Lion Links: 1/28/19

Merry Monday morning, Mane Landers! I hope you enjoyed your weekend and especially that USMNT match. It might sound odd, but I found a great new place to shop that has really great bacon, and an excellent beer selection. Actually, that doesn’t sound odd at all, it sounds as awesome as it is. Let’s get to the links!

Berhalter’s First Win

The U.S. Men’s National Team hosted Panama in a friendly at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ. The youth movement continued under the former Columbus Crew head coach, as Gregg Berhalter won his USMNT head coaching debut, 3-0. It’s time to get to know some new names, as Djordje Mihailovic scored the first goal of the Berhalter era in the 40th minute of play and Walker Zimmerman and Christian Ramirez both scored late to secure the win for the Yanks. The U.S. defense looked fairly solid and goalkeeper Zack Steffen wasn’t challenged very often. The Yanks are back in action Feb. 2 at 3:30 p.m. ET at Avaya Stadium in San Jose, CA, against Costa Rica.

SeaWolves Fall to Utica City FC

Orlando traveled to Utica, NY to take on Utica City FC. Unfortunately, the SeaWolves lost their second match in a row, falling 10-6. The first half was very well played with Orlando maintaining the lead for much of the time, though the half ended 5-5. The second half was a different story as Utica’s Slavisa Ubiparipovic scored three goals to put the match out of reach. Orlando is back in action on Feb. 2 when the team travels to face off against the St. Louis Ambush.

Adams Impressive for RB Leipzig

Tyler Adams didn’t need a lot of time to make his mark for RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga. The 19-year-old American midfielder made his first start in only his second match for Leipzig, and he didn’t disappoint. Adams earned the corner that led to the first goal for Leipzig, and started the buildup for both the second and third goals. Did I mention he also played the entire 90 minutes? Well, he did. Oh, and there’s this as well:

Almiron’s Agent is Abroad

Miguel Almiron was expected to be moving to Newcastle United, but those rumors might have been a bit premature. Whatever the sticking point, Almiron’s agent has been scouring Serie A, looking for a new home for the Paraguayan midfielder. Of course, there’s also now rumors that injury-plagued Tottenham might be interested as well. I think I can speak for all of us when I say we wish Almiron’s agent all the luck in the world at finding Almiron a new home far from MLS.

Free Kicks

• Orlando Pride defender Alanna Kennedy made some noise in the W-League for Sydney FC, scoring her third goal this season in a 2-2 draw against Christine Nairn, Dani Weatherholt, and the Melbourne Victory. After the result, both teams are guaranteed to be in the top four for the Finals. They are joined by other Pride players with Rachel Hill’s Perth Glory making the cut along with Chioma Ubogagu and Carson Pickett’s Brisbane Roar.

• No matter how you felt about Tom Sermanni at the end of last season, you have to love his love for current and former Orlando Pride players as he visited the aforementioned showdown in Melbourne.

• Evidently, a cool $3 million wasn’t enough money to get the Colorado Rapids to part ways with Kellyn Acosta. The Rapids acquired Acosta from FC Dallas last summer.
• Alphonso Davies became the first Canadian to play for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. At 19 years of age he also became the seventh youngest player to make his debut in the last 20 years.
• Let’s stash this tweet away in the “they should have played in Orlando” file.

That’s going to do it for today, though there’s plenty more to come this week. You can feel the season getting closer, can’t you? Go City!