Lion Links: 9/24/25

Welcome to Wednesday, Mane Landers. It was great getting to meet new readers at the Orlando City and Orlando Pride matches over the weekend. It’s always special for me to come down to Inter&Co Stadium to watch a match or two with 20,000 of my fellow supporters. We truly appreciate all of you who visit our site. Hopefully, it won’t be so long between visits for me. For now, let’s get to the links.

Ojeda’s Celebrations

If you watched Martin Ojeda’s goal in the match against Nashville SC you would have seen his meditation-like goal celebration. It’s a celebration we have seen after many of his goals, and it’s not just performative. Ojeda does meditate and tries to be conscious and present in the moment. He does it with his family and when scoring a goal for Orlando City. I respect his efforts to both celebrate internally and with his teammates and the fans.

Orlando City Superlatives

As the MLS playoffs get closer, Orlando City sits in sixth place in the Eastern Conference and at the No. 9 spot in MLSsoccer.com’s power rankings. The site mentions that Ojeda will need to score more goals for Orlando to navigate the next three matches. The Lions’ Designated Player is seventh in the Golden Boot standings and honestly doesn’t have a chance to win it barring something truly extraordinary to finish the season. At least Orlando City isn’t the most likely to disappoint according to Sports Illustrated.

NWSL Tables Turned

What a difference a year makes. The Kansas City Current have won the NWSL Shield and the Orlando Pride are struggling — to put it mildly. The Current set a record for winning the Shield with five matches remaining. Last season, the Pride did so with three matches remaining. There’s still a chance for this Pride team to turn things around, but that time is running short, and a result against the San Diego Wave on Friday is a must.

USMNT News

There is a lot going on both on and off the field for the USMNT. For example, Gio Reyna has invested in the USL’s Fort Lauderdale United FC. Stu Holden said that the USMNT should make the 3-4-2-1 formation used against Japan permanent. We’ll see if Mauricio Pochettino agrees. I’ll leave you with this goal by Christian Pulisic in AC Milan’s 3-0 win over Lecce. It was his third goal of the week.

Free Kicks

• Former Orlando City midfielder Felipe is heading to Harvard University to study business. Good luck in the Ivy Leagues, Felipe!
• The Chicago Fire has signed former Orlando City draft pick Jonathan Dean, former Lion Chris Mueller, and Jeff Gal to new contracts.
• Barcelona will have to wait to return to Camp Nou as the city has denied an essential permit needed for the reservations.
• A Trinidad court decided that Former FIFA vice president Jack Warner will not be extradited to the U.S. to face corruption charges. Corruption in FIFA? Say it isn’t so.
• I knew that soccer players were a fashionable bunch, but I didn’t know that extended to their toiletry bags. Was it a slow news day or something?

That will do it for today. Check back as we get you ready for the Pride on Friday and Orlando City on Sunday. Vamos Orlando.