Lion Links: 6/15/17

Welcome to Thursday’s edition of Lion Links. Before we get started, we would love to wish a very happy birthday to Orlando City Assistant Coach CJ Brown. Otherwise, this morning isn’t feeling very happy at all, thanks to last night’s lousy showing in U.S. Open Cup action against Miami FC.

We’ll try and forget it together and dive into some awesome Lion Links. Disclaimer: Some of them involve last night’s match, and are therefore not awesome.

Orlando City Knocked Out of U.S. Open Cup

Orlando City hosted NASL side Miami FC in U.S. Open Cup play last night, but only the team from Miami really showed up. The Lions were inferior from the opening whistle, and Stefano Pinho turned in a hat trick for Miami en route to an embarrassing 3-1 loss for Orlando. It’s the second year in a row that an NASL side has ousted City from the U.S. Open Cup, and this time it was worse.

Same.

Our Player Grades from late last night accurately reflect the scoreline.

Later this morning Scott Crumbly will have five takeaways from the match.

ESPN Honors Orlando City

The Stuart Scott ENSPIRE Award will be given to Orlando City this year by ESPN, following the club’s response and efforts to help the community recover after the tragedy at Pulse Nightclub in June 2016.

“We are grateful and honored to be nominated and chosen for this award,” said Orlando City Vice President of Communications Kay Rawlins. “This is one of the most important awards we could receive because it’s about the positive impact we could have in the community as an organization.”

Orlando City has been a very vocal leader in supporting the LGBTQ community, and this award reflects the dedication Orlando City has shown.

Orlando City B Falls to Toronto FC II

Orlando City B faced off against Toronto FC II in a Wednesday matinee and fell 1-0 due to an early, ninth-minute goal from Jordan Hamilton. OCB played a weaker side compared to the usual due to Orlando City's senior squad having the aforementioned U.S. Open Cup match in the evening, which makes the result against Miami FC all the more disappointing.

Free Kicks

• The USMNT has been creating some rumbles as Head Coach Bruce Arena stated that Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore may not participate in the entire Gold Cup. In related news, Christian Pulisic is also unlikely to be called up for Gold Cup action.
• An injury to Rose Lavelle is set to affect both the NWSL Boston Breakers and the U.S. Women’s National Team as she is set to miss four to six weeks of action after suffering a hamstring injury.
• If you want to understand how straight forward World Cup Qualifying can be, check out this article on the USMNT here.

That is it for the Links today. Have a wonderful Thursday.