Orlando City’s 2021 season is underway and although the Lions didn’t start with a win, they still earned a point without several key players in the lineup. We break down the match, give our Man of the Match selections, and discuss how much we hate lower body injuries while adding another to the tally.

We’re joined this week by Paul Tenorio of The Athletic and the Allocation Disorder podcast. Paul is a great explainer and he does a good job of simplifying the current market situation for MLS players such as Daryl Dike in Europe, what the price tag on a sale might be, what we can expect in terms of seeing Dike in purple again before such a sale, and what Orlando City actually would get out of it. Spoiler: everyone wins here.

Paul also gave an overview of Major League Soccer’s new U-22 initiative, and he weighs in on the whirlwind that was the European Super League as well.

The Orlando Pride played their first home game in the NWSL Challenge Cup last week against NJ/NY Gotham FC (seriously, that’s too many initials!) and while the result was not one we enjoyed, the team does show some signs of being able to play better soccer this year. It’s now time to find some consistency and get some of the veteran leaders into top form. Some reinforcements might help this week against Washington, including the return of Alex Morgan, Gunny Jonsdottir, and Meggie Dougherty Howard.

I did forget to mention Ashlyn Harris’ penalty save and subsequent NWSL Save of the Week award on the show, so I’m mentioning it here.

Dave and I give our thoughts on the Super League and some of the things we were actually looking forward to if it came to pass. And of course there was an awful lot of hyperbole about it, both before and after it blew up on Tuesday, and we got into some of that as well.

This week’s mailbag wants to know who Orlando’s most hated opposing players are, and we were asked to help someone with their gambling decisions (haha, coming to us for predictions!). 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. 242 went down:

0:15 - Orlando City is now unbeaten in five straight against Atlanta United but a win would have been nicer than a draw.

24:03 - Paul Tenorio serves as our MLS rules whisperer and has some great insight into why there isn’t an established market yet for European teams when buying MLS players. Plus: the U-22 initiative and the poor culture fit of the Super League.

51:04 - The Pride dropped points late again, the Super League might actually have been cool to watch despite ruffling so many feathers, our mailbag, and our key match-ups and score predictions for Orlando City at Sporting Kansas City.

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