PawedCast Episode 255: Toronto Rewind, Pride-Thorns, Philly & NYCFC Previews, Mueller’s Exit, Wilfs Enter, and More

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Orlando City ended its losing streak in Toronto but extended a winless skid to three matches after managing only a 1-1 road draw. It wasn’t a terrible result and one point sure beats none, but the Lions still don’t quite seem back on track yet. Still, we’ve got a lot to say about what happened in Canada on Saturday. We also pick our Man of the Match and it’s unanimous again this week.

Before we get to that, however, news broke as we were just getting set to record that Chris Mueller is leaving Orlando City at the end of the season on a free transfer. This is obviously not an ideal situation and the club did try to negotiate a deal with Cash, but alas, a fan favorite will be heading to Europe. You’re up next, Silvester van der Water!

The long-awaited new Orlando City overlords are officially in place as the Wilf family’s ownership of the club was announced Wednesday. We look forward to seeing how their stewardship of the club unfolds and if they really will spend some money on talent to compete with the top clubs in MLS and the NWSL.

The Orlando Pride appear to be in free fall after a 2-1 loss in Portland that was nowhere near as close as the final score indicates. The Pride were out-shot 20-6 and Ashlyn Harris again won NWSL Save of the Week for a penalty kick save that prevented the result from being worse on the road. Meanwhile, Manchester United is courting Marc Skinner, which can’t be helping anything at the moment. Can the Pride right the ship? It doesn’t feel like it right now but we certainly hope so.

Matt Ralph from Brotherly Game stopped by to help us preview the Philadelphia Union’s visit to Exploria Stadium tonight. Big thanks to Matt for his expertise on the Union and we look forward to seeing how our key match-ups and score predictions compare to his when it’s all said and done.

International soccer is in full swing. The USMNT played poorly and got a result. The USWNT played even worse and did not. The men now enter the Gold Cup knockout round against a Jamaica side that I watched in person three times in the last week or so. The women have to regroup and beat New Zealand and Australia to assure themselves of a spot in the knockout round of the Olympic tournament. Daryl Dike and Alex Morgan both started this week but neither dented the score sheet.

This week’s mailbag wants to know about Josef Martinez in Atlanta Orlando, what to do with season tickets when you don’t live within a thousand miles of Exploria, and more. If there’s anything — and we do mean anything — you want us to address on the next show, just ask by tweeting it to us at @TheManeLand with the hashtag #AskTMLPC.

We close the show with our key match-ups and score predictions for both Philadelphia tonight and the trip to New York City FC this weekend.

That’s all for this week.

Stay safe and enjoy the show!

Here’s how No. 255 went down:

0:15 – Orlando City earned a hard-fought road point and you can get a pretty good nap during Nani’s penalty run-ups. Also the Pride are not good at the moment.

52:02 – Matt Ralph joins the fun and gives us some in-depth background on the Union ahead of tonight’s match.

1:20:05 – The Gold Cup, the Olympics, the Florida Cup, our mailbag, and prediction time for both Orlando City games coming up.