Lion Links: 10/28/19

Good morning, Mane Landers and happy Monday! I hope everyone’s weekend went well and your work week starts out just as smoothly. There may not be many Orlando City or Pride updates at the moment, but there is still plenty of soccer news happening all over the world. The biggest news was probably the NWSL title game, which we start today’s links with.

North Carolina Defends Title

The North Carolina Courage dominated the Chicago Red Stars 4-0 to win the NWSL Championship in back-to-back years. Brazilian forward Debinha got the scoring started in just the fourth minute and the Courage never looked back from their early lead. Jessica McDonald’s header in the 22nd minute doubled the lead and Crystal Dunn scored just before halftime to give the Courage a 3-0 lead at the break. Sam Mewis got the fourth in the second half as the Courage cruised to victory in Cary, NC. The Courage became the second team to defend a title, doing so in front of their home crowd — a first for the NWSL. FC Kansas City is the only other team to win back-to-back championships.

Baby Nats Fall in World Cup

The U-17 United States Men’s National Team was trounced in its opening match of the 2019 U-17 World Cup. The U.S. fell to Senegal 4-1 in Brazil. Sporting Kansas City’s Gianluca Busio scored off a header in the third minute to give the team an early lead, but Senegal scored three times in just 16 minutes in the second half to win. The team next faces Japan on Wednesday in an effort to stay alive in the group.

Strong MLS Ties to NWSL

MLS has a good relationship with the top flight women’s division. The Houston Dash, Orlando Pride, Portland Thorns, and Utah Royals FC are all under ownership groups that also own MLS teams. Now, it seems that MLS team owners are looking to acquire more NWSL teams, according to MLSsoccer.com’s Jonathan Sigal.

“And there are still other MLS clubs engaged in fact-finding about the prospect of joining NWSL, according to interviews with the four MLS clubs currently fielding teams in the women’s pro soccer league.”

In more NWSL news, Grant Wahl said it’s “99 percent certain that Sacramento will have an expansion team in the NWSL next season to bring the league to 10 teams in 2020.” This ownership group will be the same as the future MLS expansion team.

English Premier League Results

There were a handful of games played in England yesterday. First, Deandre Yedlin played the full 90 minutes as Newcastle and Wolves battleded to a 1-1 draw. Arsenal took a 2-0 lead less than 10 minutes into the match against Crystal Palace before Palace scored two unanswered goals to end the match 2-2.

Manchester United beat up on Norwich City, 3-1. Scott McTominay, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial all scored for United, but Rashford and Martial also both missed penalties. However, Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted that VAR should not have given his side the first penalty kick.

The biggest match of the day was between Liverpool and Tottenham. Harry Kane got the scoring started in the first minute. It seemed as if Tottenham could win, but Liverpool ended up taking all three points. Jordan Henderson found the equalizer in the 52nd minute and Mo Salah converted from the spot in the 75th minute for the game-winner as Liverpool won 2-1.

Free Kicks

• It’s great to see the Ruckus helping out the community.

• Paul Pogba is likely out until December with an ankle injury.
• Meanwhile, Liverpool’s Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk both picked up injuries but those are not expected to be serious.
• Alphonso Davies got his first start for Bayern Munich. The 18-year-old played left back and the team beat Union Berlin, 2-1.

That will do it for today’s links. I hope you all have a strong start to your week and that this Monday isn’t too hard on you.