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PawedCast Episode 335: The Beautiful Game, Minnesota United Preview, and More

Northland Soccer Journal’s Alan Van Wyk stops by to give us the scoop on the Loons.

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Carlos Romero, The Mane Land

Welcome to the second episode of The Mane Land PawedCast this week! We’re still adjusting to our twice-a-week system, so we apologize that this show is a teeny smidge past an hour long. Our goal is to keep both episodes each week at around 45 minutes or less. It’s a process and it will become more fluid. We might need to move the mailbagbox to the first show of the week to get the balance right. We’ll keep working on it for you.

If you missed it, we gave our Orlando Pride coverage its own dedicated show, and the first episode of SkoPurp Soccer: An Orlando Pride PawedCast went live on Wednesday.

We started this show off with discussion of The Beautiful Game, an exhibition match coming to Exploria Stadium this summer. We already know Ronaldinho and Roberto Carlos will be there, and more star players will be announced in the coming weeks.

We welcomed Alan Van Wyk from Northland Soccer Journal (formerly E Pluribus Loonum but now an independent site like ours) to get inside the goings on at Minnesota United, a club that Orlando City has not met on the pitch since the MLS is Back Tournament semifinals back in 2020. Alan was kind enough to answer our questions and some from our Founders as well.

This week’s mailbagbox asked us where we’d go on the road if all expenses were paid. We did take economics into account in our response. Remember, if there’s anything — and we do mean anything — you want us to address on the show, just ask us anything by tweeting it to us at @TheManeLand with the hashtag #AskTMLPC.

Finally, we previewed Orlando City at Minnesota United, including our key match-ups and score predictions for Saturday’s match.

Stay safe and enjoy the show!


Here’s how No. 335 went down:

0:15 – The Beautiful Game is coming to Orlando’s Exploria Stadium and we know two players who will participate. The rest is still up in the air, but we suspect a Kaká appearance might happen.

12:15 – Alan Van Wyk jumps on with us to catch us up with what’s going on with Minnesota United, although he couldn’t tell us much about the bizarre Emanuel Reynoso saga.

38:28 – The mailbagbox get opened and we dive into our thoughts ahead of the Lions’ trip to play the Loons.

Podcasts

SkoPurp Soccer Episode 85: Portland Rewind, North Carolina Preview, and More

The Pride equal last year’s loss total with another bad night in Portland, while the Courage wait in North Carolina.

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Image courtesy of Orlando Pride / Jeremy Reper

The Orlando Pride have not played well for 2.5 of the last three matches, falling 1-0 on the road at Portland Saturday night. Scoring is an issue, as is breaking out of their own end. The Pride simply aren’t creating enough clear-cut scoring chances, and when they do, they’re not being clinical with those opportunities.

We break down Orlando’s second loss of the season — tying last year’s total already — discussing some of the game’s big moments, looking back at our predictions from last week, and making our selections for Player of the Match.

This week’s mailbagbox wants to know about NWSL announcers and officials, Pride cohesion, and the season-ending injury list. Remember, you can ask us anything by hitting us up on Twitter at either @TheManeLand or @SkoPurpSoccer and using the hashtag #AskSkoPurp. You can use that same hashtag and hit @TheManeLand.bsky.social up on Bluesky. Or you can visit our show page, scroll down, and fill out the handy form. We’d also appreciate any ratings or reviews you can leave wherever you get your podcasts, and if you do that on Apple Podcasts, we’ll find them easily and read them on the show.

Following our mailbagbox segment, we look ahead to the Pride’s trip to North Carolina to take on the Courage. It’s a tough place to get a result and a quality opponent for Orlando, but you have to play everyone in their place at some point. A result against North Carolina might be just what the doctor ordered for the Pride to get back on track and go on a run after falling in two of the last three games. We break down the all-time series, preview the Courage, provide our key matchups in the game, and try to predict the final score.

If you’d like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we’d love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.


Here’s how Episode 85 went down:

0:15 – The Pride are not in the best form at the moment, but they’re still in first place, so there’s that.

17:26 – A bunch of questions were found in this week’s mailbagbox, so we answered them.

35:30 – The Pride head to another difficult place to get results with a trip to North Carolina on the schedule for Saturday. We preview!

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PawedCast Episode 476: Chicago Rewind, OCB at Fire II, Tampa Bay Rowdies Preview, and More

The Lions are stuck with another 0-0 draw, OCB gets drilled in Chicago, and Orlando heads to Tampa Bay.

