(Photo by Victor Tan / New Day Review)
ORLANDO, Fla. – Center-back Conor Donovan showed promise early in his Orlando City SC career. As an 18-year-old Generation Adidas signee, Donovan appeared in three non-Major League Soccer matches for the first team, starting two of them. He would make his MLS-match debut against the Philadelphia Union on Aug. 8, 2015, but was sidelined for the rest of the season after suffering an ACL tear in his left knee.
Now, Donovan is striving to work his way back into the first-team lineup by, first, proving himself with the club’s United Soccer League side: Orlando City B. In two seasons with OCB, Donovan has been a fixture for head coach Anthony Pulis’ side, starting 27 of his 33 appearances.
“I mean, [working toward the first team’s] just a process,” Donovan said before training on Sept. 20. “I mean, it’s something I look forward to every day, trying to get better and trying to push myself to get to those moments where I can have opportunities like that.”
And while the conversations between first team head coach Jason Kreis and Donovan haven’t been direct, the latter knows what the boss expects. Donovan said he understands the developmental purposes of OCB for both green and veteran players.
“I mean, [Kreis and I] haven’t had too many conversations about it, but I think it’s a pretty good understanding that I’m with OCB to get minutes and to get experience and also win games,” Donovan said. “I mean, I think that’s a massive part of development is just winning games, too. So, I think it’s a good understanding between everyone in this club [that] if you’re with OCB, it’s for a purpose.”
Fortunately for Donovan’s development, winning games hasn’t been a problem for the club’s USL side. So far this season, OCB have amassed the seventh-best record in the Eastern Conference, going 9-8-12 with a +3 goal differential.
That success can at least be partially attributed to Donovan’s improvement that Pulis has seen over the course of two seasons.
“I think you’ve seen with Conor that he’s grown and improved as the season’s gone on, which you find with a lot of younger players,” Pulis said before training on Sept. 20. “He’s been afforded the opportunity to play regular minutes, and, like I said, he’s performed well and has gotten better as the season’s gone on. So we’ve been pleased with Conor, as we are with a number of our guys.”
For Donovan, the return journey to the first team is impeded by internal, club roadblocks—more specifically, three other young center-backs. With first-year center-back Jonathan Spector having solidified his spot as an automatic insert when not injured, Donovan must compete with Tommy Redding, 20, José Aja, 24, and Léo Pereira, 21. The trio have so far combined for 69 appearances and 62 starts with Redding being with the team since 2015, Aja since 2016 and Pereira since 2017.
“It’s interesting, right, to have so many young center-backs,” Kreis said after training on Sept. 20. “Redding, Aja, Pereira and Conor Donovan. And it’s difficult. It’s difficult to find opportunities and minutes for those players, whether that’s with the first team or with OCB.
“And so now being around Conor for just over a year now, I think his development has taken a giant step forward. Now does that mean that he’s playing first-team games? No. But it doesn’t mean that his development hasn’t taken a giant step forward. It has. So, for long-term prospecting, his professional ability, I think that there’s something there. But it just hasn’t been close enough to the first team yet, but he’s doing really well with OCB lately.”
Despite these impediments, Donovan is taking his journey in stride. While he stays focused on helping OCB solidify a playoff spot in the USL for a second-consecutive year, he knows his ultimate goal is to be a first-teamer once again.
“I think [the process is] what I expected,” Donovan said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of bumps in the roads that you don’t expect and everything like that. And I think it’s just going through that and learning from different experiences.”
Donovan and OCB travel to take on the Richmond Kickers on Sunday at 5 p.m. OCB are just one point above eighth-place Bethlehem Steel FC and ninth-place New York Red Bulls II.
For more on OCB, as they prepare to travel to Richmond, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.
