Lion Links: 4/27/16

Today is the birthday of Antonio Matarazzo, whom Orlando City took in the third round of the MLS SuperDraft and whom has been on the OCB roster this season. Matarazzo has yet to see the field so far, and that may be due to some confusion around his birthday. See, Orlando City’s site has him celebrating today, whereas MLS is making him wait until Friday. The USL also says Friday, but transfermarkt.com says today. I’m sure that once this gets squared away, we’ll see him taking the field and dominating.

Bendik Up for Save of the Week

Joe Bendik is up for MLS Save of the Week for his stop against Mike Grella of NYRB. Grella had a pretty sweet volley that truly tested Bendik’s reflexes. He’s up against Vancouver’s David Ousted who had another great stop against Dallas’ Michael Barrios. If I were an unbiased viewer, I might say that Ousted’s one-handed Olajuwon-esque rejection was better, but I’m not. So go vote for Bendik.

Morgan and Harris Helped Pride Become Reality

If you're anything like me, you have an Orlando Pride magnet next to your Orlando City magnet on your truck. Actually, if you're anything like me, your wife woke up one morning to find matching magnets on her car. And on the fridge. And scattered around the living room. Yet, that loving moment would have been a year off had Alex Morgan and Ashlyn Harris not helped the team get fast tracked into 2016, as opposed to the original planned date of 2017.

Turner the Man

Tyler Turner has been named the USL Player of the Week after his two-goal performance against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds. The performance gave OCB its first victory of the season, and vaulted Turner to the top of the OCB scoring list. Though Turner’s performance wasn’t enough to lift the team to a second straight win, it’s a positive sign for what has been a rough start to the inaugural OCB season, and prompted our own Sean Rollins to pen a piece about his improvement.

Citrus Bowl Renamed

Florida is well known for citrus, which made the name "Citrus Bowl" fairly relevant. Yet, this made the Citrus Bowl unique among stadiums that had yet to sell out to corporate America. Well, unique no more. The Citrus Bowl will now be known as Camping World Stadium. For those not in the know, Camping World is a company that specializes in RVs and camping supplies. In order to maintain consistency with my standard camping behavior, this now means that I'll have to drink a bunch of beer and sit around talking crap during Orlando City games. Here's hoping I have it in me.

More MLS Expansion Talk

Just two days ago, Gavin Ewbank looked into the various options around MLS expansion. Regarding Detroit, Gavin said:

It remains to be seen whether or not they'll have the ownership or stadium to make something happen.

Well, apparently, the folks from Detroit have listened. Dan Gilbert and Tom Gores, owners of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons, respectively, are teaming up to be that ownership group and to deliver on that stadium. So, perhaps Detroit now needs to rise up in the MLS Expansion Hopefuls Power Rankings.

Those are your Lion Links for today. Come back on Friday to wish Antonio Matarazzo another happy birthday.