Lion Links
Lion Links: 4/28/26
Takeaways from MLS matchday 10, Americans in midweek action, Vancouver Whitecaps may be relocated, and more.
Good morning, everyone. It was a mixed bag for Orlando’s soccer teams over the weekend, as Orlando City B was the only one of the three sides to get a result. We’ve got another busy week ahead of us as Orlando City will be in action twice, the Orlando Pride face the Washington Spirit on Saturday, and OCB takes on Crown Legacy to round off the week on Sunday. We’ve got plenty to discuss today, so let’s jump into the links.
MLS Matchday 10 Lessons
Matchday 10 is officially in the books for Major League Soccer, so what did we learn from the weekend’s action? For one thing, the Vancouver Whitecaps seem to have done a very good job of reloading from the off-season losses of Ali Ahmed and Jayden Nelson. New faces Cheikh Sabaly and Bruno Caicedo have been finding their feet and both had goal involvements in Vancouver’s 3-1 win over the Colorado Rapids. Matt Turner looks to be rediscovering some of his best form as he made nine saves in the New England Revolution’s 1-1 draw with Inter Miami. New York City FC’s Matt Freese has been the frontrunner to start in goal for the United States Men’s National Team at the World Cup this summer, but based on his league performances, Turner could make a late charge.
Americans in Midweek Action
Plenty of Americans will be taking part in games during the working week, so let’s have a look at the schedule. Things get started Wednesday, when Tim Ream, Luca de la Torre, and Charlotte FC play Atlanta United in the U.S. Open Cup Round of 16. Wednesday has Johnny Cardoso and Atletico Madrid hosting Arsenal in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semifinals. On Thursday, Chris Richards and Crystal Palace will travel to Shakhtar Donetsk for the first leg of a UEFA Conference League semifinal. The action wraps up on Friday when Brenden Aaronson and Leeds United host Burnley in a Premier League tilt.
Relocation Possible for Vancouver Whitecaps
A special committee of MLS owners reportedly met earlier in April to discuss the potential relocation of the Vancouver Whitecaps. Specifically, Las Vegas is said to have been the primary relocation option discussed at the meeting. It’s been two decades since a team was relocated, as the last franchise to move were the San Jose Earthquakes, who went to Houston and became the Dynamo before being replaced with another San Jose expansion team two years later. Other cities said to be interested in landing a team include Phoenix, Indianapolis, and Sacramento, with Phoenix reportedly one of the main candidates being considered for relocation alongside Vegas. In the meantime, the Whitecaps remain up for sale while the team tries to find an in-market stadium solution, as the team’s lease with BC Place expires at the end of the year.
High Profile Injuries Continue
The 2025-2026 European season has seen a number of high profile injuries, and that’s a trend that unfortunately continued over the weekend. Xavi Simons suffered a torn ACL in his right knee during Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-0 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday, and he will undergo surgery that will sideline him for a significant amount of time. Real Madrid confirmed on Monday that Kylian Mbappe has a left hamstring injury, and he could reportedly miss the May 10 Clasico match against Barcelona as well as the rest of the La Liga season. AC Milan midfielder Luka Modric fractured his left cheekbone in the team’s 0-0 draw with Juventus on Sunday and had surgery to repair the damage. His club season is over, but Croatia manager Zlatko Dalic is confident that he will be healthy in time for the World Cup.
Free Kicks
- FIFA will reportedly increase the number of times that yellow cards are wiped away at this summer’s World Cup.
- Tailgating will be allowed prior to World Cup games taking place at Gillette Stadium this summer.
- New York City will hold free World Cup fan fests in each of its five boroughs.
- Barcelona has reportedly made contact with Atletico Madrid over a potential transfer for striker Julian Alvarez.
That’s all I’ve got for you this morning. Vamos Orlando!
Zontar
April 28, 2026 at 10:19 am
Here’s what’s going on in Vancouver. The current owners bought the team long enough ago that you only needed hundreds of millions of dollars to compete in MLS. The economics have changed and it seems that Vancouver has never added an actual billionaire to the ownership group. That is maybe the biggest single problem right now. No MLS team has been allowed in without actual billionaire backing in more than a decade, but Vancouver got in when that wasn’t a requirement. They are secondary tenants at a CFL football stadium and while ownership does want a soccer specific stadium, the problem is that they can only pay so much for it. They don’t get along with local government, who is skeptical about a big taxpayer money giveaway to build a stadium for the team. This has caused the ownership and government to argue over stadium locations and to lead to ownership sort of insisting on one of those “multi-use” developments to make it work. The problem is that they can’t get the land without government cooperation and again, there remain concerns over who exactly is going to pay for this proposed development.
No local billionaire has emerged who wants to join the current owners or simply buy the team from them. My thought is that a new owner might be able to get a more positive relationship with local government and by being willing to pay a lot more of the cost and ask less of taxpayer money, get a new stadium project done. But with no such owner in sight, the team looks doomed in Vancouver. Other relocations have happened because no local owner wanted to buy a team up for sale. The Seattle Supersonics (NBA) and Atlanta Thrashers (NHL) are long gone for that exact reason.
I can promise you that in reality MLS will never put the Whitecaps in Indianapolis or Sacramento. Phoenix is a “maybe” but their main problem is that their USL ownership lacks a big money billionaire MLS trusts. I haven’t checked in a while, but a few years ago, the group did have a billionaire but he was a Chinese hotel industry guy and there seemed to be concerns that being in China, he could out of nowhere be subjected to any kind of Chinese government restrictions. The Chinese government willfully destroyed China’s FinTech industry earlier in the decade after a few CEOs made some “We don’t care what the government thinks” speeches. Having a Phoenix MLS team depend for most of its money on a guy who could see that money vanish overnight if the Chinese government gets mad is not good. And said government has strongly discouraged Chinese businessmen from buying foreign sports teams for a while now. Until Phoenix can fix that, Vegas seems the only likely relocation site.