Lion Links: 9/9/23

Welcome to the weekend. I plan on spending most of it watching all of the various sports going on while getting some cleaning and packing done. It should be a nice couple of days to reset after a pretty hectic week. Hopefully all of your plans go off without a hitch as well. For now, let’s get to today’s links.

Orlando Pride Game Rescheduled

The Orlando Pride’s road match against Angel City FC on Sept. 21 has been rescheduled and will now take place on Oct. 2 at 10 p.m. The decision was made so that the game does not take place during an international window, allowing the teams to play at full strength. It’s decent news for the Pride, as they likely would have been without Marta, Adriana, Rafaelle, and Mariana Larroquette for a pivotal game. That match, along with the road game with Racing Louisville just four days later, will be critical in determining if the Pride will make the playoffs. The Pride’s next match will be at home on Sept. 17 against the North Carolina Courage.

USMNT Faces Uzbekistan In Friendly

The United States Men’s National Team will take on Uzbekistan today at 5:30 p.m. in a friendly and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter has already revealed a majority of which players are starting. There aren’t too many surprises, with Folarin Balogun getting the start up top.

It’s Berhalter’s first game back at the helm and a great opportunity for him to pick up where he left off after last year’s World Cup. Many USMNT players are at new clubs in Europe this season, and I’m interested to see if the chemistry between Juventus duo Weston McKennie and Timothy Weah translates in this friendly. McKennie also spoke on how much more confident Christian Pulisic has been in training.

NWSL Challenge Cup Final Takes Place Today

The Courage and Louisville will square off today at 12:30 p.m. in the NWSL Challenge Cup final. Both teams enter this final after 1-0 victories in the semifinals, with the Courage beating the Kansas City Current and Louisville winning against OL Reign. While this is Louisville’s first appearance in an NWSL Challenge Cup final, it’s the Courage’s second-straight trip after winning the tournament last year. It should be an exciting match between the two, with more to play for than silverware and glory. After an increase to the prize pool for this year’s tournament, each player on the winning team will receive $10,000.

NWSL Breaks Attendance Record

The National Women’s Soccer League set a new regular-season attendance record, with 1,060,978 as the official number after this past weekend. It’s the second straight season that the league has had over a million fans in attendance. There are 24 games left this season and the league’s average attendance of 9,916 is well on pace to break that record as well. There have been 11 matches this season with attendances over 20,000 and three clubs have set new attendance records.

Free Kicks

• Enjoy this great save by Orlando City goalkeeper Pedro Gallese from Peru’s scoreless draw with Paraguay.

• Facundo Torres didn’t come off the bench in Uruguay’s 3-1 win over Chile in CONMBEOL World Cup qualifying.
• The LA Galaxy have transferred midfielder Efrain Alvarez to Club Tijuana. The 21-year-old has not started a game for the Galaxy since May 31, playing just 377 minutes this season.
• Forward Ebony Salmon was transferred by the Houston Dash to Aston Villa for an undisclosed fee.
• The Colorado Rapids swooped in to add Luiz Diaz after the winger was waived by the Columbus Crew earlier this week.
• Here’s a breakdown of all of the important dates for the upcoming MLS NEXT season.
• Spanish state prosecutors presented their case for potential criminal charges against Luis Ruibales, accusing him of sexual assault and coercion for kissing Jenni Hermoso without consent.
• Virgil van Dijk was officially suspended an additional game and fined for his verbal abuse against match officials after being shown a red card last month.
• Kylian Mbappe tops the list of players who will be free agents next summer, which also includes Luka Modric, Alejandro Balde, and Kyle Walker.
• Philippe Coutinho was sent on loan from Aston Villa to Al Duhail in Qatar.

That’s all I have for you today. I hope you all have a relaxing Saturday and rest of your week.