up anyway for review and criticism by our faithful fans. Re-watch the ending and discover new ways to hate Rivero while complaining about the lack of a scoring threat at center forward. MLS' Matthew Doyle tackled the question, so now it's your turn. It's a good way to waste a Monday.

Saturday brings a head-to-head battle with another Canadian club, the Montreal Impact. The match goes down in Olympic Stadium, a place that inspires hate in sports writers and Quebecois alike. This should be fun.

It’s call-up time and Orlando City’s invited

Another round of international call-ups are on the way and plenty of Lions are going. This will have an impact on Orlando City’s trip across the border: at least seven players should be unavailable Saturday and possibly the next week’s match against D.C. United. Three regular starters — Kevin Molino, Rafael Ramos and Brek Shea — will miss time so this will be a great test of the club’s depth.

Here's a full list of the U.S. call-ups for the upcoming friendlies against Denmark and Switzerland as well as USMNT's Olympic camp in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the U-20 camp in England. Finally, the entire list of MLS players heading to national team camps.

Expansion rumors, again

Sacramento’s still trying to get in on the MLS party after the Minnesota United-to-MLS rumors started to shift to fact over the past week. Several fans made the trek to Seattle to get some attention during a USL Pro match between Sacramento Republic and Seattle Sounders II.

Minnesota winning the bid will dent the chances of Sacramento and other interested markets but Don Garber's floating around the idea of expanding beyond 24 teams after 2020.

Full disclaimer: I live about an hour away from Toyota Field, which means I'm pulling for San Antonio to get a team. Texas can handle three. Who wants to play soccer in a foot of snow? Whatever.

A great Sunday for international soccer

A couple of huge rivalry matches took place in Europe on Sunday. First, a match between Manchester United and Liverpool with Champions League implications. Here are some good highlight packages of the match that have both of Juan Mata's terrific goals and future L.A. Galaxy Designated Player Steven Gerrard's unexplained red card.

Of course, all eyes were on Spain and the El Clasico in Barcelona. It's always a good time when Barcelona and Real Madrid play, and this edition didn't disappoint. Surprisingly, no red cards in this one. It's almost disappointing.

Let's learn about soccer.

We had a newcomer to soccer in our match thread who wants to learn more about the game and the feeling around here is that not enough people help spread knowledge about soccer to those who don't know and have interest. I hate that there are many who believe soccer should be exclusive to a small group, so I invite anyone with questions to ask them on my links thread. Don't be shy: we're all here to help.

That's all for now. Attack your Monday like Steven Gerrard attacked Ander Herrera's leg.