Welcome to Friday, Mane Landers. Hopefully your Thanksgiving was a joyous one filled with great food and greater company. If not, at least you can revel in the fact that the weekend is right around the corner (many of you may already be in yours because of the holiday) and is packed with plenty of soccer to enjoy. Let’s dive into today’s links from around the soccer world.

Orlando City Enters the Unknown

Despite a slow start to the season, Orlando City finds itself further in the playoffs than ever before and will host the New York Red Bulls Saturday night in the Eastern Conference final. The Lions may be in uncharted territory, but they have plenty of experience in knockout tournaments to draw upon. Taylor Twellman broke down how the Lions reached this point and became one of the top teams in the league. Goalkeeper Pedro Gallese helped solidify Orlando’s defense, and attackers Facundo Torres, Ramiro Enrique, and Martin Ojeda all found their groove at the right time.

Along with recognizing the many weapons in Orlando’s dynamic offense, Bradley Wright-Phillips gave deserved praise to midfield duo Cesar Araujo and Wilder Cartagena, who have made life difficult for opponents. As for the key Red Bulls players to watch for tomorrow, Emil Forsberg has the team firing on all cylinders and Lewis Morgan may be due for a big game. He has a history of success against Orlando.

USWNT Prepares for Friendly Against England

The United States Women’s National Team will take on England at Wembley Stadium Saturday in the first of two friendlies to close out the year. It will be the 20th match between the two nations, with England winning the most recent meeting on Oct. 7, 2022. England boasts plenty of talent all over its roster, including forward Beth Mead and defender Lucy Bronze. Orlando Pride goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse is a part of England’s roster. It should be a great match between the two highest ranked teams in the world and also an interesting chess match between coaches Emma Hayes and Sarina Wiegman.

USMNT Moves Up in FIFA Rankings

The latest men’s FIFA rankings were unveiled and the U.S. jumped up two spots to 16th following its pair of wins over Jamaica in the Concacaf Nations League quarterfinals. The Yanks are the highest-ranked Concacaf team, with Mexico falling three spots to 19th and Canada climbing four spots to 31st. There was also some movement in the top 10 of the rankings, with Germany moving up to 10th while Colombia fell to 12th. Argentina remains at the top of the rankings despite a loss to Paraguay and a narrow win over Peru.

Keeping Up With the Europa League

The UEFA Europa League rolled on and Manchester United came up with a crucial win in manager Ruben Amorim’s first home game at Old Trafford. Alejandro Garnacho scored early and Rasmus Højlund had a brace to help the team rally and beat Bodø/Glimt 3-2. Elsewhere in England, Mats Hummels scored an equalizer in stoppage time for AS Roma to draw 2-2 against Tottenham. Lazio’s perfect run in the tournament came to an end after a scoreless draw against Ludogorets. Rangers, Fenerbahce, and Eintracht Frankfurt came up with solid wins in this latest round of matches as well.

Free Kicks

• You’ll need to get past The Athletic‘s paywall for the full details, but American forward Ricardo Pepi spoke on how his late winner in PSV Eindhoven’s 3-2 victory against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League was one of the most important goals of his career.
• Coventry City, which is 17th in England’s second division, hired Frank Lampard as its next head coach to right the ship.
• Here’s a nice collection of the latest reports surrounding players like Viktor Gyokeres, Miguel Almiron, and Tomas Araujo.
• Spanish goalkeeper David de Gea has been doing well with Fiorentina to help the club unexpectedly contend for the Serie A title this year.
• Real Madrid’s bus was involved in a minor collision after its loss to Liverpool earlier this week. Thankfully no one was seriously hurt and the players were reportedly not on the bus at the time of the incident.

That’s all I have for you all this time around. If you plan on going out and shopping today, I wish you the best of luck. I’ll be staying in and knocking out some gift buying online. Have a great Friday!

Happy Thanksgiving, Mane Landers! I don’t have too much preparation today beyond putting together some cranberry and brie bites for my family. The baking trials over the past week were more…trialing than expected, but I think I’ve figured out how to make them without giving myself too much stress today. My muffin tin was also a bit bigger than is probably optimal, so they come out more like muffins than anything. Before we dive into today’s links, here’s a picture of an imperfect batch before I realized they need a drizzle that I’ll make today.

