Lion Links: 10/24/17

Happy Tuesday, dear readers. This week has already been a long one, what with the drubbing at the hands of the Union combined with my immune system deciding to let me get sick. I think I might have read somewhere that alcohol is an appropriate substitute for medicine. Or maybe not. But I think I’ll just pretend that I did. On to the Links!

Contract Moves for the Pride

The Orlando Pride published their list of contract status updates yesterday, as they made various moves to bring back 18 of last season’s 21 players. In total, the club put three players on the NWSL’s Re-Entry Wire, offered new contracts to four players, and exercised options on 10 players. With these various moves, the Pride look to return the core group of players that made club history by making the NWSL playoffs for the first time. Here’s hoping that group only gets better with time.

Kreis Desires Widespread Change

Following the 6-1 massacre in Philadelphia on Sunday that has the unfortunate distinction of being OCSC’s worst-ever MLS loss, Orlando City Head Coach Jason Kreis spoke about what he thought went wrong this year, and how he wanted to correct it for next season. Kreis said that the team put too much emphasis on defense, and as a result failed to adequately compensate for the loss of the traded Kevin Molino. He also stated his belief that a thorough examination of the team’s season was required, with changes being made wherever necessary.

FIFA Award Results Are In

FIFA held its awards ceremony yesterday with awards given out for the Best Men’s Player, Women’s Player, Men’s Coach, and Women’s Coach, among other things. Notable awards were Cristiano Ronaldo taking home The Best Men’s Player, Zinedine Zidane taking home The Best Men’s Coach, Lieke Martens being named as The Best Women’s Player, and Olivier Giroud taking home the Puskás Award for the best goal. As a side note, Brazil National Team Head Coach Tite voted for Ronaldo instead of his national team charge, Neymar, for the Player of the Year Award. Which isn’t a huge deal, but is just enough to make me chuckle.

Another Red Card Following Video Review

Clint Dempsey was sent off in the Seattle Sounders’ game against the Colorado Rapids on Sunday after the referee used video review to get a second look at his contact with the face of a Rapids defender. I’m not here to say whether or not the call was the correct one, merely pointing out that red cards after using video review are becoming more commonplace, with TML’s own Logan F. Oliver writing a piece on this very phenomenon just last week, which you can read here. Hopefully, VARs and video reviews don’t bite Orlando City in the ass during the playoffs…oh wait. That’s awkward.

Free Kicks

• Here are two statements from Paul Lapointe, one of the announced candidates for the U.S. Soccer Federation presidency.

• Two more men were reminded of the fact that the managerial world is a cruel, cold, and dark one as Mauro Biello and Ronald Koeman were given the ax by the Montreal Impact and Everton, respectively.
• Today’s birthdays include Drake, Wayne Rooney, Kevin Kline, and Roman Abramovich.

That’s all I’ve got for today. If you don’t see stories from me for a while, it’s because copious amounts of beer did not, in fact, help me fight off a respiratory infection. Which would almost be a bigger surprise than MLS deciding to have next year’s All-Star Game in Atlanta. Almost.