PawedCast Episode 234: Lions Sign Silvester van der Water, Pride Sign Crystal Thomas, All-Exploria Everything, and More

[Editor’s Note: This show was recorded early Tuesday evening before news broke about Jonathan Suarez’s arrest. Although we didn’t give him more than a passing mention in this episode, the arrest obviously casts doubt about his future in Orlando.]

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Orlando City added yet another quality attacking piece to the roster on Tuesday, officially signing Silvester van der Water from Heracles Almelo of the Dutch Eredivisie. The Lions locked up van der Water for three years with a club option and we’re here to talk about what it means for the roster and potential starting lineups. We also discussed the two Lions who were named to the preliminary USMNT U-23 side that will attempt to qualify for the Olympics and one that wasn’t picked. And a former Orlando City draft pick has a new team in USL League One.

The Lions weren’t the only team under the club’s umbrella that signed a player on Tuesday. The Orlando Pride added veteran forward Crystal Thomas to add depth to the attacking line. We’ll talk about why the signing of the former Washington Spirit player is a good one for Marc Skinner’s side.

The SheBelieves Cup has just one match day left at Exploria Stadium and it appears the USWNT has done about enough to take home the trophy again. Argentina stands in the Yanks’ way tonight and on the undercard Brazil and Canada will square off to try to stay in contention should the U.S. falter. We break down the tournament so far.

Speaking of Exploria Stadium, the Canadian Men’s National Team will play a World Cup qualifier in the Lions’ den in March.

This week’s mailbag had questions about what van der Water’s addition means for the guys returning to the lineup from last season, and how we’d scramble the players by position just to have some fun. If there’s anything — and we do mean anything —you want us to address on our next show, just ask by tweeting it to us at @TheManeLand with the hashtag #AskTMLPC.

That’s all for this week.

Stay safe and enjoy the show!

Here’s how show No. 234 went down:

0:15 – Dutch winger Silvester van der Water is officially a Lion, a couple of young OCSC players might be playing in Olympic qualifiers soon, and the Pride add a player who can help if they lose two-thirds of their starting forward line to the Olympics.

27:45 – The USWNT is a point away from clinching a second straight SheBelieves Cup and they would be doing it on the Orlando Pride’s home field. Plus, the Canadian men want to call Exploria Stadium home (for a match, anyway).

40:56 – Our listeners want to know about van der Water and where we’d play guys out of position in a match (if we had to).