Lion Links: 6/8/16

Happy Hump Day, Mane Landers! Isn't it great right now? So much international soccer wherever you turn and the weekend is now in sight. We've had some big games involving Lions and Pride members to recap, so let's get to it, in this, a special, somewhat-international edition of Lion Links!

Pride Women on the International Stage

Orlando Pride badasses Steph Catley and Laura Alleway returned to the land down under to face off against the New Zealand national team for a pre-Olympic friendly at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne in what ended up with a quite exciting 1-1 draw. Alleway had a late shot which was deflected away from goal, bad news for her Matildas but great news for Pride fans who will be thrilled to see Alleway back on the pitch when the Pride return to a full squad later this week.

Not to be outdone by Lianne Sanderson meeting British Prime Minister David Cameron in London a couple of weeks back, the Canadian women's national team is in Ottawa in preparation for this evening's match-up friendly against Brazil, and had the chance to meet the sexiest thing to come out of Canada since Ryan Gosling, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The Pride's own Josée Bélanger made sure to post a pic of the tete-a-tetes on her Twitter feed. Swoon.

Orlando City Injury Update

Even if Cyle Larin was the only Lion called up for international duty at the moment (and ended up not playing last night due to illness), there is still a lot going on at Lions HQ. The club released a team update with a feature on Servando Carrasco, who continues to push his value for a starting spot on Adrian Heath's squad week on week. Injury updates in the piece for Rafael Ramos and Darwin Cerén also indicate we should see them back to full strength and returning to the pitch very soon.

USMNT vs. Costa Rica in Copa América

There is so much out there blaming everyone from Jurgen Klinsmann to the actual soccer ball for the continuing poor showings from the USMNT, but the noise coming out of the team is that they are putting losses and victories on their shoulders now. The Mane Land has your full coverage of the match with Daniel Byrd's match recap, which includes videos of all four (!) U.S. goals.

Potpourri (Like the Jeopardy category except it smells good and you can stick it in your sock drawer)

The Mane Land in the Media

A proud shout out to our very own Andrew Harrison, near and dear to my own heart, who went on Hippie Radio, WMFE, on Tuesday morning's broadcast of Intersection and spoke about all things Orlando City.

New Brewery Opens in Parramore

For any barflies and brewery snobs who wish to claim the title of Parramore Punters, Broken Strings and Black Cauldron Brewing may be your calling. The new joint brewery has opened just in time for the Copa América, but more importantly, will be ready for the new stadium opening in spring of 2017 with all the kinks worked out and hopefully that grimed-in malty smell well established in the floor boards.

Adidas Needs Spelling Lessons

An awkward, but unfortunately common, mistake is the misspelling of the word "capital" when you mean "capitol." So is the accidental confusion of Columbia (British, University, Sportswear) with Colombia, the gigantic country that gives us Juan Valdez and his aromatic crack beans. Well, oops on Adidas who didn't check first when referring to the country and gave a nod to their sportswear rivals.

That's it for today Mane Landers. Enjoy the rest of your week and stay tuned for soccer updates through out the day as we march towards the end of the group stages of Copa América. Speaking of…don't miss our coverage of Brazil vs. Haiti tonight from Camping World Stadium.