Lion Links: 3/31/22

Hello, Mane Landers. It’s Thursday, which means we are getting closer to the weekend and the next Orlando City home game. While we make the final push to end the week and before we get to those links, lets give a special birthday shoutout to Tesho Akindele.

Orlando Pride Fall 1-0 at Home to Gotham FC

The Pride have been struggling to find any kind of goal-scoring form this season and that trend continued last night as Orlando was shut out 1-0 at Exploria Stadium against NJ/NY Gotham FC. In what was a 0-0 game for most of the match, Midge Purce pounced on a late mistake by the Pride and scored the game’s only goal.

USMNT Qualifies for World Cup Despite Loss in Costa Rica

The USMNT had never won in Costa Rica in World Cup qualifying and that trend continued with a 2-0 road loss Wednesday night. But the important matter was that the U.S. did enough to qualify for the upcoming World Cup in Qatar. The U.S. had plenty of chances but Keylor Navas made some big saves to keep the Yanks off the board. While it was not the ideal way to finish out the Octagonal, the United States ensured its return to soccer’s biggest stage and ultimately that’s the key takeaway.

Elsewhere Around Concacaf

Canada also ended its qualifying campaign with a loss but claimed the top spot in the Octagonal. Gabriel Torres scored the only goal in the 49th minute to lift Panama to a 1-0 win over Canada. Mexico closed the qualifying stage with a 2-0 win at home against El Salvador. Uriel Antuna scored in the 17th minute and Raul Jimenez added a second from the penalty spot in the 43rd minute as Mexico finished second. Jamaica defeated Honduras 2-1 in a match between sides that were out of the running for qualification. Honduras’ Angel Tejeda and Jamaica’s Leon Bailey traded penalty kick goals in the first half and Ravel Morrison provided the game winner in first-half stoppage time.

Free Kicks

• Orlando City has created a new Twitter Community.

• Columbus Crew midfielder Lucas Zelarayan was named MLS Player of the Month for March.
• A record crowd was on hand for the UEFA Women’s Champions League match between Barcelona and Real Madrid.
• Harry Kane and Olivier Giroud are closing in on goal records England and France, respectively. Other national teams are close to getting top scores of their own.
• Erling Haaland explains the advice he received from a certain farmer.
• Liverpool star Mohamed Salah mulled international retirement after a heartbreaking loss in World Cup qualifiers.
• Inter Milan still has interest in bringing back Romelu Lukaku on a loan deal. This story and more over on the latest Transfer Talk.

That will do it for me. Enjoy the rest of your Thursday and I’ll see you all next time.