Lion Links: 9/4/18

Good morning, Mane Landers. I hope your Labor Day was restful and you got to watch plenty of soccer over the weekend. For my part I had a wonderful time watching Orlando City’s unfortunate draw with the Union, although obviously a win would have been better.

Marta Up For Best Women’s Player

Orlando Pride forward Marta has been nominated for The Best, FIFA’s unimaginatively named award for the top women’s soccer player in the world. One of three finalists for the honor, if she wins it would mark her sixth time doing so, and would be a record. While the Pride’s season hasn’t gone the way anyone hoped it would, it’s still nice to see Marta get the recognition that she deserves. Even with the team struggling, she still logged four goals and four assists at the age of 32, and remained an important part of lots of things the Pride did well. Congratulations!

Rachel Hill Helps U.S. U-23s Win Nordic Cup

Congratulations also go out to Orlando Pride forward Rachel Hill and goalkeeper coach Lloyd Yaxley. The two took part in the U-23 USWNT’s tournament-winning run in the Nordic Cup, capturing the title with a 1-0 win over host Norway. The U.S. finished on seven points with two wins and a draw in the three matches. Hill scored a goal in the opener against Sweden.

Delgado In For USMNT

Marky Delgado has been added to the USMNT roster for the upcoming pair of Kickoff Series friendlies against Brazil and Mexico. The Toronto FC midfielder has a chance to up his number of caps with the senior team from his current standing of one. He previously started in the 1-0 win over Paraguay earlier in the year. Delgado joins a youthful squad that’s light on experience, with DeAndre Yedlin, Bobby Wood, and Gyasi Zardes among the most capped players set to appear, with 52, 39, and 37 appearances, respectively.

Weah and Pulisic Up for Award

Christian Pulisic and Timothy Weah have both been nominated for the Golden Boy award which honors Europe’s best young player. They will however, face stiff competition as Kylian Mbappe looks to defend the award that he won last year. While Pulisic and Weah have both had good seasons, Mbappe is almost sure to repeat, as he played a crucial part in France’s 2018 World Cup victory at the tender age of 19. Either way, congratulations to the two young men and best of luck!

The Best Men’s Player Shortlist Announced

In addition to the women’s side of things FIFA has also announced the shortlist for the men’s version of The Best award. That shortlist is comprised of Cristiano Ronaldo, Mohamed Salah, and Luka Modric, with Lionel Messi not among the nominees for the first time in a staggering 12 years. While Ronaldo has won the two previous versions of the award, this year could be different, as Salah had a stellar Premier League campaign and Modric was both instrumental in Real Madrid’s Champions League victory in addition to starring in the World Cup.

Free Kicks

• Juan Carlos Osorio will not be the USMNT’s next coach as he has signed on to be the new skipper of Paraguay.
• New Real Madrid signing Vinicius Jr. seems to be prepping well for when he eventually squares off against Luis Suarez in La Liga, because he appeared to be bitten on the head during a Real Madrid B team derby against Atletico Madrid.
• Jose Mourinho does not care for Manchester United vice-chairman Ed Woodward. The tweet below is in regard to this banner.

• Danny Ings and Mohamed Salah have a bet about who will score more Premier League goals this season. Luckily for Ings there isn’t any money riding on it.

That’ll do it for me today. Don’t forget that both the Pride and OCSC play this Saturday. The Pride play their last game of the season on the road against Sky Blue FC, while the Lions also are on the road against Sporting Kansas City. Ciao.