How’s it going, Mane Landers? All three of Orlando’s soccer teams are in action on Saturday and I’m not sure if I’m excited or dreading it considering how they’ve been playing lately. Hopefully it’s a day to remember positively. But for now, let’s jump right into today’s links!

Orlando City Squanders Lead in Leagues Cup Draw

Orlando City drew 2-2 against Atletico de San Luis and won the penalty shootout afterwards 5-3 in its final game of this year’s Leagues Cup. With a mainly rotated lineup, the Lions managed to take a two-goal lead and generated great chances for more. However, San Luis responded with a pair of goals of its own, including an equalizer deep in stoppage time. Javier Otero may not have maintained a clean sheet, but he did come up with a huge save to help Orlando win the shootout. The Lions were officially eliminated from the tournament, but the younger players were able to get some minutes while some of the starters got rest before Saturday’s match against FC Cincinnati.

Orlando Pride Sign Sanne Lekven

The Orlando Pride signed Norwegian forward Sanne Lekven to a deal through the 2028 season with a club option for 2029. The 25-year-old had five goals in 10 appearances for Aalesunds FK in Norway’s top flight and will now join an Orlando team in desperate need of offensive help. She’s one of three attacking players signed by the Pride this summer alongside Zoe Matthews and Gabi Nunes, so hopefully she can make an impact in the NWSL.

Chicago Stars Fire Martin Sjogren

The Chicago Stars are last in the NWSL standings and have fired Martin Sjogren as their head coach. The Stars are winless in their past five games, only scoring once during that stretch, so it’s not too surprising to see them make a coaching change. Karina Baez, who has been an assistant coach for Chicago for the past three seasons, will serve as the interim head coach for the remainder of the 2026 season. Former Chicago head coach Lorne Donaldson is also returning to the club as its “interim director of coaching.”

MLS Transfer News Roundup

The Colorado Rapids transferred center back Lucas Herrington to Hull City for a club-recorded fee reported to be up to $23 million. The 18-year-old joined the Rapids last year from Brisbane Roar FC for a fee under $1 million and went on to become an All-Star this year, so it’s a nice bit of business by the Rapids to say the least. Hull City has been on quite the spending spree this summer, although FC Cincinnati reportedly rejected its offer for forward Kevin Denkey.

In other news, the Vancouver Whitecaps signed Serbian midfielder Aleksa Cvetkovic as an MLS U22 Initiative player, the New York Red Bulls transferred Swedish midfielder Gustav Berggren to Lech Poznań in Poland’s top flight, and the Columbus Crew are reportedly signing forward Josef Martinez.

Free Kicks

• Tottenham has reportedly begun talks with Monaco over a move for American forward Folarin Balogun for nearly $70 million.
• Paris Saint-Germain beat Aston Villa 2-1 to win the UEFA Super Cup for the second year in a row.
• Spanish soccer legend Xavi Hernandez was hired as the Netherlands’ head coach. The Netherlands were eliminated in the round of 32 of this summer’s World Cup and Xavi will be the team’s first foreign head coach in nearly 50 years.
• Sisters Temwa and Tabitha Chawinga combined for three goals in Malawi’s 3-1 win over Algeria to advance to Sunday’s Women’s Africa Cup of Nations final against Cameroon.
• Turkish club Fenerbahce signed Romelu Lukaku from Napoli for a reported $7 million transfer fee.

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

Welcome to Wednesday, Mane Landers. It’s Leagues Cup match day, and I’m sure you’re as excited as I am, right? Right?!? Despite it being a money grab of a tournament in which the Lions are unlikely to advance, it is at least an opportunity to watch the team we support, and as such, I will be watching. Let’s get to the links.

Orlando City Hosts San Luis to Close First Leagues Cup Phase

Orlando City faces Atlético de San Luis tonight at Inter.co Stadium in the team’s third Leagues Cup match. If the Lions are to advance, the team will need to win the match and get some help from other teams in the tournament if they are to advance. As I said on The Mane Land PawedCast, I hope Orlando City smartly focuses on the upcoming regular-season match against FC Cincinnati. Sadly, I believe that won’t be the case, so you can expect the team to play a mixture of starters and subs.

Pride Proceed to Portland’s Providence Park

The Orlando Pride travel across the country to take on the Portland Thorns Saturday evening. The Pride are coming off a 3-1 loss to Racing Louisville, and let’s just say that the metrics were not good. As if bad form and traveling across the nation were not enough, the Thorns will be holding a celebration for former Portland and USWNT defender Meghan Klingenberg prior to the match. I don’t think the Thorns needed any extra motivation, but there it is.

Orlando City B Defeated…Again

Orlando City B continued its slide down the MLS NEXT Pro table after losing 3-0 to New York City FC II. With so many Young Lions covering for injuries with the first team, OCB Head Coach Eddie Wilding made five changes to the starting lineup. There were also four academy players who made their professional debuts. NYCFC II scored two goals in the the first 13 minutes and added a third in the second half. OCB will face Chicago Fire FC II on the road Saturday.

