Lion Links: 3/25/19

Merry Monday morning, Mane Landers! I haven’t meant that intro as much as I do today in quite a long while. It’s a great Monday thanks to Orlando City’s first win of the season against the New York Red Bulls in New Jersey. Ah, it feels so darn good, doesn’t it? Since we’re all feeling so good, let’s see what we’ve got going on with some links.

Boos for Sacha

If you watched Orlando City’s match on Saturday, you may have noticed that some of the Red Bulls fans were booing midfielder Sacha Kljestan. Obviously, he used to play for Red Bulls, and now he plays for Orlando City, but there’s also some bad feelings surrounding some missed penalty kicks back in the day. Though I think his goal for Orlando may have had something to do with the increase of displeasure from fans during Saturday’s match. Of course, Kljestan holds no ill will towards his time in New Jersey, nor the Red Bull fans.

USMNT Ready for Chile

The USMNT takes on Chile at 7:55 p.m. tomorrow night at BBVA Compass Stadium. The U.S. is coming off a 1-0 win against Ecuador last Thursday (in Orlando) and will be looking for its second win this international break. With Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams both out, Gregg Berhalter will have to shake up the lineup for Ecuador. The match should be a much tougher test for the U.S. given Chile’s loss to Mexico, and their desire to to give a better showing against the Yanks.

Larin Back in America

Cyle Larin has returned to North America to play for the Canadian Men’s National Team in a Concacaf National League qualifying match. Orlando City is all too familiar with Larin, and how he ended up at Besiktas. However, Larin has said he’d like to return to MLS at some point. Like Kljestan, he has only kindness for his former club.

“I loved Orlando when I was there,” Larin said. I loved playing there. The fans were good to me. I started my professional career there. They gave me a lot of what I have now. I just want to thank them. I needed to go to Beşiktaş for me to develop and become a better player. I had to go to Europe.”

Manchester City Looking for an Apology

Bayern Munich’s CEO Uli Hoeness has made allegations regarding how Manchester City’s owner Sheikh Mansour pays for the club’s transfers. Hoeness worked with Pep Guardiola when Pep was winning titles in Germany. Manchester City is looking for an apology from Hoeness, and if the club doesn’t get one, then it might consider legal action.

Free Kicks

• In a scoreless draw against the Netherlands, Orlando City’s Cameron Lindley started for the U.S. U-23 squad.

• Throwing shade before the end of the match isn’t always a great idea. Especially for the official twitter of a certain New Jersey-based energy drink soccer team. Just saying.

• Think the women’s game isn’t growing? Think again, as Juventus’ women’s team drew an attendance of over 39,000.

• It looks like a U.S. jersey might make it into space one of these days. Glad to have you on board, astronaut candidate Frank Rubio.

• Finally, this is not safe for work, but is pretty funny.