Lion Links: 8/7/18

Happy Tuesday, Mane Landers. It was not an ideal weekend for Orlando soccer, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse — draws are obviously better than losses any day of the week. Still, it hurts not to take all three points from two teams that both the men and women will probably feel they should have beaten. No use crying over lost points though, so on to the links.

Orlando City Team News on Kljestan, Yotún, Da Silva

Sacha Kljestan (ankle) and Yoshimar Yotún (foot) were notably absent from Monday’s training session and are considered day-to-day after picking up knocks against the New England Revolution on Saturday. Center backs Lamine Sané (quad) and Jonathan Spector (hamstring) were also absent, but Uri Rosell (hamstring) trained. Meanwhile, Pierre Da Silva returned to Orlando after his latest loan spell with Saint Louis FC — this time for three matches. The 20-year-old has been working hard and waiting for an opportunity with the first team.

“There’s always frustration,” Da Silva said about not getting minutes with Orlando City. “But you just [have to] never let that get to your head. You just have to keep working, keep working. Just be patient.

“My goal is just keep working hard, keep training hard and hopefully I get a chance.”

Harris Up for Save of the Week

Another Orlando Pride game, another Ashlyn Harris nomination for the NWSL Save of the Week. Her big save this time around came in the Pride’s 2-2 come-from-behind draw against Sky Blue FC in the 69th minute when she denied Carli Lloyd from very close range to keep the deficit at 2-1. Fans and players alike should be buying Harris a drink or two as she helped save Orlando’s blushes by helping the Pride avoid becoming the first team to lose to Sky Blue FC all season.

U-20 USWNT Drops World Cup Opener

It was a rough start to the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup for the United States. The Yanks fell to Japan, 1-0 in the opener, with Honoka Hayashi scoring the game’s only goal in the 76th minute. Spain beat Paraguay in the other Group C match, 3-0, so the U.S. stands third due to goal differential after the first round. The U.S. will face Paraguay on Thursday and Spain next Monday.

LAFC Makes Another Transfer Window Splash

As if expansion side LAFC wasn’t scoring enough goals, the MLS newbies added Christian Ramirez from Minnesota United Monday evening for a whole lot of Garberbucks. It could be as much as a cool million in combined allocation money when it’s all said and done.

The transaction is as follows: 250,000 in GAM 2018, 250,000 GAM 2019, 100 TAM 2018, 200 TAM 2019 and up to 200,000 more based on player performance.

#SaveTheCrew Unveils Stadium Project

The #SaveTheCrew movement really isn’t playing around. Yesterday it released a 39-page stadium plan that details plans for a new stadium in downtown Columbus. The plan has everything from artist renderings to information about parking, site plan details, and sustainability initiatives. What the plan is missing are cost estimates and how the stadium would be paid for, but in fairness, no one is even sure if the team is staying in Columbus yet so it’s perhaps a bit unfair to expect that from this plan. Regardless, it’s a statement of intent from a group of fans desperate to keep their soccer team.

U.S. Soccer is a Mess

In case you’ve been living under a rock, U.S. Soccer — specifically youth soccer — is an absolute dumpster fire. Nobody seems to know how many kids are playing soccer to begin with, whether those numbers are going up or down, and while most everyone agrees there’s a problem, no one really knows what to do. In fact, when the Sports & Fitness Industry Association released its latest study, which stated that the amount of 6- to 12-year-olds playing soccer had gone down by 14%, people attacked the validity of the study rather than rolling up their sleeves and trying to do something about it. It’s certainly dark times for the federation, and it will be very interesting to see what, if any reforms are put into place going forward.

Free Kicks

• Kaká and Marta made a commercial together.

• The U.S. U-17s beat Mexico in a friendly and an Orlando City academy product assisted on the game’s only goal in the 1-0 victory.

• FC Twente has signed ex-Orlando City player Rafael Ramos.

• Sporting Kansas City has completed the signing of Krisztian Nemeth.
• The Orlando Magic’s Nikola Vucevic showed his support for Juventus.

That’s all I’ve got for you today. It’s a slightly longer week for Orlando City as the Lions don’t take on D.C. United until Sunday, while the opposite is true for the Pride with the ladies set to take on Portland Thorns on Saturday. Hope everyone has a good week, ciao.