Lion Links: 8/4/16

Happy Thursday, everyone, Brad here with your penultimate food and drink pairing. This week, Orlando City faces the Seattle Sounders and I had previously given you a coffee-rubbed salmon and Pino Noir when the Pride played the Reign in a match that will not be mentioned here.

Instead, I'm gonna give you guys a free pass this week. Eat local. My suggestion would be to try something outside of your comfort zone, like Dixie Dharma. Dixie Dharma is a southern-inspired vegan restaurant that serves Jackfruit sauced and seasoned to taste like pulled pork and, as someone who loves him some pulled pork, it passed the Turing test for me.

Now, on to the news!

Orlando City Trades Darwin Cerén for Matías Pérez García

Yesterday evening Orlando City pulled off a move before the transfer window closed that sent defensive midfielder Darwin Ceren to San Jose in exchange for attacking mid Matías Pérez García. Orlando City will also be receiving an international slot for the rest of the season and the Quakes will also receive salary budget space for a season-ending injury-replacement. Pérez García will remain a Designated Player on San Jose’s books. Additionally, Orlando City also acquired the MLS rights to OCB midfielder Tony Rocha from Sporting Kansas City and if that confused you, welcome to the club.

USWNT Opens Olympic Play with Victory Over New Zealand

Carli Lloyd and Orlando Pride Captain Alex Morgan both netted goals in the USWNT’s opening match in the 2016 Olympic Games. The U.S. women were soundly in control for most of the match with 12 shots (six on goal) to New Zealand’s four (one on goal). Morgan’s goal in the second half happened about 35 seconds after the break. Here’s hoping the Pride captain can keep it up throughout the tournament and continue to find the back of the net when she arrives back in the City Beautiful. Elsewhere around the games, Monica scored for Brazil in their 3-0 win over China, while Steph Catley and Laura Alleway’s Matildas squared off against Josée Bélanger’s Canadian squad, which Lés Rouge won, 2-0.

USMNT's Alejandro Bedoya Has Come Home

Bedoya, an Englewood, NJ, native has returned from Ligue 1 side Nantes to come play in MLS for the Philadelphia Union. His transfer fee from the France side was a reported $1 million. Because Bedoya was a U.S. National Team regular, he had to enter the league through the allocation process. The Chicago Fire were at the top of the list, but Philadelphia traded away some Targeted Allocation Money and General Allocation Money to Chicago to facilitate the move, along with Philly’s allocation position, a first-round draft pick and discovery rights on an unnamed player.

Julian Green Fighting for First-Team Minutes with Bayern Munich: Could MLS Move be Imminent?

No. But, Four Four Two‘s Paul Tenorio has a solid write-up on the young U.S. player and mentions how high new Bayern Munich boss Carlo Ancelotti has been on the 21-year-old. Green says that though on the surface the situations shared between himself and USMNT teammates Bobby Wood, John Brooks, and Christian Pulisic may all seem similar — U.S. nationals all fighting for minutes on German clubs — Bayern as a team is in a different situation than his teammates’ clubs. Green was noticeably absent from Jurgen Klinsmann’s Copa America squad, but Green is confident that he’ll get more time with the national team as he gets more first-team minutes with his club.

Free Kicks

Today’s birthdays include pro wrestler Dean Malenko (56), 44th president of the United States Barack Obama (55), NASCAR legend Jeff “The Rainbow Warrior” Gordon (45), and USWNT midfielder Kelley O’Hara (28)…The Mane Land and our sister sites around SB Nation selected our MLS Player of the Week, and Kevin Molino came in third place…Former Everton boss Roberto Martinez has agreed to become Belgium’s new national team coach…and finally, the city of Philadelphia is cracking down on the urban plague of dumpster pools.

That's it for today

Play us out, Frank!