Lion Links: 6/10/16

Happy Friday everyone and welcome to today’s edition of Lion Links. As I sat there Wednesday night — appreciatively dry mind you — in my seat, watching Brazil tear Haiti a new one, I couldn’t help but think about all the wonderful football in store for fans this summer. Copa America Centenario and Euro 2016 are finally here for us to revel in their greatness, but with one of the largest and most important holidays taking place during these massive tournaments, could we see a real clash of cultural perception this summer? More on that below. Let’s get to your links:

Creating a More Intelligent Sports Community (Also, the Pride are Good!)

Long has the shallow minded analysis of former professionals and TV personas ruled the airwaves in the sports community. Ex-pros and the people around the upper echelons of the sports industry have illustrated a pattern of cronyism, insisting that under-qualified professionals have the right to spew whatever BS comes out of their mouths as the truth since they have a close relation with certain professionals. Well, it's 2016, and it's time to wake up and smell the analytics. Expected goals is a term that's been floating around the industry for quite awhile now, and one that I'm particularly excited about because, as I alluded to earlier, it adds a bit of objectivity to sports analysis. Speaking of expected goals, FourFourTwo's Chad Murphy uses advanced stats to explain why our Orlando Pride should not only continue to outpace the Houston Dash's 2014 NWSL expansion campaign, but also to stay in the playoff hunt all season.

Klinsmann Among Highest Paid Managers in the World

Well, we all knew that Jurgen Klinsmann wasn’t doing it for free, but boy is he earning quite a bit as the head coach of the USMNT. For someone that has only brought one Gold Cup to the U.S. trophy cabinet, the United States seems to be paying the former German international quite a bit of money for…(crickets). Without a discernible style or any attempt to create one, many have called into to question the appointment and tenure of Klinsmann as head coach, and rightly so. The U.S. head coach earns $2.6 million a year, and when you look at how much he’s earning in comparison to what other countries are paying their respective managers, it doesn’t convince anyone that we’re getting the best bang out of the many, many bucks.

Klinsmann is earning more than the legendary Vicente Del Bosque and Joachim Löw, the man who is largely responsible for revolutionizing the German youth football model. He and Roy Hodgson are making people question the sanity of their own FAs. Further your individual depression by looking at how much these men make for doing something you've done on FIFA five times over.

New CBA for a Deserving USWNT

The tension between the players of the USWNT and their feelings about how fairly they're being compensated has been an issue for awhile, but it finally seems to be coming to a close. The women of the national team have still performed excellently despite numerous off the field issues threatening to hamper the social perception of a great team. This inequality in working conditions and compensation is something that everyone should be glad to see the tail end of, and speaking of that, Brian Straus of SI.com writes that U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati (who was at Camping World Stadium Wednesday night) says a new collective bargaining agreement with the USWNT is possible before the Olympics. I'll leave you with a refreshing set of numbers (h/t John D. Halloran):

Culture Clash Featuring Football

Ramadan started on June 5 and will stretch well into the schedules of both the Copa America and the Euros, with it bringing some real life interaction into a religion and culture that a lot of us here in the western world have a skewed perception of. Join Laurence Mckenna, Ahmed Yussuf, and James Montague as they have an in-depth discussion about both the physical and cultural implications of Ramadan this summer. Check out that discussion in the podcast embedded below. You can get info on their other podcasts here.

That's it for today. From all of us here at The Mane Land, have a fantastic weekend!