Lion Links: 11/27/24

Welcome to Wednesday, Mane Landers! I don’t know about you, but I’m still buzzing from the Orlando Pride winning the NWSL Championship, and Orlando City advancing to the Eastern Conference final. If you haven’t already make sure to listen to The Mane Land PawedCast that dropped yesterday, and keep an eye out for SkoPurp Soccer: An Orlando Pride PawedCast dropping later today. For now, let’s get to the links, but first, it’s time to wish Orlando City midfielder Martin Ojeda a happy 26th birthday.

DisCo Strikes Again

The MLS Disciplinary Committee issued undisclosed fines against several players from both Orlando City and Atlanta United for violating the league’s Mass Confrontation Policy. As this was the third time Orlando City violated the policy, Head Coach Oscar Pareja was fined. This was the second time Atlanta United violated the policy, so interim coach Rob Valentino was also fined. In case you forgot the incident, you can watch the video here.

Banda Wins Another Award

Barbra Banda was named the MVP of the 2024 NWSL Championship on Saturday, and now she has also been named the BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year 2024. Her trophy shelf certainly is getting crowded. Banda was one of five players up for the Footballer of the Year award, and won the award based on votes by the public. As you can tell from the following video, her Pride teammates are very proud of their striker.

Pride (Help) Achieve Another NWSL Record

The NWSL Championship match between the Orlando Pride and the Washington Spirit broke the NWSL viewership record for any NWSL match — regular season or postseason — in the league’s history. The match was watched by an average audience of 967,500 viewers on CBS, which doesn’t include those who watched on Paramount+. At its peak, the number of viewers rose to 1.1 million viewers. When you add in the Skills Challenge on Sunday, the total weekend viewership was over 2.5 million.

Champions League Results

Tuesday was a big day in the UEFA Champions League. Christian Pulisic kept up his good form in AC Milan’s 3-2 victory over ŠK Slovan Bratislava, scoring in the 21st minute.

In one of the most interesting matches, Feyenoord came back from a three-goal deficit to draw Manchester City 3-3. Robert Lewandowski became only the third player ever to score 100 Champions League goals. Lewandowski scored a brace for Barcelona in the Spanish side’s 3-0 victory over Brest. You can check out the rest of the results here.

Free Kicks

• Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser held up her end of the bargain after losing her wager with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, lighting up the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in purple.

• Former Pride winger Claire Emslie signed a new two-year contract through 2026 with Angel City FC.
• Inter Miami named Javier Mascherano as head coach of the club. Mascherano, who replaced Gerardo Martino, was most recently head coach of the Argentina U-20 and Olympic teams.
• Olof Mellberg has been named St. Louis City SC’s new head coach. The former Aston Villa and Swedish Men’s National Team captain has coached at several Scandinavian clubs.
• The head coaching carousel continued with New York City FC parting ways with Head Coach Nick Cushing.
• Finally, Orlando City and the Orlando Pride hosted their annual turkey giveaway for families in need. I love the fact that there have been trophies won over the last few years, but it’s also good knowing that the club does stuff like this for the Orlando community.

That will do it for today. I hope you enjoy the holiday tomorrow if you’re with family or friends. No matter what else you do, take care of yourself.