Lion Links: 7/31/18

Good Morning, Mane Landers. I’d have to say that Sunday’s game qualifies as one of the toughest losses to swallow for me in quite a while. It wasn’t without its silver linings, although giving up four goals certainly makes it difficult to focus on those. Anyhow, let’s get to those links.

Zlatan Will Miss All-Star Game

After his exploits against Orlando City on Sunday night, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is set to miss tomorrow’s MLS All-Star Game against Juventus. The Galaxy have referenced the team’s three matches in a week as the reason for the striker’s absence. Ibrahimovic was quoted in the team’s press release as saying, “I want to thank the fans for voting me to the team. My main focus is to score goals and help the LA Galaxy to the playoffs.”

Clearly he has no problem scoring after putting three past Orlando two nights ago, but whatever floats the big Swede’s boat.

Portland Gets Payout for Adi

The Portland Timbers have cashed in big time with the sale of Fanendo Adi to FC Cincinnati. The Timbers have acquired $450,000 of General Allocation Money in 2019 and $400,000 of Targeted Allocation Money in 2019, as well as up to $100,000 of future TAM, which will vary depending on Adi’s performance with Cincinnati during the 2019 season. Basically, they got a good chunk of change for a very good player. Adi will look to get comfortable with FC Cincinnati and get the lay of the land ahead of his new club’s move to MLS next season. He represents a very good signing for the soon-to-be MLS club, with 54 goals and 14 assists in 126 regular season appearances with the Timbers.

Miazga Set for Loan Move

It (somewhat unsurprisingly) appears that this will not be the year that Matt Miazga cracks Chelsea’s lineup, as the defender is set to complete a loan move to Ligue 1 side Caen. Since moving to the Blues in 2016, Miazga has completed two seasons on loan at Vitesse Arnhem in the Netherlands, and the move to Caen represents a next step for him. Undoubtedly he may be frustrated at not being given the chance to fight for his place at the London club, but the Blues have a number of good defenders on their books currently. Plus, while some may scoff at Chelsea’s “loan army,” there are recent examples of the system bearing fruit for the first team, with Victor Moses and Andreas Christensen coming to mind. Either way, best of luck to Miazga with his new club.

Leeds Sign Jack Harrison

Leeds United have signed Manchester City winger Jack Harrison on a season-long loan. Harrison, formerly of New York City FC, was signed by the New York team’s parent club, Manchester City, in January. He spent some time on loan at Middlesbrough after signing for the eventual Premier League champions, but only played four times. However, he’s only 21 years old and plenty of great players have cut their teeth in the Championship, so it’s probably a good move for him. Plus, Leeds is a talented side that finished comfortably mid-table, so it should be a good place for him to get some game time in and eventually try to break into the Man City squad. As long as he isn’t in New York tearing Orlando apart, I don’t really care.

Free Kicks

Poliana and Marta had a little juggling contest while on national team duty with Brazil.

Mike Petke is helping out a Real Salt Lake fan who wants to RSL-ify his prosthetic leg.

Petke even told the man to send him the bill.

Finally, here’s a video of Messi playing keep-away with his dog.

That’ll do it for me today. The MLS All-Star Game is tomorrow if you care about that sort of thing, but more importantly Orlando City is back in action against the New England Revolution on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET, a game that I can’t overstate the importance of. Then the Orlando Pride take on Sky Blue FC on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET. Both games are at Orlando City Stadium, so set some time aside and go put butts in seats. I would go, but unfortunately I am young and very poor, so I’ll just be watching from home. Ciao.