Orlando City Prepares for the New York Red Bulls

For the first time in club history, Orlando City will take part in an Eastern Conference final when it hosts the New York Red Bulls on Saturday. It will be the third game between the two teams this year, and the Lions did not win either of the previous two meetings. The past hardly matters now though, as both teams are now just a game away from playing in the MLS Cup final. Head Coach Oscar Pareja spoke on the importance of Saturday’s game and how the Lions are preparing for their last home game of 2024.

Changes Planned For Osceola Heritage Park

Public documents revealed some of the major changes planned for Osceola Heritage Park following the Wilf family’s submitted proposal for parts of the land. The project is estimated to cost close to $1.3 billion and would include expansions for the team’s headquarters, academy, and 18 training fields. There are also plans for apartments, hotels, and restaurants and construction could begin next year. Orlando’s letter of interest in the land was the only one submitted and Osceola County Manager Don Fisher will reportedly recommend that county commissioners proceed with negotiations with the Wilf family.

Eliminated MLS Clubs Make Roster Moves

With only four contenders left in the MLS playoffs, the eliminated teams have turned their attention to getting their rosters ready for 2025. LAFC exercised the options on the contracts for goalkeepers Hugo Lloris and David Ochoa. It declined the option on MLS veteran Kei Kamara’s contract and is in discussions with forward Carlos Vela and defender Aaron Long as well. Former Lion Benji Michel’s contract option with Real Salt Lake was one of many declined by the club. Rubio Rubin, Maikel Chang, and Marcelo Silva won’t be in Salt Lake City next year either. Bongokuhle Hlongwane and Dayne St. Clair predictably had their contract options exercised by Minnesota United, while former Lion Derek Dodson had his declined.

The Columbus Crew will roll into 2025 without Yaw Yeboah or Alexandru Matan, but is keeping a decent amount of players around like Christian Ramirez, Jacen Russell-Rowe, and Patrick Schulte. Luis Suarez and Inter Miami have also agreed to a one-year contract extension that will keep him with the club through 2025.

UEFA Champions League Roundup

The most exciting match from the latest round of Champions League matches was in the Netherlands, with PSV Eindhoven coming back to beat Shakhtar Donetsk 3-2. The Americans shined, as Malik Tillman scored twice to tie things up, and then Ricardo Pepi provided the winner in stoppage time as a substitute. Benfica also had a thrilling 3-2 win thanks to a pair of late assists from Angel Di Maria to beat Monaco.

Real Madrid’s rough tournament continued with a 2-0 loss to Liverpool that included Kylian Mbappe having a penalty kick saved and an injury to Eduardo Camavinga. Borussia Dortmund cruised to a 3-0 win over Dinamo Zagreb, Aston Villa and Juventus battled to a scoreless draw in England, and Ngal’ayel Mukau had a brace in Lille’s 2-1 victory against Bologna. Cameron Carter-Vickers had a rough day after an own goal in Celtic’s 1-1 draw with Club Brugge.

Free Kicks

• Philadelphia Union Sporting Director Ernst Tanner may have revealed that not every MLS team will take part in Leagues Cup next year, which would be a change from its past iterations.
• Ruud van Nistelrooy will reportedly become Leicester City’s next manager. This news comes after his solid and brief stint as Manchester United’s interim head coach.

• It may be Thanksgiving, but there’s still some soccer to check out today in the Europa League. The 18-match slate is highlighted by Tottenham’s clash with Roma and Manchester United’s home game with Bodø/Glimt.
• FIFA announced a $50 million legacy fund in collaboration with 2022 World Cup host Qatar and various groups like the World Health Organization, World Trade Organization, and UN Refugee Agency. Amnesty, a human rights group, noted how this legacy fund does not provide aid for the families of the migrant workers affected by the construction for the 2022 World Cup.
• Referee David Coote is under investigation for allegations that he exchanged messages with a fan about giving a yellow card to Leeds United defender Ezgjan Alioski.

That’s all I have for you today. I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving and enjoy plenty of great food and time with friends and family.

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.