Lion Links: 7/31/23

Merry Monday morning, Mane Landers. July might be ending, but Orlando City is moving on in the Leagues Cup, facing in-state rival Inter Miami on Wednesday. Evidently, Miami made some sort of player moves recently, but I’m not concerned. Oscar Pareja knows about tournament play. With that said, let’s get to today’s links.

Cartagena’s Winning Goal

Orlando City won the South 2 group of the Leagues Cup with a 3-2 win over Club Santos Laguna. The winning goal came from an unlikely combination from Orlando City’s pair of defensive midfielders, with Cesar Araujo providing the assist to Wilder Cartagena for the finish. I wouldn’t have predicted Cartagena to score, but it seems his daughter knew and told him to practice his celebration. Somebody put that kid on the scouting team. The Lions now turn their attention to Inter Miami and the Round of 32.

Pride Need to Raise Standard

The Pride followed up a disappointing 3-1 loss to Gotham FC in the Challenge Cup with an even more lopsided 5-0 loss to the North Carolina Courage. Despite only missing the Pride’s Brazilian contingent for the Women’s World Cup, Orlando has not been able to take advantage of other clubs missing more of their squads. Head Coach Seb Hines stated, “We have to raise our standard.” Despite recent results, the coaches and players still believe the Pride are a better team than they are showing. With a game coming up on Friday against the Washington Spirit at Exploria Stadium, let’s hope they are right.

Women’s World Cup News

New Zealand is the first host team to be knocked out of the Women’s World Cup group stage. It is a record that the Football Ferns will not be pleased to have, and while the players are disappointed, they are still proud of what they accomplished this World Cup.

Colombia shocked Germany with a last-minute goal to win 2-1 over the group favorites. The Germans are still likely to advance out of the group stage, but the stoppage-time goal will still haunt them. Colombia’s Linda Caicedo netted the winner, after coming back from a battle with cancer to earn her spot on the World Cup squad. With the win, Colombia has already qualified for the round of 16.

Finally, the USWNT will play its final group stage match against Portugal at 3 a.m. Tuesday morning. The U.S. will advance with either a win or draw against Portugal. The USWNT can win the group if it defeats Portugal and the Netherlands lose or draw against Vietnam or if the Dutch win by only one goal.

Transfer News Involving USMNT Players

It seems that Yunas Musah will be joining fellow USMNT player Christian Pulisic at Serie A club AC Milan. The pursuit of Musah came to light earlier this month and seems to be all but done.

AC Milan will hope that Musah comes in and performs as well as his American teammate has during the preseason for the club. Pulisic has made two starts, and his attitude and effort has been recognized by his teammates, his coaches, and the supporters of his new club.

USMNT goalkeeper Matt Turner has been linked to a move to Nottingham Forest. Arsenal will most likely be looking to either transfer or loan out Turner as they are hoping to bring in Brentford’s David Raya. Such a move might give the U.S. keeper an opportunity for more playing time.

Free Kicks

• Flamengo fired assistant coach Pablo Fernández following his assault of the club’s striker Pedro. Fernández slapped Pedro three times before punching him in the face. Fernández is also facing official charges.
• USWNT stars Alex Morgan, Crystal Dunn, and Julie Ertz have all had children since the last Women’s World Cup, and it has changed them as players. For the good, of course.
• If, like me, you didn’t get to watch all the Women’s World Cup matches, here is a highlight reel of every goal scored on Matchday 11.
• Are the Women’s World Cup, the Challenge Cup, and the Leagues Cup not enough soccer for you? No worries. Here is a list of every preseason match for all the English Premier League clubs.
• If you didn’t get a chance to take in Orlando City’s victory, or just want to relive the magical feeling, check out the highlights as presented by the club.

That will do it for today. Check back for our continuing coverage of Orlando City’s upcoming Leagues Cup match, the Orlando Pride, OCB, and the Women’s World Cup. Vamos Orlando!