Lion Links: 10/16/15

Ladies and gentlemen, it's that glorious day where Friday and game day mix together into absolute perfection. Orlando City faces off with that garbage team from New York in their bid to make the playoffs in its first season. While some still hate, I believe Orlando City will make the playoffs (who cares that it's a long shot, it's sports). The best way to start off game day is with some tasty Lion Links, so let's get started!

Original Orlando Lions Paved the Way for Today's Team

We mentioned this on Wednesday, but Orlando City announced the club will launch the Orlando City Alumni Association, and will be honoring former players during halftime of tonight’s game. The club wrote an article today about the original Orlando Lions and their founder, Mark Dillon. Give it a read and educate yourself on some Orlando soccer history. There are sure to be a lot of former Lions from the old team out on the filed being honored tonight, so be sure to stick around during half time.

USL Looking for Division 2 Status

Something that's been in the works since USL's rebranding last year may finally be taking a step forward.

Currently, USL is considered Division 3 in the U.S. soccer pyramid, but with all of the MLS "reserve teams" playing in the league now, they feel that they should be considered just below the top tier. The current Division 2 league, NASL, has said they want to be considered Division 1, but that's probably as likely as MLS actually considering promotion/relegation.

Alex Morgan is Everywhere in Orlando

Now that she’s living in Orlando with her husband, Lions midfielder Servando Carrasco, it was inevitable that the USWNT star would be popping up all around town. First on Tuesday, she was over at UCF’s soccer complex.

Then yesterday, Morgan showed up at Rollins College, where she practiced on their field.

She even had Rollins goalie and former Orlando City academy player Drew Trautmann help her out by getting in goal to stop some shots. Trautmann was understandably pretty happy about that, too.

Orlando City B Already in Trouble with Their Name

Yesterday, there was a lot of excitement over Orlando City’s new USL team playing over in nearby Melbourne. The hashtag #OCB is being used to introduce the new team to the league. Problem is, there’s already an OCB in USL. The Orange County Blues have been in the league since 2010 as the Los Angeles Blues and rebranded to the OC Blues in 2014. So, even though the teams will be in different conferences, it may be a bit awkward whenever the teams end up playing each other.

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That's all for today, folks! Be sure to get your tickets to tonight's game if you haven't already!