Lion Links: 3/14/20

Good Morning, Mane Landers. I hope you all are enjoying your weekend. I know we were all excited for another Orlando City home game today, but with the sports world on hold this gives us time to catch up with the ones we love most. For me, my job is going to be closed until the end of the month, so, like many of you, I’m trying to figure what to do for the next few weeks. But for now, let’s move on to the links.

Orlando City to Pay All Employees for Today’s Game

Orlando City will compensate all part-time and hourly workers who would have worked during today’s cancelled match. The team is working to make sure that the workers don’t miss out on the expected income generated from cancelled matches after MLS announced a league-wide suspension of all games due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Teams also won’t be allowed to train again until Monday at the earliest. Orlando’s second cancelled game was set to take place on April 4, but the club currently doesn’t have a plan for compensation in place for that game as the situation develops.

U.S. Soccer Temporarily Suspends 2020 Open Cup

The U.S. Soccer Open Cup Committee suspended the 2020 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup due to the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.

“The health and safety of players, coaches, staff and fans is our main priority,” said U.S. Open Cup Commissioner Paul Marstaller. “Given the unique nature of the competition, which encompasses clubs from multiple leagues that have suspended their seasons, we are taking this action and will look to determine future dates to allow the 2020 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup to be played.”

The decision comes as Major League Soccer, the USL Championship, USL League One, and the National Independent Soccer Association all suspended regular season play for the next 30 days. The National Premier Soccer League has also suspended play until April 4 so all of the clubs that would participate in the Open Cup will already be off from playing.

Concacaf Postpones Olympic Qualifying Championship

The U-23 United States Men’s National Team’s quest to qualify for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo will be put on hold as Concacaf announced it will suspend all its competitions for the next 30 days due to the coronavirus. This will include the 2020 Men’s Olympic qualifying tournament in Guadalajara, Mexico. Head Coach Jason Kreis and the team were prepared to train, but will now depart as Concacaf considers options to reconvene the competition in the future. Other events affected are the 2020 Concacaf Champions League, 2021 Gold Cup qualifiers, and the 2020 Caribbean Club Shield.

Soccer Games This weekend

With European soccer leagues such as the Champions League, La Liga, Premier League, Ligue 1, Serie A, and Bundesliga on hold due to the coronavirus, I’m sure you wondering if there is any soccer to watch this weekend.

The Orlando Pride’s Alanna Kennedy, Emily van Egmond, and Claire Emslie are all playing in the W-league’s semifinals this weekend, with Kennedy and Sydney FC defeating the Melbourne Victory 1-0.

Liga MX games down in Mexico still happening this weekend. Tigres will play FC Jaurez while Leon plays Pumas tonight at 9 p.m. On Sunday, there is a big match-up as well as Club America hosts Cruz Azul.

Free Kicks

• Nani shares his thoughts on MLS suspending play for 30 days.

• An Orlando City fan travelled all the way from the UK for the game this weekend only to find out it was cancelled.

Orlando SeaWolves Head Coach Tom Traxler addressed fans on the bizarre end to the team’s 2019-2020 MASL season.

• The NWSL decided to suspend training this weekend as well.
• Canada Soccer canceled all upcoming men and women’s international friendlies this month due to the coronavirus pandemic.
• Paul Pogba has a unique way to stay healthy.

That will do it for me today Mane Landers. Take care of yourselves and stay safe. I’ll catch you next time. Enjoy your Saturday.