Orlando City is playing games! The Lions kicked off their preseason schedule with a 1-0 win over the Philadelphia Union. We’re here to tell you what we know about it, which honestly isn’t much more than you probably already knew, but we’re discussing it anyway, because why not? Alexander Alvarado was the offensive hero for the Lions and Brandon Austin saw his first minutes with the club.

MLS announced the home openers for every team and the Lions will kick off the season against Atlanta this year, which is new. Orlando will also be at home on opening day, which is not new. There will be a familiar face on the other bench for that match as Alex De John has joined the Five Stripes after bailing on Pittsburgh (we kid, we kid).

We also talk about the reports that Orlando City turned down a hefty $10 million offer for striker Daryl Dike and what that means for the club, as well as where the Lions will turn for goals without the league’s top rookie from 2020. Also, Pato has arrived and Silvester van der Water should be coming along soon.

The Orlando Pride won both of their preseason matches this past weekend, and we discuss the 2-1 victory over Florida State and the 4-0 win over Flagler College. The Pride are working their way toward the NWSL Challenge Cup and it’s good to see the team starting to come together and the players you expect to see scoring goals actually doing that.

Inter Miami filled its USL affiliate’s coaching staff with former Orlando City personnel and it’s starting to look a bit more than coincidental that so many ex-OCSC folks are ending up in South Florida. We talk about what Diet Orlando City has been up to but we can’t really tell you why.

This week’s mailbag had a question about former Orlando players and whether they could have excelled under Oscar Pareja if he’d been the coach back then. If there’s anything — and we do mean anything —you want us to address on next show, just ask by tweeting it to us at @TheManeLand with the hashtag #AskTMLPC.

That’s all for this week.

Stay safe and enjoy the show!

Here’s how show No. 237 went down:

0:15 - The Lions won their preseason opener, Orlando City thinks highly of Daryl Dike, and a couple of young players are competing for an Olympic spot.

34:24 - The Pride went 2-0-0 this weekend and what in the world is Inter Miami doing?

55:38 - The mailbag is curious about former Lions who didn’t pan out in Orlando.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices