PawedCast Episode 281: Preseason Results & Rumors, Pride’s Challenge Cup Schedule, and More

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Orlando City got its 2022 preseason underway with a pair of matches within the past week and neither the results nor the injury news was what Lions fans were looking for. The club dropped its opener to Minnesota United — or was it the Chicago Fire? Nah, we’re pretty sure it was the Loons — last Thursday and then fell 1-0 to FC Dallas on Saturday. The latter match had the added angst of seeing new Designated Player striker Ercan Kara helped off the field and unable to put any weight on one of his legs.

The news wasn’t dire on Monday, however, as the club announced that Kara is day to day with an ankle sprain. We don’t know the severity or how much time he’ll miss but it wasn’t an ideal start to his time with Orlando City. Hopefully he’s a quick healer and the injury wasn’t as bad as it looked to those in attendance. Speaking of attendance, we hope to see you out at Orlando’s next preseason match this Friday against Colorado.

Facundo Torres arrived in town and there was a hot rumor to dissect to wrap up our coverage of the Lions this week.

The Pride have their schedule and their group for the 2022 NWSL Challenge Cup. Get ready for three home matches in the competition and hopefully Amanda Cromwell’s side will surprise some folks and make the knockout stages this year. Cromwell teased an attacker signing this week so we’ll be on the lookout for eyeball emojis from Ian Fleming.

We also discussed the last USMNT qualifer in the most recent window — a really stupidly scheduled match in sub-freezing temperatures that saw only two of the opponents subbed off due to hypothermia. Hey, at least the Yanks won, but they could have done that in a much nicer climate.

This week’s mailbag asked about athletes becoming the targets of fan ire and abuse, musical choice limitations for life, and whether the Pride have an advantage with fewer internationals this season. 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.

Stay safe and enjoy the show!

Here’s how No. 281 went down:

0:15 – Orlando City got a pretty big scare with Ercan Kara and hopefully he’ll be back quickly. Also, hopefully the Lions will start winning games soon. It’s just the preseason, but winning is always better than not.

14:15 – The Pride know who, where, and when they’ll play in the NWSL Challenge Cup and the coach says the team might be getting some offensive help soon. That’s good, because Mia Fishel is off to a great start at Tigres.

31:18 – Our mailbag wants to torture us by limiting us to one musical artist/album/song for the rest of our lives. That’s just cruel.