Lion Links: 1/1/24

Happy New Year, Mane Landers! New beginnings are afoot. A new you, a new season, and new reasons to believe that Orlando City can take the next step in the climb to the promised land. For those who are joining a gym, I believe in you. For those who are not joining a gym, I believe in you. For those that say “who’s Jim?”, I believe in you as well. There’s no better way to start of the new year than with some fresh links, so let’s get to it.

El Pulpo a Top 5 Keeper

For those who listen to The Mane Land PawedCast — and if you don’t, make it your New Year’s resolution to subscribe — I’ve often said that Pedro Gallese is a Top 5 MLS keeper. It seems that others agree with my assessment. There aren’t many surprises on this list for me, but I’m happy that Gallese is getting the recognition he deserves.

New Year, New Calendar

If you’re like me, you have a general idea of when things like the start of the season or a particular competition will begin, but it is nice to have it all in one place. There are several important dates for Orlando City and the Orlando Pride in 2024. From the start of the MLS and NWSL seasons to the Concacaf Champions League and the Challenge Cup, you’ll be able to put it all on your calendar to be ready throughout the year.

Dunn to Gotham

Despite Crystal Dunn’s husband, Pierre Soubrier, being here in Tallahassee with me — last I heard he was a high performance advisor for the newly formed Tallahassee Reckoning women’s side — it looks like Dunn is headed to the Big Apple as she has signed with NJ/NY Gotham FC. There were some rumors briefly that Dunn was considering joining the Pride, but that fell through pretty quickly. That is almost as bad of a relationship commute as Alex Morgan had with Servando Carrasco when she was in Orlando and he was in California.

USMNT News

It was a memorable year for the USMNT — some of it good, some of it not so good, depending on your perspective. The return of Gregg Berhalter and Folarin Balogun choosing the USMNT over England are just two of the big moments.

It was also a busy weekend for USMNT players. Christian Pulisic scored the game winner for AC Milan in the 1-0 victory over Sassuolo on Saturday. On Friday, Tim Ream signed a contract extension with Fulham that keeps the American with the Cottagers until June 2025. Oh, and Fulham just hurt Arsenal’s title hopes, beating the Gunners 2-1 on Sunday though Ream didn’t play.

Free Kicks

• Gadi Kinda left Sporting KC for Israeli Premier League side Maccabi Haifa FC. The move opens a DP spot for Sporting KC.
• The USMNT’s Tyler Boyd was traded from the LA Galaxy to Nashville SC for a potential total of $775,000 in General Allocation Money, and two international spots.
• Vancouver Whitecaps FC signed midfielder Damir Kreilach to a two-year contract through 2025. He had been with Real Salt Lake since 2018.
• Bruno Fernandes played more minutes than any other player in Europe in 2023. The Manchester United and Portugal midfielder logged more than 6,000 minutes. That is a lot.
• Feel like you know FIFA did a bunch of not great stuff in 2023, but can’t remember it all? Here is a handy guide to the corruption.

That will do it for the first day of 2024. Good luck this day and all the rest. Vamos Orlando!