Lion Links: 2/20/18

Good morning, readers. I hope you’re all doing well today, and if you’re not then hopefully some good news courtesy of the Pride and the Lions will help turn your day around! Let’s get into it.

Updates from Pride Preseason

The Orlando Pride have announced their 2018 preseason roster. The team will however, be without six players for the beginning of preseason due to call-ups ahead of international competitions. Yesterday, the team completed its first training session of the preseason. With that session all wrapped up, here are a few interesting things that happened:

Of particular note is Camila training and running on her own. While we don’t know the specifics of the training that she was doing, its certainly encouraging to see her progressing back toward playing strength. Best of luck to her with the rest of her recovery process and we here at The Mane Land hope to see her back on the field soon.

An Update on Lamine Sané

As TML reported yesterday, Orlando City SC are reportedly close to signing Senegalese center back Lamine Sané from Werder Bremen. While there still has yet to be an official statement confirming his signing from the club at the time of this being written, there does appear to have been a break in the case:

If that’s anything to go by then the Lions should be landing a player that can hopefully bring some much-needed steel and experience to the back line. Keep your eyes peeled for an official announcement.

Jones Signs for Schalke

Atlanta United academy product Zyen Jones has signed for German top flight club Schalke. The 17-year-old Jones will sign for the Bundesliga team’s under-19 team this summer once he turns 18. He has played for the U-17 United States Men’s Team and joins a slew of other American signings by Schalke. The team has also signed Haji Wright, Nick Taitague, and Weston McKinnie, who’s managed to become a regular fixture in the first team. The Gelsenkirchen based club has produced a number of talents from its academy side over the years, with Manuel Neuer, and Leroy Sane just a couple notable names who have risen through the ranks.

USL Division III News

USL President Jake Edwards has provided some information on the USL Division III. For those of you who don’t know, USL D3 is exactly what it sounds like: a league under the United Soccer League branding that carries Division III status instead of Division II. With the league set to begin play in 2019 and at least eight teams required for that to happen, Edwards stated that the league had initially been targeting the eastern U.S. but has lately begun to receive interest from “quality groups now in California and in the West.” Thus far the league only has two teams — FC Tucson in Tucson, AZ, and South Georgia Tormenta FC in Statesboro, GA. But, with a start date of next year, surely more announcements will begin to start popping up before too long.

Free Kicks

• Our lord and savior Joe Bendik has gotten hitched.

Congrats to Joe from everyone here at TML.

• 14-year MLS veteran Chris Wingert has announced his retirement.
• CCL is about to get underway and now we know how you can watch it.

• Today’s birthdays include Rihanna, Kurt Cobain, Charles Barkley, and Justin Verlander.

That’s all for me today. As always, keep it here for all your Orlando City news and have a smashing rest of your day. Ciao.