Orlando City has begun playing matches — well, preseason matches, anyway. The Lions have two scrimmages under their belts so far and have won both by a combined score of 5-1. While it’s true that one of those opponents so far was a college side, the Lions have not leaned on some of their best players thus far and have even participated with both starting center backs not seeing the field.

We start off this week’s show with a discussion of the results against Minnesota United and Florida International University and some of the quirks of the formation we’ve seen thus far. Does it mean a shape change? Are Antonio Carlos and Robin Jansson even necessary with Wilder Cartagena and rookie Abdi Salim back there? Well, the latter question is dumb, but we at least have some talking points from the first two scrimmages.

The Orlando Pride now have a preseason schedule. Like the Lions, the club’s NWSL side will only open one preseason match to the public. We’ll talk about the entire preseason slate, the match folks can attend, and an open training session and chalk talk for Pride season ticket members. Orlando waved goodbye to a pair of defenders this week, trading the rights to Courtney Petersen to the Houston Dash for even more Allocation Money, while sending off free agent Toni Pressley to whatever is next for the last of the players from the inaugural 2016 Orlando Pride roster.

The Central Florida Crusaders kicked off their inaugural season this weekend, with a loss on the women’s side and a win for the men’s team.

Finally, we looked in our mailbag, in which our listeners asked us about soccer’s numbering system, which awards show we’d most like to attend, and whether we are all in on Jesse Marsch for the USMNT. If there’s anything — and we do mean anything — you want us to address on the next show, just ask by tweeting it to us at @TheManeLand with the hashtag #AskTMLPC.

Stay safe and enjoy the show!

Here’s how No. 325 went down:

0:15 - The Lions’ preseason is underway for real now with the arrival of scrimmages. We’ve got position changes and results to talk about.

17:45 - The Pride are in Port St. Lucie for training and team bonding but soon they’ll be back in the City Beautiful and we now know their entire preseason slate. We also say goodbye to a couple of former Orlando defenders.

31:46 - The mailbagbox is full again and we always like that. Plus, the Central Florida Crusaders have kicked off their first season.

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