Lion Links: 10/14/15

Another day, another free blog post at The Mane Land. It was a busy day for Orlando City yesterday as far as non-game days go. Along with some pretty cool announcements by the club, Brek Shea started for the USMNT in a friendly match with Costa Rica that ended in a loss for the good guys. Whatever you’re looking for, we’ve got you covered.

Let's get to the links.

USL team in Melbourne

All signs point to Orlando City putting its USL team in Melbourne in 2016. The club has announced a press conference set at Eastern Florida State College for Thursday, where the club will provide an update on the squad. The club is likely to announce EFSC will be the home field for the USL side and will maybe provide some other details such as the name of the team.

Stay tuned for more details.

Honoring Orlando Soccer

Orlando City announced the club will launch the Orlando City Alumni Association, a Hall of fame of sorts, to honor the contributions of former Orlando City players. The Alumni Association will be launched at the conclusion of the regular season and will feature 40 former Lions who played from 1985 to 2014.

It won't just be a collection of Orlando City players, but also the Orlando Lions and Orlando Sundogs. So it will be more like an homage to Orlando soccer as a whole.

Brek Shea with USMNT

At practice yesterday, Orlando City coach Adrian Heath discussed whether or not he felt Brek Shea should be on the USMNT squad. Obviously the coach was high on Shea, one of the club’s top players, but he made a good point when discussing Shea’s versatility making him more of an asset.

Whether it be left back or higher up the field on the left, alls I know is that a fit Brek Shea would be in my team if I was picking the national team,” Orlando City coach Adrian Heath said. “Because he has so many tools and I think he’s just starting to get his confidence back. Obviously the last 18 months wasn’t good to him in England, but he’s starting to get everything back now and he’s looked fantastic here in training the last couple weeks and I thought his performance in the last game playing at right back was unbelievable.

“Maybe I’m a bit biased because he’s one of ours, but I know I’d be picking him.

Klinsmann throws Johnson under the bus

Grant Wahl took USMNT coach Jurgen Klinsmann to task for throwing USMNT squad player Fabian Johnson under the bus after the club lost to Mexico on Saturday evening. This was the second time recently that Klinsmann threw a USMNT player under the bus. These are clearly not things you want to hear from a coach leading a national squad, and really shows the lack of leadership Klinsmann has provided since taking over the squad.

It would not be surprising to see Klinsmann gone in the near future. But it also would not be surprising to see him stay, but eventually lose the entire locker room.

USA falls to Costa Rica

It’s been a bad week for the USMNT. The Yanks fell 1-0 to Costa Rica last night for their second loss in less than a week. Joel Campbell buried the game winner in the 70th minute for the Ticos. Orlando City’s Shea started and played most of the match before coming off for Lee Nguyen. He got hit in the face with the ball, taking some time to get up, but other than that, he did not sustain any injuries.

Thank god for that.

United States Stays Alive in Olympic Qualifying

The U-23 Yanks scored twice in the second half to defeat Canada 2-0 in the third-place match to keep their hopes alive for Olympic qualifying. The U-23 USMNT will play Colombia in March in a playoff for the right to advance to the 2016 Olympics. Marc Pelosi and Jerome Kiesewetter scored for the United States.

See ya next week.