Lion Links: 9/10/22

Happy Saturday, Mane Landers! While Exploria Stadium hosted a win for the Lions on Wednesday, it wasn’t able to do so last night for the Pride. It definitely brings a mixed bag of emotions as we would love to have gathered an additional win from the women to go with this week’s U.S. Open Cup victory. To continue the Orlando soccer action this weekend, the Lions are playing the Philadelphia Union tonight with the Young Lions following suit on Sunday. Now, let’s take a look into today’s links from around the soccer globe.

Orlando Pride Lose At Home

As we learned last week, all good things must eventually come to an end. The in-form Orlando Pride of the Seb Hines tenure seem to have taken a step back with another loss at Exploria Stadium last night. The Pride fell 2-0 to the Portland Thorns. Yazmeen Ryan broke the deadlock in minute 36 of the first half, and Hina Sugita closed out the scoring in the 65th. The Pride will head to Lynn Family Stadium next Friday where Racing Louisville awaits them for a 7:30 p.m. match.

Orlando City Travels to Philly

Your 2022 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup champions return to league play tonight. Orlando City will take on the Eastern Conference-leading Philadelphia Union at 7:30 p.m. In the last meeting on July 23, Orlando fell 1-0 to the Union. Philadelphia has continued to be dominant the past two months and prolific in front of the net, winning 10 of its past 12 games and scoring six goals in a match an astonishing four times in that stretch. Julián Carranza has been a revelation for Philadelphia this year at the forward position, scoring 14 goals and adding nine assists in 27 appearances.

While Philadelphia beat Orlando in league play, the Union were the second team to fall to the Lions on Orlando City’s Open Cup title run back in May, losing 2-1 . In that match, Ercan Kara and Andrés Perea both struck for Orlando. With the match tonight, the Lions look to continue their winning streak of four league matches and a cup final victory.

Facundo Torres Ties U.S. Open Cup Golden Boot Race

After a two-year pause due to COVID-19, the Open Cup Golden Boot for the 2022 edition finishes in a three-way tangle. With four goals each — Orlando City star Facundo Torres, Rodrigo ‘RoRo’ Lopez of Sacramento Republic, and Lucky Mkosena of the Tampa Bay Rowdies all share the honors.

The 22-year-old Uruguayan was crucial in Orlando’s first Open Cup crown, netting two of his four goals in the final and assisting on the Lions’ third goal. The first of his four goals came in a tense Round of 16 affair against MLS rival Inter Miami with an extra-time equalizer that sent the game to a penalty shootout. It was also his first goal ever for the club since joining at the start of the current MLS campaign. He later went on to add another goal in the 5-1 semifinal rout of the New York Red Bulls.

United States Could Host FIFA Club World Cup

While all eyes are on this year’s edition of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the United States is a serious candidate to host the next FIFA Club World Cup. Due to the strain placed on the global soccer schedule in November and December, FIFA has yet to confirm if or when the club tournament will go ahead.

FIFA had previously sought to stage the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi, which has hosted recent editions of the event, with China also in the running. However, no agreement could be reached with either venue, leading the United States to emerge as the frontrunner to hold the tournament.

Free Kicks

• Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer reminded Mayor Steinberg of Sacramento on Thursday that there is a wager to uphold. On Friday, Orlando’s mayor tweeted that the Orlando City flag has been shipped to California.

• CF Montréal midfielder Djordje Mihailovic has taken home Goal of the Week honors for Week 29 of the 2022 MLS campaign.
• Andrew Wiebe listed his picks for the five biggest breakout stars in MLS this season.
• Here is a look at all MLS playoff clinching and elimination scenarios for this weekend.
• As anticipated, MLS has issued an additional suspension to midfielder Dru Yearwood of the New York Red Bulls after he kicked a ball into the stands during the match against the Philadelphia Union.

• Atlanta United Head Coach Gonzalo Pineda said the decision to suspend Josef Martinez was a collective one between him, his staff, and the front office. Pineda is still awaiting a personal apology.
• MLS NEXT’s third year of play is here and kicks off today with the 2022-2023 season.
• The USMNT supporters group American Outlaws celebrated their 15th anniversary yesterday.

• All soccer in the English FA will take a pause this weekend as a show of respect to Queen Elizabeth II.

• Barcelona plans to file a lawsuit demanding Atletico Madrid pay them €40 million for Antoine Griezmann.
• The USMNT is continuing to follow the progress of Club America’s dual-national Alejandro Zendejas.
• The brother of French football star Paul Pogba denied Friday that he took part in extortion attempts against the Juventus midfielder.
• Spain’s female referees have called a strike as they demand better pay and working conditions, putting in danger the start of the domestic women’s league.

That’s a wrap on links for today. l look forward to watching our Lions take the field tonight even if it is a heavily rotated squad. Any match in purple is a match worth watching! Vamos Orlando!