Lion Links: 4/12/16

Welcome to Tuesday, Mane Landers. If you are reading this, you survived Monday and deserve a pat on the back. Or, how about some tasty Lion Links to get your day started on the right foot (or left, if that's how you roll). Let's do this!

Winter Up For Goal of the Week

Before you even reach for that second cup of coffee, head over to MLSsoccer.com and make sure to vote for Adrian Winter for Goal of the Week. Although the new bracket voting is a bit annoying, it does create some fun match-ups, so get voting for our Lion and enjoy the rest of the week as you re-vote at the different stages.

Pride's Full Roster Announced

WoSo fans everywhere, rejoice! This is opening week of the NWSL season and with that, teams, including the Orlando Pride, announced their final rosters heading into the weekend. The Pride's inaugural game is Sunday against the Portland Thorns at Providence Park in Portland, where the NWSL attendance record was set. Also, the Orlando front office is trying to beat that record with its #FilledWithPride campaign. Game on.

At Least We Have One Good National Team

As Americans, we always expect to win at everything. So, for our U.S. Soccer needs, thank goodness we have our USWNT to turn to. This U.S. Women's National Team is being called "the best ever," and with the recent string of victories, the World Cup is in the rear-view mirror of the team's current run of success. Although, with Becky Sauerbrunn's comments about boycotting the Olympics over equal pay, the issue of fairly compensating these tremendous athletes for their successes looms large.

That is a change in pace from what's going on on the men's side of things. Alexi Lalas has a new podcast and used the first episode of his ever-growing soapbox to interview Galaxy Head Coach Bruce Arena, who discussed — among other topics — the abject failure of the USMNT to get off the ground under Klinsmann. However, they didn't discuss the signing of Nigel de Jong, whose reckless behavior has some questioning Arena's judgment.

Never Complain About MLS Ticketing

Our friends over in EPL, especially those who are Leicester City fans, are not having a good time of it at the moment. Being a club member is not the same as being a season ticket holder. LC fans are having an issue they have likely not encountered as a problem until this season. Now, with Leicester City set to win the league title this year, their final home game tickets are on sale for as much as £15,000 each ($21,350 USD). Club membership level entitles someone access to purchase game tickets, but the club does not release the whole season in advance, as we do in MLS. So even “gold” and “silver” level members are finding that their membership fees to the club are not enough to buy them tickets to the final game. May you have all the feels for our fellow supporters who will do just like us, and watch on the telly.

And Finally…

Cristiano Ronaldo, the Adonis of soccer, caused waves last week in his team’s tweet following Real Madrid’s victory over Barcelona in El Clásico. Fortunately, for second-tier Dutch team, Almere City, they saw the fun in the tweet and posted their own … uh, version of the locker room shot.

Yup, looks exactly the same. Only not at all.

Well, that’s it Mane Landers. Happy Tuesday, and be sure to keep your eyeballs locked on The Mane Land as we excitedly build towards our Sunday double-header of Orlando City and Orlando Pride matches.