It was a wild one in Orlando City Stadium on Sunday night.
It started out as a pretty even midfield battle between Orlando and the Chicago Fire. The game took a drastic turn in the 26th minute when Rafael Ramos earned a red card for a tackle outside the 18-yard box. The Lions continued to fight for their three points, but the situation changed again in the 66th minute when Antonio Nocerino drew the team’s second red card, bringing the team down to nine men.
So, how is it that the team was able to earn the draw against an eleven-player squad?
The explanation starts by looking at the coaching. Orlando City was able to respond to the situation at hand-- moving players around to new positions, adjusting for the missing man on the pitch. Orlando City’s players and coaching staff alike also kept their composure, allowing them to remain focused on the task at hand.
“When you go down to nine, you’re certainly just playing for the draw. But when we were at ten, as you saw, we didn’t bring in Sutter right away. We wanted to shift Will over to the right back, we wanted to leave on players like Giles Barnes and Rivas and Larin, we wanted to keep attacking-minded players out there to see if we could catch them on the break. We weren’t throwing in the towel, by any means,” Head Coach Jason Kreis said after the match. “Even as the game wears on, at half time I’m talking to the coaching staff about how we’re going to win the game, not about how we’re going to draw the game. So, all of our decisions were bending that way. Until we get the second ejection and then it’s just like, “How are we going to hold on?”
It’s difficult for coaches to maintain a clear vision in these kinds of situations. Regardless of whether or not the coach believes the ejections were fair, it certainly changes the entire game plan. Staying cool in these situations is something every coach must learn to do, and something that Kreis modeled very well against Chicago.
“I think it can be really difficult and I think this is something that as you go through your coaching experience you start to realize pretty quickly is that the first inclination for anybody who is passionate about the game, passionate about what they do is to be really mad about the decision. And sometimes you’re going to let that anger and that emotion affect your ability to stay calm and make decisions,” Kreis said. “And so, I think I’m learning to get past those decisions very quickly and figure out what are we going to do to maintain a result, to put the guys in the right places to get a result.”
But even the best coaching can only take a group so far. The result tonight ultimately came down to the nine men remaining on the field.
“The work that those guys put in tonight, the togetherness that those guys showed tonight, the commitment that those guys showed tonight, what they were willing to do for each other, for themselves, and for the fans was second to none,” Kreis said. “I think everybody that played in this match tonight showed what they’re willing to give this team, this community, and this club.”
Orlando City is hoping to look at the positive takeaways from this match. Kreis believes it could be a real turning point for the squad. After a rough schedule in May, the team may finally be starting to find their identity. An identity of defensive mentality, of strength and of togetherness. A mentality of never giving up on a play, on a game, or on your team.
“I look at this game and obviously a lot of me is disappointed that we can’t get three points at home, that’s always a clear objective. But I think you can look at a game and a performance like this and think this could be real momentum, this could be a game changer for us. We want it to be that,” Kreis said. “We’ve had our struggles over the last month defensively, and the fact that we can defend with only eight field players for as long as we did against a full squad shows that we’re capable of defending if we’re all committed to doing it. And so, I hope that’s the biggest takeaway tonight is that we have a real renewed resolve about what we’re trying to do and how we’re trying to do it.”
“We’re getting there. We’re getting back to who we were,” Will Johnson said. “We lost our identity there for a little while, we tried to be a little clever, and now we’re back to who we are.”
For Orlando City, this was an erratic way to enter a two-week break in games. The team will have time to watch the footage and discuss what they did right in this match, what they did wrong, and how they were able to harness that energy to earn the draw. Hopefully, this game will be the spark that carries them forward through the season.
“The simple fact to be down a man for at least sixty minutes and then two men for as long as we were tonight, it was incredible,” Kreis said in summary. “Absolutely incredible. Nothing short of fantastic.”
