Lion Links: 9/27/20

Happy Sunday, everyone. It’s an Orlando City match day and it should be an interesting one as Oscar Pareja returns to his old stomping grounds to face FC Dallas. The Lions will complete a two-game road swing and return home for next weekend’s afternoon tilt against the New York Red Bulls. Let’s hope they keep on streaking.

While we wait for tonight, let’s get to the news of the day.

Orlando Pride Dominated in Houston without Leroux, Edmonds

The Orlando Pride played their second match of 2020 and even scored a goal this time, but things didn’t go as well as they did last weekend in North Carolina. The Pride barely got out of their own half of the field, getting out-shot 27-6 and losing 3-1 on the road against the Houston Dash. Marisa Viggiano scored for Orlando to tie the game just before halftime but she also conceded a penalty that allowed Houston to regain the lead in the second half. Ashlyn Harris made a bunch of huge saves, but it wasn’t enough. The Pride fell to 0-1-1 in the NWSL Fall Series with two matches left.

The Pride were already going to be fielding a young team, but the team got younger than expected. Pride forward Sydney Leroux and winger/midfielder/defender Kristen Edmonds did not make the trip to Houston with their teammates, citing a lack of comfort with the timeframe of recent events. The Dash reported a player testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this week, but stated that the rest of the team tested negative before returning to training.

Young Lions Lose Again

Orlando City B returned home after a couple of matches away but the friendly confines couldn’t help the Young Lions’ offense. OCB gave up a goal seconds after the second-half kickoff and it was the game’s only goal in a 1-0 loss to New England Revolution II yesterday. The Young Lions haven’t scored in more than three and a half games and they rarely looked likely to do so in this game as they lost their third straight match.

Moises Tablante couldn’t get any of his three best scoring chances on target, Wilfredo Rivera missed the goal with the goalkeeper well out of position, and I don’t think the team got a single shot on target after the Revs’ goalkeeper left the game with an apparent knee injury in the second half. OCB’s mission is to develop players for the first team rather than win games, but it sure would be nice to win a few (and to score some goals).

MLS Match Postponed Due to COVID-19

Your daily reminder that we’re still going through a global pandemic comes from Major League Soccer, which postponed Sporting Kansas City’s away match today against Colorado after a Rapids player and three staff members tested positive for COVID-19. The tests were administered Thursday and Friday.

Fallout from Racist Incident in USL Championship

Following his six-game ban for use of a racial slur in a USL Championship match, LA Galaxy II has parted ways with defender Omar Ontiveros. The incident took place in Wednesday night’s draw against San Diego Loyal. Racism and racist language simply has no place in a civilized society.

The interesting epilogue to this saga is that San Diego has opted to forfeit the point it earned in Wednesday’s draw due to the incident, even though it was a San Diego player who was victimized. Check out Landon Donovan’s statement:

Free Kicks

• Here’s a story singing the praises of Orlando City rookie Daryl Dike.
• Miguel Gallardo joins Evan Weston in breaking down Orlando’s win at Sporting Kansas City and looking ahead to tonight’s game in Dallas Frisco, TX.
• The Money Badger is inspiring a new generation.

• Nick Hagglund outed himself as the FC Cincinnati player who tested positive for COVID-19 and offered himself up as a cautionary tale to continue being smart when it comes to avoiding the virus.

• Those born on this date include The Guess Who and BTO guitarist Randy Bachman (1943), Meat Loaf (1947), baseball’s Mike Schmidt (1949), late Men at Work multi-instrumentalist Greg Ham (1953), Shaun Cassidy (1958), Marc Maron (1963), basketball’s Steve Kerr (1965), Gwyneth Paltrow (1972), Italy/Roma legend Franceso Totti (1976), and Avril Lavigne (1984).

That’s all my time for this morning. Check back later today for our full coverage of Orlando City at FC Dallas.