Lion Links: 2/2/17

Hello everyone, and welcome to another Thursday. January seemingly passed by in such a fast fashion that it almost feels hard to catch up. Another year had begun, and yes, we have already gone through a month in the blink of an eye. The good news is that the season is creeping up rather quickly. We’re only a little over a month away from Orlando City playing its first match of 2017.

Before we get started with what is going on in the world of soccer today, let’s wish Orlando City B goalkeeper Jake Fenlason a very happy birthday. If you would like to send him a personal shout-out you can do so through his twitter account: @Jakefenlason

Not Everyone Has a Future at OCSC

Are the likes of David Mateos, Bryan Róchez, and Devron Garcia all on the outs with Head Coach Jason Kreis? The answer, according to Kreis, is yes.

“We’ve been trying to work with those players the entire off-season,” Kreis told the Orlando Sentinel on Wednesday. “During end-of-season meetings with those players we made it clear there wasn’t really a future for them in our club, and we tried to work with those players, have those players work with their agents, as well as us. A lot of work was put in the off-season to try to find them better solutions or different solutions, whether that be in the league or outside of the league, and we haven’t found answers.”

Trying to find solutions and better situations for these players has been tough this off-season. The futures of these players are elsewhere, according to Kreis, and it will be interesting to see if and how the club goes into the season with these three players still on the roster.

Kaylyn Kyle Emotional After Release

In a release by Canada's Women’s National Team, Kaylyn Kyle was not on the list of subsidized players. This meant that the CWNT was no longer paying her salary for playing with the Orlando Pride. In the wake of this, the club released her and it came as quite the shock.

“It came as a massive shock to me,” Kyle told the Orlando Sentinel. “I mean, I was notified by a [club] media person basically minutes before they were releasing that I was not allocated. I was taken aback.”

Kyle was a good soldier for the Pride during the team’s inaugural season and we hope she lands on her feet.

37 Orlando City Academy Players Commit to College Soccer

College is a beautiful thing, and here in Orlando the youth academy is making dreams of college come true. 37 players from Orlando City Youth Soccer have signed national letters of intent to play soccer at the collegiate level. With this tally, this marks four consecutive years that OCSC has had 30 or more commitments.

Molino Thanks Orlando

In a post on his Instagram account, Kevin Molino posted a thank you to the club and the fans.

Thank you for everything @orlandocitysc The memories we've shared cannot be replaced. 💜 I will always remember you. Fans became family. Teammates became brothers. The coaching staff and everyone else who supported me along this journey, shaped the man I am today, on and off the field. Once a Lion, always a Lion. 🦁 I'll keep this Lion heart of mine as I fly the 🇹🇹 in this new phase of my career! Thank you!

A photo posted by Kevin Molino (@_nash10) on Feb 1, 2017 at 11:20am PST

Top Five Orlando City B Matches

Allison Cary took a look at Orlando City B’s best matches entering the 2017 season. These are the matches that you should watch throughout the season as they should prove to be some of the better match-ups of the 2017 season. The two games that I will be looking forward to are the match-ups between the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Cary did leave the season finale against Tampa off the list.

Sacramento Republic MLS Bid Highjacked?

Sacramento is still in hopes of getting an MLS franchise in its beloved city. One of the keys to making this a reality is the success of Sacramento Republic FC. The team currently plays in the USL, the second division of pro soccer in the United States. In the city’s bid, however, there seemed to be no mention of Sacramento Republic FC and this has caused quite the stir in the soccer community, especially in the city of Sacramento.

This morning, SRFC managing partner Kevin Nagle changed his Twitter handle from @srfc_kevin to @KevinNagleMLS and removed all references to the Republic from his Twitter bio. The team’s official Twitter account hasn’t tweeted all day about the bid and there’s nothing about it on their website, which is ominous given that today is perhaps the most important day in franchise history.

It will be interesting to see how this story unfolds over time.

CBA Talks Continue for USWNT

Sunil Gulati has suggested that CBA talks between the USSF and the USWNT have gotten better over the past weekend.

“They’ve got new representation,” Gulati said over the weekend in San Diego where the men’s national team played Serbia to a scoreless draw. “There’s a completely different tone in the discussions.”

New Signing in MLS and FIFA 17

If FIFA is a big part of your everyday life like it is mine, then this should be pretty cool to you. Tyler Bailey was able to break down some of the key signings of this off-season and see how they fare on FIFA 17.

The EA team recently added a bunch of 2017 MLS SuperDraft picks to FIFA 17, along with some very recent Homegrown signings, including Hermann Trophy-winner and very promising midfielder Ian Harkes. Their player ratings in the game provide plenty of stuff to chew on. Unfortunately, not all of it tastes very good. 

That is all from me today. I hope your February starts out great, and don’t forget to follow me on the twitter for constant updates about absolutely nothing: @awesomeniemeier