Lion Links: 6/19/22

Hello, Mane Landers. A happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. It was great to finally have our Orlando City Lions back on the home pitch of Exploria Stadium last night after the long international break and a midweek match on the road. For now, let’s get you caught up with the action and news around the soccer world.

Lions Drop Dynamo

Orlando City was back home in the friendly confines of Exploria Stadium Saturday night, and the Lions took advantage of playing on their home pitch, as the team secured a 2-1 victory over the Houston Dynamo. It was Orlando’s first win over the Dynamo since the Lions’ first MLS win back in 2015. The Designated Players did Designated Player things for Orlando to lead the Lions and the team survived without Rodrigo Schlegel. We’ll have more coverage from the match later today, with Marcus Mitchell providing our five takeaways and Ryan Smith taking a swing at the player grades for the first time.

Orlando Pride Prepare for Portland

The Pride are back on the road — this time set to face the Portland Thorns this afternoon at Providence Park. The club’s home site has a match preview and we’ll have ours posted a little later today. This will be the first of two matches the clubs will play against each other this season. Today’s match will mark the Pride’s third and final away game for this month. Interim coach Seb Hines said he wants the team to continue getting into the box as they did last week in Chicago — but also to turn that positioning into goal-scoring opportunities today. Make sure to keep an eye on this one and check back here for all the post game coverage.

Lions Set for Nashville in U.S. Open Cup Quarterfinals

The Lions are now in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open Cup and will host the the upcoming match against fellow MLS side Nashville SC with the final four within reach. The Lions’ next Open Cup match will be June 29. The quarterfinal preview also has the other match-ups between June 21 and 29, including underdogs Union Omaha going up against Sporting Kansas City and Sacramento Republic set to take on the LA Galaxy.

U-20 USMNT Starts Strong

The Concacaf U-20 Championship is now underway and the U-20 USMNT wasted no time making a huge impact on the scoresheet. The young Stars & Stripes earned a 10-0 victory against Saint Kitts and Nevis and this was the first competitive win under Head Coach Mikey Varas. This post-match recap as all the highlights wrapped up for you.

MLS Transfer News

The summer transfer window is here and MLS clubs are trying to acquire big names plying their trade in Europe to bolster their rosters. The latest reports surrounding MLS clubs included a source regarding the Columbus Crew finalizing a club-record deal for Colombian international forward Cucho Hernandez from English Championship side Watford to become a Designated Player. Another source reported that Inter Miami has held talks with German World Cup winner and PSV Eindhoven midfielder Mario Gotze about potentially signing.

Free Kicks

• A FIFA study revealed that there was rampant online abuse of players in Euro and AFCON finals.
• Barcelona announced it has signed England defender Lucy Bronze to a two-year deal.
• OL Reign announced the signing of Olympic gold medal winner Jordyn Huitema on a one-year deal.
• AC Milan is reportedly losing out on Renato Sanches with PSG set to sign the midfielder.
• The USMNT’s Ulysses Llanez rejoined Austrian club St. Poelten on loan.

That will do it for me. Enjoy the rest of your Father’s Day Sunday and the Pride and OCB matches later today. See you all next time.