NWSL Accolades

If you didn’t watch other NWSL matches after being demoralized by how the Pride played Friday, I won’t blame you. That being said, there were matches played and things happened in those matches. I believe that Kerry Abello should have been up for Goal of the Week, but alas she wasn’t and instead the honor went to Ashley Sanchez from the North Carolina Courage. Don’t get me wrong it was a good goal, but Abello’s shot was better.

Anna Moorhouse was never in the discussion for Save of the Week. Instead it was won by Portland’s Mackenzie Arnold.

Arnold also won Assist of the Week on Pietra Tordin’s second goal.

Finally, Tordin won Player of the Week for her hat trick against Boston Legacy FC. She gets to face the Pride’s defense and Moorhouse on Saturday night.

Free Kicks

• Olivia Moultrie is out for the season due to an ACL injury. This is not just a blow to the Portland Thorns but to the USWNT as well.
• St. Louis City transferred Marcel Hartel to 2. Bundesliga side Hannover 96. The midfielder’s departure opens a Designated Player spot for St. Louis.
• CF Montreal signed Alexis Sanchez as a Designated Player through the 2027 MLS sprint season.

• Not everyone thinks that Gianni Infantino is horribly corrupt and should resign. Any guesses as to who I’m referring to?

That will do it for today. You can follow The Mane Land on Bluesky for match updates and we will also have a recap of the match. Vamos Orlando!

Good morning, everyone. It wasn’t a particularly pleasant weekend for Orlando’s soccer teams, but fortunately, opportunities to change the vibes are right around the corner. Orlando City B plays NYCFC II in a few hours, Orlando City plays San Luis tomorrow and FC Cincinnati on Saturday, and the Orlando Pride are in action against the Portland Thorns on Saturday night as well. We’ve got lots to talk over this morning, so let’s get into it.

Leagues Cup Preview

Leagues Cup will begin its final round of group stage games later today, and there are several storylines to keep an eye on. Most prominent among them is the match between Austin FC and Club America, as each team currently sits first in its respective table. Myrto Uzuni’s hat trick helped Austin bury Puebla in its second match, and the Verde and Black are now in great position to advance. Before we get to that match on Thursday though, FC Cincinnati plays Atlas this evening to kick off the last round of games. Cincy sits fourth in the MLS table and therefore has plenty to play for, while Atlas has no points and has already been eliminated from contention. With Cincy visiting the City Beautiful on Saturday, Orlando fans should be hoping for FCC’s key players to rack up a lot of minutes tonight.

Americans in Midweek Action

Plenty of Americans will be taking part in matches during the working week, so make sure you’ve got everything noted down on your calendar. Tanner Tessmann and Lyon kick things off later today as they try to overturn a 2-1 first leg deficit against Sparta Prague in UEFA Champions Leauge qualifying. Things continue with Brenden Aaronson and Leeds playing Manchester United in a friendly on Wednesday, while Malik Tillman and Bayer Leverkusen have a friendly of their own against Nottingham Forest. Things wrap up with some American-on-American violence on Friday, as Johnny Cardoso and Atletico Madrid play Marseille in a friendly, while Folarin Balogun and Monaco face Haji Wright and Coventry in a tune-up game.

Confederations Write Letter Criticizing Gianni Infantino

Concacaf, UEFA, and AFC have written a joint open letter soccer as a whole, in which they accuse FIFA president Gianni Infantino of betraying the trust of the confederations and engaging in deceptive practices. They condemned the plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors, and called both FIFA’s integrity and Infantino’s running of the organization into question. U.S. Soccer put out its own statement on Sunday in support of Concacaf’s stance. The letter also urged FIFA to conduct an independent review of the proposal to sell stakes in the World Cup, while calling for accountability and openness among Infantino and the rest of FIFA’s leadership.

Transfer Rumor Roundup

There are plenty of transfer rumors to catch up on this morning, so let’s get straight into it. We start in England, where Crystal Palace is reportedly finalizing the signing of Zavier Gozo from Real Salt Lake. In Spain, Atletico Madrid has reportedly submitted an offer in the area of €35 million to Lille for winger Matias Fernandez-Pardo. Meanwhile, Endrick will supposedly be staying at Real Madrid this season following discussions between himself, the club, and Head Coach Jose Mourinho. Barcelona ha reportedly rejected a €50 million offer for Ferran Torres from Paris Saint-Germain, as the Catalonian club wants the fee to be structured differently than PSG’s initial proposal. Finally, in a rather unexpected bit of news, Tom Bogert reports that CF Montreal is signing Alexis Sanchez as a Designated Player.

Free Kicks

• The Orlando Pride slid three spots to no.15 in ESPN.com’s NWSL power rankings.
• Copa Libertadores, Copa Sudamericana, and league games have been postponed in Colombia after the country was struck by a 7.4 magnitude earthquake on Monday.
• The would-be World Cup referee that was barred from entering the United States has spoken about the experience ahead of preparing to officiate the UEFA Super Cup.
• A group including Jeff Bezos is reportedly in talks to buy a 30% stake in Liverpool.

That’s all I’ve got for you this morning. Vamos Orlando!