It's our 500th episode! Wow, we never would have expected 500 episodes of this podcast would be produced when we started back in December of 2014. Heck, it's been so long ago that during the recording of this episode, I mistakenly said our first show came in early 2015. It did not. I'm just old and forgetful and have done a lot of these shows over the years. It was great to look back a little at the first 499 during the early part of this episode. There are a couple of fun Easter eggs embedded in this show as well. We hope you enjoy these special transmissions as much as we did.

Orlando City rotated nearly the whole squad for Wednesday's match in Nashville and got walloped. Following Saturday's penalty shootout win over Toluca, the Lions stayed on the road, which has traditionally led to beatdowns for the lads in purple over the years. This was no exception as Nashville scored twice in the first 17 minutes, four times in the first half, and five in all in a comprehensive 5-1 smackdown of a largely backup Orlando side. We didn't really want to discuss it, but we did it anyway. We also gave the salient talking points from the game, checked back on our score predictions, and made our obvious selections for Man of the Match.

After our Nashville rewind, we welcomed back an old familiar face/voice to the PawedCast. Former Mane Land writer and 17-time host of this show Austin David jumped on to reminisce a little about his time with TML, but also to talk about what he's been up to since leaving us, including his current job as the digital content manager for Orlando City SC and the Orlando Pride. It was great catching up with Austin on this episode, although to be fair, I catch up with him at every Orlando City home game. It just felt like a homecoming, and we hope our long time listeners enjoyed this blast from the past.

This week's mailbagbox asked about our nicknames, stadiums abroad where we'd like to see Orlando City play, and more. Remember, if there’s anything — and we do mean anything — you want us to address on the show, just ask us by tweeting it to us at @TheManeLand with the hashtag #AskTMLPC, or hitting us up on Bluesky Social with that same hashtag.

OCB came from behind using sheer grit and determination to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 win over Atlanta United 2 on Saturday. It was great to see a different ending to what appeared to be the same old script from the Young Lions, and Colin Guske and Shak Mohammed led the comeback. OCB's next match will be at home Sunday against Crown Legacy. We'll preview that on our next episode later this week.

Finally, we looked ahead to Wednesday night's Leagues Cup semifinal edition of the Tropic Thunder rivalry, as the Lions head to Ft. Lauderdale looking to knock the Herons out of the competition, claim their third win in the series this season, and qualify for Concacaf Champions Cup. It won't be easy, as it's always difficult to beat a team three times in a row, especially one that's as stacked with talent and bitter about two lopsided defeats as Miami is. We know the opponents well, so we go straight to the key matchups and score predictions.

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Here’s how No. 500 went down:

0:15 – An intro about 500 episodes precedes the soccer talk. Orlando City would have gotten a better result with a forfeit to Nashville than the Lions got from playing the game.

29:07 – Austin David jumps on with us to discuss his role with Orlando City and his time at The Mane Land back in the day.

1:04:10 - The mailbagbox, OCB's win, and an extra round of Tropic Thunder.

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