PawedCast Episode 517: Colorado Preseason Recap, New York Preview, and More

The preseason is behind us and the time has come for the games to matter. That is usually heralded with a great deal of excitement from fans, but the final preseason game the Lions played against Colorado may have instilled a bit more apprehension than hope.

We open this week’s show with thoughts about Saturday’s preseason loss to the Rapids from the lineup, to the inexperienced bench, to Ivan Angulo as a fullback, to the back line problems, to Eduard Atuesta’s magical free kick goal, and so on. Orlando City may have lost a lopsided game on the scoreboard, but the Rapids simply paid off the few chances they generated, while the Lions controlled the play of the match but could not find the same success at the final moment that Colorado found.

I also gave some thoughts on the discussions we had postgame with Marco Pasalic, Eduard Atuesta, and Oscar Pareja. The players didn’t seem any less confident or show any less belief in the team after the loss, handling it as you’d expect from veteran professionals. Pareja was candid about the need for improvement and the challenge of letting Iago play while he’s still learning the Orlando City system and the expectations of his teammates. We also provided an update on some of the injured Lions who did not make the match day squad on Saturday.

Our mailbagbox asked about potential changes to the starting lineup, which player’s jersey to buy, who would play us in a biopic about this podcast, and more. Remember, if there’s anything — and we do mean anything — you want us to address on the show, just ask us by tweeting it to us at @TheManeLand with the hashtag #AskTMLPC, or hitting us up on Bluesky Social with that same hashtag.

Finally, we wrap up the show with a brief discussion of Saturday’s opening night matchup against the New York Red Bulls. There’s not a lot to go on after preseason, but we do manage to unanimously give our key matchup of the game and we try our hand at score predictions. It’s never an easy thing to do in the first game of the season.

Be sure to rate and review our show wherever you get your podcasts. Remember, we’ll read any five-star reviews we get on Apple Podcasts on the next show.

If you’d like to support our independent writing and podcasting efforts, we’d love to have you as a subscriber or donor over at our Buy Me a Coffee site.

Here’s how No. 517 went down:

0:15 – The Lions got battered on the scoreboard, but the game didn’t play out as badly as all that. Still, Orlando City has work to do and is dreadfully thin.

27:42 – The mailbagbox shows we’ve got decent overall taste in player jerseys and unrealistic expectations about who should play us in a movie about us.

50:25 – The Red Bulls are visiting on Saturday. Can the Lions handle them? We try to prognosticate.