The Lions put together a complete game on Saturday night, soundly defeating visiting CF Montreal to the tune of 3-0 at Exploria Stadium. Orlando City needed that victory, which snapped a modest, two-game winless streak (0-1-1). Facundo Torres, Rafael Santos, and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson were particularly good but the entire team played a solid match. We break down the victory — Pedro Gallese’s ninth shutout of the season — and check back on our score predictions. We also give our selections for Man of the Match and tell you which of our picks made the MLS Team of the Matchday for his performance.

Orlando City B played its first MLS NEXT Pro playoff match and performed well on the road, but still lost 2-1 to Columbus Crew 2. The difference in the game was conceding two penalties. The Crew capitalized on both, despite the fact that Javier Otero saved one of them. In the end, there wasn’t enough offense from OCB and two penalties conceded too many. Those kinds of mistakes are difficult to overcome anywhere, let alone on the road in the postseason. Still, it was a good season for the Young Lions and a much more entertaining one than we were expecting.

Our mailbagbox featured questions about grammar, becoming friends with past and present Lions, Michael Halliday’s future, and more. Remember, if there’s anything — and we do mean anything — you want us to address on the show, just ask us by tweeting it to us at @TheManeLand with the hashtag #AskTMLPC.

Finally, we looked ahead to Wednesday’s matchup against Nashville SC on the road, providing our key matchups and our score predictions for the Lions’ penultimate road match of the 2023 regular season in a week that’s shaping up to be critical in terms of where Orlando City will finish with regard to home field in the postseason.

Here’s how No. 380 went down:

0:15 – A complete victory over CF Montreal at home.

25:36 – OCB bows out of the playoffs quickly, but weird things happened, so you know it was an authentic Orlando City B match.

40:37 — Our mailbagbox has some interesting questions for us and we look ahead to a big match on Wednesday in Nashville.

Without a match to recap since our last show, we turned our attention to several news bites that have come out since Monday. We started with the news that Ajax is “monitoring” Orlando City winger Facundo Torres. Hey, they’re not the only ones. Plenty of teams are keeping an eye on the young Uruguayan, and boy if he ever develops a right foot to go with his left, he’ll get snatched up quickly. The bottom line is that Orlando City brought Torres in with selling him later in mind. That was the goal, so if it happens, it’ll be mission accomplished, even though we’ll miss those pretend selfies after El Cuervo’s goals. As with all the Lions, enjoy them while they’re here. Sports careers are fleeting, let alone the parts of those careers spent with one team.

We also had plenty of OCB news to discuss, including the Young Lions’ trip to Columbus to play Crew 2 this Sunday in the first round of the 2023 MLS NEXT Pro playoffs. The Crew chose OCB as their opponents, so it would be nice for the Young Lions to make the Ohio-based side pay for that decision. We also talked about “Big Jack” Lynn, who was named to the MLS NEXT Pro Best XI this week after winning a three-way share of the league’s Golden Boot. We’re rock guys who enjoy AC/DC, so we think “Big Jack” is a solid nickname for the young striker. What do you think?

An OCB defender is on his way to Brazil with the U-17 USMNT to play the host nation twice in friendly competition during the upcoming camp. We hope it’s a great experience and that the U.S. brings home a pair of dubs.

We also looked in on former Lions Alexandre Pato and Sebas Mendez and discussed their recent trophy with Sao Paulo.

Our mailbagbox featured questions about parenthood, the Orlando City rivalry with Inter Miami, and more. Remember, if there’s anything — and we do mean anything — you want us to address on the show, just ask us by tweeting it to us at @TheManeLand with the hashtag #AskTMLPC.

Finally, we looked ahead to Saturday’s matchup with CF Montreal at Exploria Stadium, providing our key matchups and our score predictions for the Lions’ penultimate home match of the 2023 regular season.

Here’s how No. 379 went down:

0:15 – A smattering of news from Orlando City and OCB, as well as a trophy for two former Lions.

20:14 – Our mailbagbox has some great questions this time out and we predict what will happen Saturday vs. Montreal.

Sadly, the season has come to an end prematurely for one Pride midfielder. Orlando’s Viviana Villacorta will miss the rest of 2023 with a torn ACL. This is the third season to end early for her due to injury and you have to feel for a young player who blossomed quite a bit this season. We discuss Villacorta’s injury and what it means for the Pride.

With no Pride match to recap, we touched on the United States Women’s National Team and its sweep of South Africa in a pair of friendlies without allowing a goal. We also waxed nostalgiac about the retirements of Julie Ertz and Megan Rapinoe, who have been icons with the squad during an extremely successful period.

This week’s mailbagbox asked us questions about Carrie Lawrence and Adriana. Remember, you can ask us anything by hitting us up on Twitter at either @TheManeLand or @SkoPurpSoccer and using the hashtag #AskSkoPurp. Or you can visit our show page, scroll down, and fill out the handy form.

Following our mailbagbox activities, we turned our attention to a new NWSL team coming to Boston in 2026, the impending free agents on the Orlando Pride, and our key matchups and score predictions for the Pride’s trip to play Angel City FC.

Here’s how Episode 25 went down:

0:15 – Viviana Villacorta’s season again ends early due to injury and the USWNT racks up two more shutout victories.

16:18 – Our mailbagbox questions are still fresh a week later!

33:50 – Boston gets an expansion franchise, the Pride’s free agents, and a look ahead at Angel City.