(Photo by Victor Tan / New Day Review)
Sept. 26, 2017 at Sylvan Lake Park
Availability: HC Jason Kreis
- Orlando City SC faces off with the New England Revolution on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Orlando City Stadium.
- That will be the beginning of a three-game home stand before the Lions’ road game to play the Philadelphia Union concludes the 2017 season.
- The Lions are coming off a 3-0 loss to the Portland Timbers on Sept. 24.
- New England won 4-0 at home the last time City and the Revs met.
- On Sept. 19, the Revs fired former head coach Jay Heaps.
- In Heaps’ stead, Tom Soehn has taken over as interim head coach.
- City will host FC Dallas on
HC JASON KREIS: “Obviously we can’t do much in the training session when we’ve got a game two days ago and a full day of travel yesterday. So the majority of the guys who anything, really, just warm up and some 5-v-2s. The rest of the group was able to do a little bit more but still very limited.”
“For me, the New England result of a month ago, whatever it was, was never a 4-0 game. That was a game where I thought we were neck and neck all the way until we got an ejection. And then, from that moment on, we knew we were still trying to chase the game, and you’re a man down, and so you’re always gonna be suspect to giving away goals. So the late goals in that game were the difference. And obviously we were all really disappointed with the performance in the first 45 minutes against Portland. And then, again, to have an ejection in the—whatever it was—47th, 48th, 50th minute. Being two goals down, pretty much that’s game over. So, we need to wipe the slate clean. And we need to come into this match with—feeling like we have something to prove because we do. We need to prove something, first and foremost, for ourselves, but we need to prove something to the rest of our club and all of our fans. They’ve been so fantastic this entire year, and we haven’t been at home for a long time, so it should be a game that all of us are up for.”
“Yeah, it’s always a moment, I think, in a team, when you get a new coach, that you’re recognizing pretty quickly that you’re fighting for your job all over again, so to speak. You’re fighting for opportunities in the starting lineup. You’re fighting for minutes in the 18. You’re fighting for a future with the club. But I would tell you that we’re in the exact same boat. Just because we don’t have a new coach doesn’t mean anything. Because we are in that exact same boat.”
“I think we have to balance [between best available and resting], and, for me, we’re not gonna place anybody in the lineup that we don’t think has the ability to help us to win a game. So it’s not like we’re just gonna try out things and do some rotation. No, no, no. That’s not it at all. Again, for me, it’s always about putting out a team that you think can win the game and that gives you best opportunity to win the game, especially when we’re at home, and sometimes that means fresh players over playing everybody 90 minutes, three games in a row. But, for us, the decisions are never about rotation or for fairness or anything like that. The decisions are made to give us the best opportunity to win.”
- Midfielder Cristian Higuita is out with a calf injury.
HC JASON KREIS: “I haven’t checked in [on Higuita], actually, today, yet, and I will when I go back right now to figure out whether he’s gonna be available for Wednesday or Saturday.”
- Orlando City start a three-game home stand with New England.
- After Dallas over the weekend, the Lions will host Columbus Crew SC on Oct. 15.
HC JASON KREIS: “Well I think—I hope that [the final three-game home stand] helps in the right way. I hope that we, you know—again, I think this is a very odd structure the way the season has—the way the schedule has been put out there. I can’t remember a time when there was four road games in a row. Earlier we had three road games in a row, and then we’ve had a couple of stints where we’ve had multiple home games in a row, like, to three. And so we need to take advantage of the situation. We need to be comfortable at home and recognize that we don’t have the travel and we can play with some real fight and some real vigor in front of our own fans.”
- After shooting out to a 6-1-0 start, the Lions have since accumulated an overall record of 9-13-8 and have accrued the second-fewest points in the Eastern Conference.
- City also have the fifth-worst goal differential (-18) in Major League Soccer.
- Additionally, the Lions have had off-the-field issues with forward Cyle Larin and midfielder Will Johnson having faced DUI and domestic-violence charges, respectively.
- In his first year as a head coach, when Kreis took over for the fired John Ellinger on May 3, 2007, Kreis led Real Salt Lake to a 6-15-9 record and a -14 goal differential.
- One year later, RSL was in the playoffs.
- In 2009, RSL won the MLS Cup.
HC JASON KREIS: “It is [one of the most arduous seasons I’ve been through as a player or coach], and it isn’t. I mean, obviously, the first year at Real Salt Lake when I took over as the coach there was incredibly difficult. The second year as well. I mean, we were so incredibly inconsistent but then got into the playoffs and made a real run at it at the end of that season. So, I would say it’s similar to that one, for me, because I think this team has been really inconsistent. I think when we’ve been good, we’ve been really good. And on the few occasions that we’ve been poor, we’ve been really poor. And so there’s been a lot of highs and lows. I would say that that stuff that’s happened off the field, for me, is probably the most difficult year, no doubt about it. Just the things that we’ve had to go through with injuries, suspensions and whatnot. It’s really, really difficult.”
“I want to [take personal responsibility for my players’ off-the-field incidents], I will say that. I want to. As the leader of this group, I want to say that it falls, first and foremost, on me. But there has to be some recognition and realization that I don’t—I can’t follow these guys around for 24 hours. At the end of the day, you have to rely on them to make good decisions and to not get themselves into situations that could cause themselves trouble off the field. Because, ultimately, that always comes back to what happens on the field and our ability to have a squad that we think puts us in the best place to win games.”
“Yeah, it’s interesting. I think people continue to look at me—and I do myself as well—I’m 44 years old, but this is my 10th year as a head coach in this league. So it’s hard to say that I’m young. It’s hard to say that I, you know, have any bit of inexperience. I think I have experience. But, as in anything in life, it doesn’t matter the age. This is the first time that I’ve gone through occasions like this, and this is the first in all my coaching career I’ve had to deal with stuff like this. And there’s no doubt about it that during the offseason, when I get some time to reflect, I plan to put a mindset in place about that.”
For more on Orlando City, as they close out their final four games of 2017, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.
