Lion Links: 9/19/24

It may be a Thursday, but Orlando City’s win Wednesday night makes it feel a little bit more like a Friday. It’s been pretty great seeing all three of Orlando’s soccer teams performing well over the past few weeks. Let’s dive right into Orlando City’s win and more in today’s links!

Orlando City Beats Charlotte FC at Home

The Lions hosted Charlotte FC in a midweek matchup and took all three points in a 2-0 victory. Orlando’s attacking stars showed up when needed, resulting in a nice pair of goals in the second half. The defense also took care of business to secure the team’s third consecutive clean sheet. With another win under their belt, the Lions are now fourth in the Eastern Conference standings with 43 points and a tiebreaker (wins) over the New York Red Bulls. The result was also Head Coach Oscar Pareja’s 171st regular-season win in MLS, putting him in sole possession of fifth on the all-time list.

Oscar Pareja Discusses Late Season Surge

After a sluggish start to the season, Orlando City is parlaying another strong summer into a great run to close out the season. The Lions have won seven of their last nine league games and are on a nine-game unbeaten streak at home across all competitions. Head Coach Oscar Pareja is no stranger to getting an MLS team performing at its best this time of year.

“I do feel that urgency to start heating up better for us to win games. It is a part of the season where you start feeling kind of the smell of autumn,” the Colombian said in a recent one-on-one conversation with MLSsoccer.com. “And that is related to competition, with not much mistakes, and winning the games that you must win. So that is really what we feel now.”

He also spoke on the reasons behind Orlando’s slow start, improvements by Martin Ojeda and Luis Muriel, and how the team is juggling multiple options at forward. It’s a great interview from Pareja that details some of the team’s decisions this season.

Breaking Down the NWSL Awards Contenders

With only six games left for each team in the NWSL season, it’s becoming clearer which players are contenders to win an award at the end of the season. The MVP race looks to be between Orlando Pride forward Barbra Banda and the Kansas City Current’s Temwa Chawinga, and it may just come down to if Banda can close the gap some in the Golden Boot race. Pride center back Emily Sams is the frontrunner for Defender of the Year for her role in an Orlando defense that’s only allowed 12 goals in 20 games this season. That defense is partly why Anna Moorhouse isn’t the favorite for Goalkeeper of the Year, despite 11 clean sheets this season. Seb Hines is nearly a lock to win Coach of the Year, although Kansas City’s Vlatko Andonovski has a shot depending on how the rest of the season shakes out.

U.S. Falls in U-20 World Cup Semifinals

The United States U-20 Women’s National Team wasn’t able to pull off a comeback in the U-20 Women’s World Cup semifinals, losing 1-0 to Korea DPR. Pride midfielder Ally Lemos started for the U.S. and played every minute of the game. Choe Il Son scored the only goal of the game in the first half , and the U.S. wasn’t able to find an equalizer despite some decent chances. The U.S. will miss out on Sunday’s final, but will take on the Netherlands to close out its tournament in the third-place match on Saturday at 5:30 p.m.

Free Kicks

• Orlando City B duo Justin Ellis and Colin Guske both scored in the United States U-18 National Team’s 2-0 win over Peru in a youth tournament in Japan. Ellis also scored in a 4-3 loss to Japan as the U.S. went 1-1-1 in its three matches.
• Lionel Messi won MLS Goal of the Matchday, beating out Orlando’s Rafael Santos and LA Galaxy pair Edwin Cerrillo and Riqui Puig. Santos’ impressive strike from distance deserved more than the 7.6% share of the vote it received.
• Toyota Stadium, home of FC Dallas, is set to undergo major renovations that include adding a roof to provide more shade to fans and increasing seating capacity.
• In Champions League action, Manchester City and Inter Milan played to a scoreless draw in England while Paris Saint-Germain needed an own goal to win 1-0 over Girona. Borussia Dortmund and Celtic also enjoyed wins to start their campaigns.
• AS Roma sacked Daniele De Rossi just four games into the Serie A season and hired Ivan Juric.
• French striker Anthony Martial landed in Greece to sign with AEK Athens on a free transfer.

That’s all I have for you today. I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday and rest of your week!