Lion Links: 7/30/25

Welcome to Wednesday, Mane Landers. It’s match day in the City Beautiful as the Leagues Cup competition comes to Inter&Co Stadium. I know it’s a midweek match, but hopefully you can make it out to support the Lions. If not, you can follow the match on The Mane Land’s Bluesky account. For now, let’s get to the links.

Orlando City in the Leagues Cup

Orlando City plays Pumas UNAM to start the Leagues Cup this evening. Despite the match being at Inter&Co Stadium, the Lions are technically the away team for this match. Pumas is the first of three Liga MX teams that Orlando City will play to start the competition. You can listen to our preview on The Mane Land PawedCast, and check back for our preview later today. Here is your match guide if you are going to the stadium tonight.

Lions Moving Up; Ojeda Honored

Orlando City moved up three spots to eighth in both the Sports Illustrated power rankings and the MLSsoccer.com Power Rankings thanks to its comeback win over the Columbus Crew. A big part of Orlando City’s success in that match — and the rest of the season — has been the attacking prowess of Martin Ojeda. With 25 goal contributions, he’s made Tom Bogert’s top five for MLS MVP.

McCutcheon Nominated

Haley McCutcheon is the Pride’s 2025 nominee for the 2025 Lauren Holiday Impact Award. Her community partner is the Foundation for Foster Children. McCutcheon’s work with the Foundation will be featured during the match against Bay FC on Sept. 13. The midfielder will sport a special armband during the match. Here is a video introducing all of the nominees.

Leagues Cup Results

Orlando City may not play until tonight, but there were plenty of Leagues Cup matches last night. CF Montreal defeated Club Leon on penalty kicks 1-1 (7-6). Liga MX flipped the script with Toluca beating the Columbus Crew on penalty kicks 1-1 (4-2). The other four matches were later in the evening.

Free Kicks

• San Diego Wave FC signed French international midfielder Laurina Fazer from PSG through 2027. Did you know that NWSL teams can sign new players?
• Thomas Muller is close to making a move to MLS, though he’ll stay north of the border with the Vancouver Whitecaps.
• Where will Matt Turner end up? The New England Revolution are interested in the USMNT keeper, though Lyon and Nottingham Forest are still in talks.

• Alex Freeman and some of his fellow USMNT teammates sat down for a Q&A session with former Lion Sacha Kljestan.

That will do it for today. Check back for our coverage of tonight’s match. Vamos Orlando!