Photo: Orlando City
The hard-fought win came against a club which had previously beaten the Lions twice this season, and it pushed City’s unbeaten run to five games. Following the match Orlando coach Adrian Heath confirmed that the team may finally be finding its footing after a topsy-turvy first third of the season:
“I’m not sure we would have seen that [match]through five or six weeks ago,” Heath said referring to the the team’s earlier penchant for giving away late goals. “But I think that’s a measure of how far we’ve come as a group. I thought the lads really dug in, defended the goal late on, and put their bodies on the line.”
It was difficult conditions for both teams with temperatures in the high 80’s and typical Florida humidity bearing down. In a rare move, MLS officials added water breaks in both halves. “I don’t think you ever get used to playing in conditions like that. I wish we would have had them [water breaks]when I was playing,” Heath quipped.
Kaka scored the game’s only goal in the the 30th minute after Pedro Ribeiro was hip-checked in the box to draw a penalty call from referee Jose Carlos Rivero. Kaka sent the PK attempt into the hands of the diving Bill Hamid, but the Brazilian was able to tap in the rebound with his forehead to notch his team-leading sixth goal of the season.
The win means Orlando City now sit at third place in the East, a perch which felt nearly impossible just a few weeks ago following a string of subpar performances in April and May. But Heath sees the team’s confidence snowballing.
“The group is getting better. The one thing that validates that is wins. [The players] start to believe more of what you’re telling them when they win…I just think the players are growing together. The team’s gelling. The camaraderie within the group is getting better by the minute. There’s a real desire to keep this run going.”
City won’t have too much time to enjoy the victory. They play their next match on Wednesday against the Charleston Battery in their opening match of the U.S. Open Cup appearance. With a short week coming up Heath indicated there will be lineup decisions to make in the days ahead.
“First and foremost we want to win,” Heath said. “I’m taking the Open Cup really seriously. But we have to look at how everybody is. There’s about four or five of them that have got little knocks and we’ll see how they are in the morning…But anybody who’s carrying any knock at all will not play on Wednesday.”
