Lion Links: 3/11/20

Good morning, Mane Landers. I hope this Wednesday morning finds you well. Before we jump into the links, let’s take a moment to wish Nick O’Callaghan, OCSC’s third-round draft pick and a member of OCB, a happy birthday!

Dom Dwyer Back in Training

Dwyer missed the first two Orlando City matches and four weeks of training due to his lower-body injury, but returned to training yesterday. While yesterday marked his return to training with the first team, his status remains day-to-day as the Lions prepare for their match against the Chicago Fire this weekend at Exploria Stadium.

In other news, Andrés Perea played his first full 90-minute match with the Lions last weekend, serving the assist on Chris Mueller’s goal and showing his teammates just what he has to offer.

“I think he’s got a lot of range,” Mueller said. “He covers a lot of ground. He applies really good pressure on the defensive end of the ball and then going forward obviously you can see he’s got great vision.”

Orlando Pride Players In Action

While the Pride prepare for the NWSL season, some players are still playing internationally. Ali Krieger, Ashlyn Harris, and Emily Sonnett are all with the United States Women’s National Team as they take on Japan in the final match of the SheBelieves Cup tonight. Here are three takeaways from the USWNT’s previous win over Spain and five things to learn about its upcoming opponent.

Elsewhere, Australia plays against Vietnam this morning to secure Olympic qualification. Pride midfielder Emily van Egmond continues to dominate for the Matildas and here is a nice breakdown on how she is getting it done. While the W-League postseason looms, Alanna Kennedy is focused entirely on getting her country into the Olympics.

In France, Marta and Brazil faced off against Shelina Zadorsky and Canada in the Tournoi de France. The two nations played to a 2-2 draw, but Marta looked unstoppable just eight minutes into the match.

Orlando Pride Preseason Continues

Here in Orlando, the women are back this week and looking to raise the bar as they prepare for the return of the international players. As Head Coach Marc Skinner works to mold players during the preseason, he says he’ll be looking to Sydney Leroux and Toni Pressley to lead the team.

“One of the conversations I’ve had this morning is just about how much they can give and how much concentration and psychology they’ll need to be performers this year,” Skinner said. “That’s going to be the biggest message of the preseason.”

Duda Pavao also got a chance to catch up with Carson Pickett after yesterday’s session.

Orlando City Partners with Season Share

Orlando City is the first MLS team to offer the shared-season ticket technology to fans. Now, season ticket holders will be able to make the most of their membership by easily selecting games they wish to attend and sharing tickets with others.

“Orlando City took an innovative approach and asked, ‘How do we bring younger fans into the venue with a new, flexible product offering while retaining price integrity for our long-time Season Ticket Members?” said Aaron Holland, CEO of Season Share. “We worked closely with leadership in leveraging our technology to empower more Orlando City SC fans to become Season Ticket Members this season.” 

Free Kicks

• Tickets for the 2020 MLS All-Star Skills Challenge are now available, and Nani is predicted to be a key player for the MLS squad to beat Liga MX’s.
• With games across Europe being played behind closed doors, the only fan watching Valencia’s Champions League match with Atalanta was Vicente Navarro.

• Chilean footballers walked out on the pitch with adoptable dogs in probably the cutest news ever.

That’s going to do it for me today, everyone. Have a great day and don’t forget to return to TML later for more soccer coverage!