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Image courtesy of Orlando City SC / Mark Thor

Orlando City may have found its scoring boots against Atlanta, but the Lions put those away, wrapped them in mothballs, and stuck them in the attic before heading to Soldier Field to play the Chicago Fire. The result was another 0-0 draw, but it was a lack of lethality that plagued Orlando on Saturday night on the road, despite being up a man for more than half the match. Martin Ojeda and Marco Pasalic each hit the woodwork in the second half, but the Lions got no closer, as they refused to put shots on target — where they might create problems for a young goalkeeper who had to step in when Chris Brady was sent off late in the first half.

The Lions put only two shots on target all night in a wasteful effort in Chicago, and the draw felt a bit like a loss, but the upshot is they still ran their unbeaten streak to eight games (3-0-5). We looked back at our score predictions, discussed all the key moments, and made our picks for Man of the Match (honestly, there was no contest for that honor on Saturday, as Pedro Gallese was magnificent). Gallese’s effort earned him a spot on the Team of the Matchday this week.

The mailbagbox asks about what we collect, what’s up with music today, what we might see Wednesday in the U.S. Open Cup, and more. Remember, if there’s anything — and we do mean anything — you want us to address on the show, just ask us by tweeting it to us at @TheManeLand with the hashtag #AskTMLPC, or hitting us up on Bluesky Social with that same hashtag.

OCB’s leaky defense over the previous two games was nothing compared to Friday night in Chicago, when Fire FC II pounded the Young Lions 5-1. Shak Mohammed scored first, but missed a penalty just before halftime that could have made a big difference. Chicago rode its momentum into the second half instead and simply beat the brakes off OCB. The Young Lions will have to live with that at least until hosting Inter Miami II on May 17.

Finally, we looked ahead to Orlando City’s trip to Tampa Bay Wednesday for the latest iteration of the I-4 Derby. The Lions last met the Rowdies in their first match of the 2022 U.S. Open Cup and now will open the 2025 run against their in-state rivals. The good news is that the 2022 team ended up playing six games in the competition and winning a nice, shiny trophy at the end. We provide our key matchups and score predictions for the midweek USOC match.

Be sure to rate and review our show wherever you get your podcasts. Remember, we’ll read any five-star reviews we get on Apple Podcasts on the next show.


Here’s how No. 476 went down:

0:15 – The Lions kept a fifth straight clean sheet, but also failed to score for the fourth time in five outings. That’s not optimal.

23:38– The mailbagbox is a welcome salve on our souls after another scoreless draw.

42:10 – OCB got pounded again, and the Lions head to Tampa Bay to renew the I-4 Derby rivalry.

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Podcasts

SkoPurp Soccer Episode 84: Angel City Rewind, Portland Preview, and More

The Pride came from behind to beat Angel City and will head northwest to Portland.

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Image courtesy of Orlando Pride / Jeremy Reper

The Orlando Pride looked for all the world like they were about to sustain a two-game home losing streak. Down two goals to Angel City — a team the Pride had never beaten at Inter&Co Stadium — and looking hardly in the mood for the first half, the Pride came out of the locker room rejuvenated. Still, it took a while to break through and climb back into the match. Once that happened, Orlando always looked capable of going on and picking up all three points, which is what transpired. It was not only the Pride’s first home win over Angel City (and the first win by the home team in the all-time series), but it was also the club’s first multi-goal comeback victory.

We discuss the game’s talking points and big moments, check our score predictions from last week, and make our selections for Player of the Match in the Pride’s 3-2 home win over Angel City.

This week’s mailbagbox wants to know about expected goals, NWSL parity, the Pride’s choice of starters, underrated moments in the match, a second division in the women’s game in North America, and more. Remember, you can ask us anything by hitting us up on Twitter at either @TheManeLand or @SkoPurpSoccer and using the hashtag #AskSkoPurp. You can use that same hashtag and hit @TheManeLand.bsky.social up on Bluesky. Or you can visit our show page, scroll down, and fill out the handy form. We’d also appreciate any ratings or reviews you can leave wherever you get your podcasts, and if you do that on Apple Podcasts, we’ll find them easily and read them on the show.

Following our mailbagbox segment, we break down Orlando’s upcoming trip to Portland. The Pride have a terrible record at Providence Park (as most teams other than the Thorns do), but can Orlando exact some revenge for the Thorns ruining their unbeaten record late last season? We dive into the series history and the tale of the tape, provide our key matchups for Saturday night, and make our predictions for the final score. We’re coming to the realization that we normally predict pretty much the same few scores over and over. Soccer!

If you’d like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we’d love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.


Here’s how Episode 84 went down:

0:15 – The Pride looked like they were about to take a second straight loss, but in the second half, they decided to win instead.

18:21 – Our listeners must know things. And we’re here to help with that need to know in our mailbagbox segment.

41:30 – The Pride head to a difficult place to get results with a trip to Portland coming up this weekend.

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