Lion Links: 9/3/24

Happy Tuesday, everyone! If you had Labor Day off, I hope it was a restful one. If not, I hope you started the week on a strong note. It was a nine-point weekend for Orlando’s soccer teams, so that meant that we here at The Mane Land had a damn good start to our week. Before we jump into today’s links, let’s all wish a happy birthday to Orlando Pride defender Megan Montefusco!

Pride Focused on Final Objective

The Orlando Pride are riding a 19-match unbeaten streak, but Head Coach Seb Hines is focused on more than the many records broken this year. Speaking after the team’s win over NJ/NY Gotham FC on Sunday, Hines said that while winning streaks and records are nice, the Pride “have an objective that we want to achieve this year.” He also highlighted the fact that Orlando didn’t concede a goal after the 75th minute. On a related note, defenders Cori Dyke and Kylie Strom were both complimentary of Adriana’s two early goals and said that having the early lead made it much easier to defend and keep a clean sheet.

Daryl Dike Attacking Injury Rehab

Since moving to West Bromwich Albion, Daryl Dike’s injury luck has been about as brutal as it gets, with the big striker missing 98 matches for his team during his two years there. He isn’t letting that discourage him though, and he said that the rehab for his current injury has been better than what he’s experienced in the past, adding he’s hopeful that he’ll be back in full training sometime in the next month. Rather than letting the repeated injuries frustrate him, he said he’s used those experiences to get better and keep working hard to return to the field. Hopefully we’ll see him back out there soon!

Mikey Varas Speaks on Roster Selection

As we covered during yesterday’s Lion Links, the United States Men’s National Team roster for this month’s upcoming friendlies has been announced, and there were a couple surprising omissions in the form of Weston McKennie and Antonee Robinson. Interim manager Mikey Varas has now spoken about his reasoning behind leaving two of the team’s biggest names off the roster. He cited McKennie not being able to complete a full preseason with Juventus, and opined that it would be better for him to stay in Italy and get up to speed on things. For Robinson, Varas pointed to the fact that he’s been banged up during 2024, and said that the best thing would be for him to stay at Fulham and focus on getting healthy.

MLS Stock Watch

After a busy slate of games over the weekend, now is a good time to check in around Major League Soccer and see what direction various teams are trending in. The Columbus Crew avoided suffering a letdown after winning the Leagues Cup, picking up a couple of nice wins to keep things rolling. The Colorado Rapids won on the road against FC Dallas, and sits fourth in the Western Conference after finishing third in Leagues Cup. Then you have CF Montreal, which has lost its last three games by a combined score of 10-1, and Nashville SC, which has lost eight straight games after suffering a 3-0 loss to the Lions.

Free Kicks

• Facundo Torres has been called up to represent Uruguay.

• In a very unsurprising piece of news, the Orlando Pride stayed at the top spot in both CBSSports.com’s and ESPN.com’s NWSL power rankings.
• Orlando City rose one spot to 15th in ESPN.com’s MLS power rankings.
• Former Orlando City player Dom Dwyer bagged his first goal of the season for Oakland Roots SC.

• Luis Suarez has retired from playing for Uruguay.

That’ll do it for me today. Vamos Orlando!