Lion Links: 5/26/19

Happy Sunday, Mane Landers. I hope you’re all enjoying this holiday weekend despite the Lions dropping all three points to the Zlatan-less Galaxy on Friday night. It was a tough pill to swallow, and although I remain optimistic, significant improvements are obviously necessary to push this team over a hump that they can’t seem to overcome. Meanwhile, an extremely weakened Pride team will also be seeking to improve, as a decent sized list of players are missing to prepare for the upcoming World Cup. It’s a rough time to be an Orlando supporter, but then again, we’re resilient and used to it. Everyone keep your chins up. And hey, at least we all get to catch the USWNT in action today against Mexico!

Any who, now that my spiel is out of the way, let’s get to these Links. Enjoy.

Orlando Pride Lose 2-0 at Rio Tinto Stadium

The Pride players who didn’t earn a call-up to represent their country traveled to Utah where they took on the Royals last night. Let’s just say this one didn’t go well for the Pride, and a 2-0 loss was the final result. Amy Rodriguez (31’) and Makenzy Doniak (89’) scored for the Royals as the Pride failed to register a goal again. The Pride were outplayed in this match, losing in possession (60-40), passes completed (426 to 268), and pass accuracy (78% to 66%), and the missing players representing their countries were sorely missed. The Pride had 12 corners but failed to capitalize on such a large number of direct opportunities, and ultimately paid the price.

Flávio Augusto Da Silva to Sell OCSC in 2022?

The owner of the club recently declared that he may be open to selling the club when he becomes 50 years old, citing his desire to focus on philanthropy.

“I’m not making a sale announcement. The announcement is that I will dedicate myself to philanthropy,” Da Silva said in an interview with Brazilian outlet Estadão. “But I believe that the apex of a successful entrepreneur is when the market becomes interested in what he has created to the point of wanting to pay for it and fortunately I’m constantly being sought out by investors.”

It’s just a thought for now, but who knows what could happen down the road. It’s always a hectic roller coaster ride being a supporter of this club, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Shelina Zadorsky Named to Canadian National Team

To nobody’s surprise, the Pride’s No. 4 was named to the Canadian Women’s National Team for this summer’s World Cup in France. The team’s theme for the tournament, “Together We Rise,” comes after the Canadians were knocked out of the 2015 World Cup in the quarterfinals. While they’re not considered the favorite to win the tournament, Canada Head Coach Kenneth Heiner-Møller is confident in his team’s ability to compete and win, but also acknowledges that the team has done a good job of taking it a step at a time: a trend that the coach will continue to preach.

“We are going there to win it, but we have been very good at taking things one step at a time,” said Kenneth Heiner-Møller, Canada Soccer’s Women’s National Team Head Coach and Women’s National EXCEL Director. “We didn’t look beyond the Algarve Cup and we didn’t look beyond matches against England or Spain; we only looked at what was right in front of us. Right now, there are three group matches in front of us and we are focused very clearly on Cameroon, New Zealand and Netherlands.”

A Team We’re All Proud Of

This summer’s World Cup crown is important to the U.S. Women’s National Team, but there’s a message that this team, these women, also wish to send: equality for all.

“I think equality for all requires people who have more [power] right now to give up some, which I think is a good thing for everyone. But some people don’t want to give that up, so they’re doing everything they can to keep all of it,” co-captain Megan Rapinoe said Friday morning during a pre-World Cup media day at Twitter’s New York City headquarters. “I don’t think it’s surprising. Maybe they feel like it is that moment where it is kind of a tipping point, … where things are becoming more equal for everyone, and I guess people are uncomfortable with that.”

In an increasingly divisive time for our country and the world we live in, this team refuses to sit quiet on issues of inequality; whether that be about their own compensation or defending the LGBTQ community. This team has honor, and are brave to speak out and use their platform to hopefully foster change in an unfair world.

“We do have such a big platform to be able to use our voices. And right now, all eyes are on us,” said Morgan, who received criticism and praise a day earlier for a Time magazine interview in which she spoke out about politics, specifically policies separating migrant families and visiting the White House. “… There are also a lot of important issues that are bigger than soccer in the world today, and definitely the abortion laws being changed in some states are one of them. And that’s definitely not one that I’m in agreement on.”

Abby Wambach Named to National Soccer Hall of Fame

Being revealed by a fellow American legend Julie Foudy, Abby Wambach will be inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in the class of 2019. Foudy did a great job with the video reveal, welcoming her and her 184 international goals to the prestigious class. Well deserved, Abby!

Free Kicks

• Uh-oh. Marta has apparently injured her thigh just days ahead of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Let’s hope the Orlando Pride star is just fine for this summer’s tournament.
• LAFC’s Carlos Vela is currently on pace to outscore Josef Martinez’s recently set record of goals in an MLS season of 31.
• This kid is a champion! I mean, this can’t be healthy for your mouth, but still, a champion!

• This is just unfortunate, and I don’t really have much else to say about it.

• Congratulations are most certainly in order to Celtic for winning the treble (the league, League Cup, and Scottish Cup) for a third consecutive time. It’s been dubbed the “treble-treble,” for obvious reasons.
• Congratulations are also in order to Ocho Cinco, otherwise known as Chad Johnson (long NFL story), as he scored twice for Boca Raton to give the club a 2-0 lead against Breakers FC. Not too shabby for a former Bengals wide receiver. Here’s his first, which actually looks to be a decent header.

• One more congratulations: way to go Tallahassee SC, taking down Pensacola FC 5-1 for the club’s first-ever historic win!

• And as always, stay up to date with the results from around the league.

All right folks, that’s all I have for you today. To all of the veterans reading along, thank you for your service to this beautiful country of ours. You are truly appreciated. Enjoy the remainder of this long weekend while you can, because Tuesday is right around the corner.