Lewis Neal is one of the players still available to Heath
Photo: Thomas Gosse (Prost Amerika)
Roster questions add to intrigue of Orlando City’s contest in Montreal
by Chris Kimball
It won’t take Adrian Heath quite so long to fill out the roster card this weekend. With a total of seven players lost to international duty, and another handful out with injuries, Orlando City’s gaffer will have limited options when it comes to deciding which players to send out against the Montreal Impact on Saturday.
Brek Shea (USA), Conor Donovan (USA U-20), Kevin Molino (Trinidad and Tobago), Estrela (Portugal U-20), Rafael Ramos (Portugal U-20), Darwin Cerén (El Salvador) and Cyle Larin (Canada) are all away flying their respective flags.
With potentially as few as 14 field players available to dress, the question is not so much which players will take the field as how they will line up. Will Heath remain faithful to the 4-2-3-1 formation which we’ve come to know, or is the roster situation just dire enough to warrant something a little different?
The projected attacking battery of Kaka, Rochez, Mwanga and Ribeiro may be high on talent but it’s desperately short on combined minutes. If, as the current narrative goes, Orlando City is still searching for its goalscoring identity, then it’s hard to imagine that identity revealing itself on a day which is guaranteed to see its fourth midfield/forward player combination in as many games.
With the Lions defense relatively untouched by the roster exodus, maybe leaving Le Stade Olympique with a single, hard-earned point gained through a defensive battle is the best case scenario for Orlando.
A move to a flatter formation would help to park the proverbial bus. It would also open the possibility of pushing Kaka further forward to pair alongside —or vaguely behind— Pedro Ribeiro as co-strikers. This would provide a little more offensive juice when needed, but also, importantly, allow the Brazilian to linger in the attacking half, thus relieving him of some defensive duties, and saving his legs needless mileage on one of the harder pitches in the league.
One positive aspect of the international window is the opportunity it provides to evaluate players who haven’t seen meaningful minutes this season. Both Bryan Rochez and Danny Mwanga should feature prominently for Orlando. And longtime Lion and fan favorite Luke Boden will finally make his MLS debut.
There shouldn’t be too much drop off with Boden running up and down the left flank. The Englishman doesn’t possess the speed or size of Brek Shea, but he does have a deeper understanding of the gaffer’s system and arguably provides better delivery into the box.
Boden looked comfortable and confident during preseason. And while Shea has held his own at left back so far, he’s clearly still feeling out the position. Could a shining performance by Boden on Saturday kickstart a legitimate discussion about whether Brek Shea might better serve this team a little further up the pitch?
These are questions which Adrian Heath would have preferred to avoid, of course. He pointedly expressed his discontent this week with MLS not recognizing the FIFA window. But ultimately any intelligence gleaned through the performance of this weekend’s makeshift roster —win, lose or draw— will only serve to benefit the club over the long haul.
