Lion Links: 8/7/24

Welcome to Wednesday, Mane Landers. Tuesday was chock full of Olympic soccer goodness. I hope you were able to surreptitiously watch the two matches without your boss finding out. Don’t you hate it when work interferes with watching soccer? We’ll get to the results below, but suffice to say it was a good day for Pride fans. Let’s get to the links.

Orlando City’s Underdog Role

The Lions will be considered the underdog in their upcoming Leagues Cup match against Liga MX’s Cruz Azul. However, MLS 360 host Bradley Wright Phillips thinks that the Lions — and some other teams — are capable of upsetting the competition. Former Lion Sacha Kljestan outlines the case for the favorites. Ramiro Enrique is cited as a key player to watch as the Leagues Cup continues. The match against Cruz Azul will certainly be a challenge for Orlando City, but the Lions are in good form riding a seven-match undefeated run in all competitions.

Orlando City Linked with Norwegian Midfielder

Like me, I’m guessing you haven’t heard of Heine Gikling Bruseth before. He is a central midfielder playing for Kristiansund BK in the Eliteserien in Norway. Tom Bogert of The Athletic cites Stian André de Wahl regarding Orlando City’s interest (translation needed) in bringing Bruseth to the City Beautiful.

As noted in the post, this is not a done deal. After the successes of Robin Jansson and Dagur Dan Thorhallsson, I’m ready for more Vikings in the lineup. We will keep an eye on this to see if it develops into something more concrete.

USWNT Advances to Gold Medal Game

Once again, it took the USWNT all the way into extra time to get a goal, but ultimately it was enough to allow the U.S. to advance to the gold medal match. Sophia Smith scored the winning goal in the 95th minute. After that the U.S. was able to hold off Germany to secure the win. Emma Hayes was not happy when questioned about her lack of substitutions in the match against Japan, and she doubled down on the strategy in this match. The normal starters will get the chance to prove their fitness in the gold medal match. The U.S. will face Brazil on Saturday at 11 a.m.

Marta-less Brazil Downs Spain

As mentioned above, Brazil will join the USWNT in the gold medal match after stunning Spain with a 4-2 victory over the defending World Cup winners. The Pride’s Adriana scored Brazil’s third goal on a header that was a follow up to her own shot that hit the crossbar. Pride midfielder Angelina started and was the captain for Brazil. It’s an immense honor, and we’re very happy for her. Now that she has served her two-game suspension, Marta will be available for the match on Saturday and is now guaranteed a medal in her final Olympics. As much as I’d like her to win a gold medal, I will still be rooting for the USWNT to top Brazil.

Free Kicks

• Manchester City’s Julian Alvarez is headed to Atletico Madrid in a deal worth £81.5 million. It will be a record sale for Manchester City, topping the £50 million Chelsea paid for Raheem Sterling.
• U.S. Soccer can cross Pellegrino Matarazzo off its candidate list, as the Hoffenheim skipper has decided to stay with the club in the Bundesliga.
• Sergino Dest is slowly working his way back from his ACL surgery. The USMNT defender has started working on strength and agility drills on his own.
• Weston McKennie is expected to leave Juventus, and the club made it a little more obvious when it took his jersey option off of the team’s online shop.
• When you’re an Orlando Pride supporter at the USWNT match in the Olympics and want everyone to know it:

That will do it for today, though I suggest you pop back in after lunch. I suspect there will be some big things afoot later today. Vamos Orlando.