Lion Links: 10/23/17

Merry Monday morning, Mane Landers! This weekend was quite challenging for me, with nearly all of my favorite teams falling to their opponents. Fortunately, the USWNT kept it from being a total disaster of a weekend. That’s enough of my pity party, let’s get to the links!

Orlando City Embarrassed by Union

Orlando City capped off its season the only way one could expect, by being dominated by the team that was only one spot above them in the standings. Orlando City lost 6-1 in a lopsided match, which might as well have been the start of the off-season evaluations for Jason Kreis. Needless to say, nobody made any kind of statement for why they should be kept on the team save perhaps Yoshi and Dom.

• Gavin Ewbank has your match recap.
• Mike Spillane has your player grades and MOTM.
• You can catch the view from the other side over at The Brotherly Game.

Check back later today when TheBeardedGuy will bring you his five takeaways.

USWNT Dominates South Korea

In the second friendly in a week against the South Koreans, the USWNT absolutely took it to them, winning 6-0. Sam Mewis scored a brace to get things started and goals from Christen Press, Julie Ertz, Lynn Williams, and Allie Long finished a very lopsided match. Michael Citro has your match recap.

A Tale of Three Keepers

Until yesterday, Joe Bendik hadn’t missed one minute of Orlando City’s 2017 season, recording 118 saves. Heck, Bendik hadn’t missed a match since he joined Orlando City SC. Bendik was hit in the head during training, and is undergoing concussion protocol, meaning he had to sit out the Lions’ final game in Philadelphia.

In his place, Earl Edwards Jr. got his first start with the MLS squad. Edwards played most of the season with Orlando City B, recording 80 saves, and was called up after a season-ending neck injury suffered by Josh Saunders.

In need of a backup, Orlando City signed Jake Fenlason as an Extreme Hardship Goalkeeper. This signing came just days after Fenlason’s contract wasn’t renewed by the club. Fenlason started in goal for Orlando City B after Edwards was called up.

Orlando City to “Tentatively” Host the 2019 MLS All-Star Game

The 2018 MLS All-Star Game will be held in Atlanta. Now that MLS Commissioner Don Garber has been able to jump his favorite team over Orlando City for the “honor” of hosting the match, I guess it’s fine if Orlando were to host the 2019 game. Tentatively, of course. We certainly don’t want to make any assumptions. After all, we may still get Unkel’d out of it. At least the U.S. national teams like us.

MLS Decision Day Results

Decision Day had every team playing at the same time to keep shenanigans to a minimum. While the playoff teams in the Eastern Conference were already set prior to Sunday, the seeding order was not. In the Western Conference, there was one playoff spot up for grabs, and it was the San Jose Earthquakes that secured it with a 3-2 win over Minnesota United FC. The other thing we knew for certain, was that none of it mattered to Orlando City.

Free Kicks

• This is what fun soccer looks like, with a team that is good. I hope we’re able have this one day. The beer at the end is the killer part.

• Freddy Adu is on the lookout for another opportunity to play soccer professionally. Adu was last seen with the Tampa Bay Rowdies in 2016.
• The Afghan Football Federation has not had a night game in Afghanistan since the 1979 Soviet invasion. However, despite security concerns in Kabul, 5,000 supporters went to watch the beautiful game under the lights this weekend. The “Maiwand Champions” defeated Nangahar’s “Eagles of the White Mountain,” 2-0, in the Afghan Premiere League match. Plus, those are such cool names.
• Harpos FC brought some next level bantz…against itself?

• The perfect example of celebrating too soon. Penalty kick edition.

• Famous Birthdays for today include Pelé (76), Jimmy Bullard (38), Deadpool himself Ryan Reynolds (40), Weird Al Yankovic (57), director Ang Lee (62), Martin Luther King III (59), and Johnny Carson (1925-2005).
• In honor of Pelé’s birthday, here is a video of his top 20 goals:

That’ll do it for this edition of Lion Links, and thankfully Orlando City’s season. Let the off-season begin, and hopefully we see plenty of great moves by the club.