Lion Links: 8/23/17

Well it’s Wednesday once again, and for those of you who looked directly into the sun on Monday, if you are reading this, then congrats on your eyesight not being permanently damaged. For the rest of us mere mortals, we can just celebrate with another dose of Lion Links.

Harris Wins SOTW

Orlando Pride goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris has taken home the honors for the Week 17 NWSL Save of the Week.

Harris came up big in the fourth minute in the Orlando Pride’s 2-1 win over the Boston Breakers at the weekend. Unfortunately the Pride didn’t make it three out of three in wins, with Sam Kerr narrowly beating Alex Morgan out for NWSL Goal of the Week, despite Morgan currently playing some of the best soccer of her career.

Barry Named USL Player of the Week

OCB forward Hadji Barry has been named Week 22 USL Player of the Week. Barry notched three goals in two games for OCB as the young Lions took their undefeated streak to double digits and continued their march toward the playoffs. Barry was joined by former Lion Corey Hertzog in the starting XI, as well as by current OCB teammate Earl Edwards Jr. who made the team’s subs’ bench after some solid recent performances.

FC Barcelona Suing Neymar

The Neymar saga continued yesterday with FC Barcelona announcing they are suing the new PSG man for breach of contract and seeking damages of bonuses. The Catalan giants are seeking to recover payments made to the player on the contingency that he didn’t leave the team or seek a transfer elsewhere. With this and turmoil around the club’s leadership, don’t expect this to be the last thing from the Blaugrana.

Fancy Bears Go After Soccer

Hacker group Fancy Bears leaked information that highlighted which players were given therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. TUEs are exemptions provided to players to use substances that are banned in competition. This leak by Fancy Bears shows that soccer is not immune from doping allegations and the arbiters of the game need to work to make sure fair play is ensured.

Free Kicks

• FiveThirtyEight global soccer rankings are out, and Orlando is in.
• Former Lion Bryan Rochez has been sold to Portuguese side C.D. Nacional.
• Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola believes that someone could be willing to activate Lionel Messi’s buyout clause.
• Hamburg investor provides funds for the transfer of Andrew Hahn, if the Bundesliga side promises to keep USMNT star Bobby Wood.
• While in other news, Bundesliga side Stuttgart is looking to offload former USMNT regular Julian Green.
• Has Bayern Munich found a way to deal with exorbitant transfer fees?
• Former Dinamo Zagreb manager injured after being shot at a memorial he was attending.
• Austrian soccer fan gets 18 months jail time for fascist salute.
• English striker Wayne Rooney joins the EPL 200 Club
• The FA seeks to plunder the Chinese yuan.

That’s all for today, folks. Make sure you sign up for the PawedCast on iTunes or come back to the site later on today as it’s the 100th episode, and you will be in for some good listening (and two phenomenal guests) and quality banter.