ORLANDO, Fla. – At the start of May 2017, Orlando City SC was riding the high of starting its season with a 6-1-0 record. In those six wins, the Lions out-scored their opponents by a combined score of 10-3 and also recorded three clean sheets.
What happened afterward was, perhaps, the most drastic meltdown of the 2017 season: Orlando City went on to win only four games the rest of the year, finishing with their lowest points total and lowest league standing of any of their three seasons in Major League Soccer.
Now, 25 days into May 2018, City are in the middle of a two-game losing streak after winning a record six in a row, as eighth-place Chicago Fire SC visits the fifth-place Lions on Saturday. With a three-game road trip looming for the Lions after playing Chicago, Orlando City head coach Jason Kreis said there’s “a little sense of urgency” to beat the Fire.
“The mood around here feels the exact same [as during the six-game winning streak],” Kreis said after training on May 22. “I do think there’s a little sense of urgency, right now, about trying to make sure that, this weekend, we get all three points and we don’t go on any type of slide.
“For me, I feel the energy feels right, the confidence level feels right. The togetherness, the commitment–everything in the training sessions the last two days feels like we’re headed in a real positive direction.”
This 2018 squad feels different to Kreis. Looking back at last season, Kreis wasn’t sure if the Lions deserved all six of those early-season victories. Now, with a roster tailored to his liking, he’s feeling more confident that the Lions will avoid a similar slump that doomed his team last year.
Even in his team’s most recent 2-1 losses to Atlanta United FC and Toronto FC, Kreis believed his team deserved at least two points. Atlanta scored one of its goals on a 10th-minute penalty kick, and Toronto scored its game-winner in the 87th minute.
“Like it or not, last year, you know, after all those wins put together at the beginning of the season, I was still kinda scratching my head a little bit, saying, ‘I think we’re a lot more fortunate than probably we deserve to be,'” Kreis said. “And, this year, I feel like we earned all those six wins in a row. We didn’t get something out of luck or chance; we got ’em because we were the better team in the games.
“And I would say that these past two performances, I think I can make arguments that we should have walked out with more points in both of those games than we got…”
As for midfielder-turned-right back Will Johnson, he doesn’t see the upcoming three-game road trip as daunting as it would have been last season. He said the team is no longer “scared” of earning results on the road.
After hosting Chicago, City will travel to play New York City FC on June 2, the Vancouver Whitecaps on June 9 and the Montreal Impact on June 23. The Lions will also travel to play their first U.S. Open Cup match against National Premier Soccer League side Miami United FC on June 6.
“I think we’ve got a different group this year with the ability to go on the road,” Johnson said after training on May 22. “We felt confident going into Toronto that we could go and get points there, and we should’ve had a point. We feel comfortable playing our brand of soccer anywhere in this league.
“So we don’t look at a road trip as a daunting pass as maybe we used to in the past… As far as going on the road and being scared about picking up points, that’s not us anymore. We think we can go and get points on the road.”
The Lions will, first, have to take care of business at home against a Chicago side that is underperforming, relative to last season. The Fire were one of the teams to beat in 2017, as they finished third in the Eastern Conference with the league’s the third-most goals (61).
For Kreis, Chicago’s recent slump, which also includes a two-game losing streak, makes the visiting side dangerous.
“[We] go into this game, and we say this is an opponent that’s feeling exactly like we are, right now,” Kreis said. “They’re gonna have some real urgency about their situation. They lost the last two in a row, and so I know that they’ve, you know, had some rumblings about disappointments in the locker room and disappointments [with] performances.
“So we expect an emotional team to come at us on Saturday.”
The Lions and the Fire kick off on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in Orlando City Stadium.
For more on the Lions, as they host Chicago for a one-game home stand, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.
To contact Victor, you can email him at vtan@newdayreview.com.
