Just one standout performance is needed in order for Orlando City to get back to their winning ways.
The last few months haven’t been easy on the Lions, but Head Coach Jason Kreis feels that they are about to turn a corner: “I really feel like we’ve been really close to some things in the last three games. You can look at the three games and say if we had been better in the final ten minutes of the last three games we would have four more points right now than we do.”
From the start of the season Kreis has been confident in his team and in their abilities to make a post season run, “At the beginning of the season our team showed what we’re capable of and so it’s not like I have some grand notion in my mind of what we can do. No. I have real visions and real memories of what we’re capable of and I think we’re really close to getting back to that.”
The performance the team is seeking can come as early as this weekend when the Lions travel to take on the New York Red bulls. Overall OCSC is 2-3-1 against their Eastern Conference foe, but facing off against a good Red Bull side when the Lions need to urgently win isn’t unfamiliar territory. In 2015, towards the latter end of the season, the Lions went on a 5 game win streak, one of those matches being a 5-2 thrashing at Red Bull Arena.
While it’s not necessarily possible to take much away from a match that occurred two years ago, there is still a familiarity that some of the players can draw from, one being Cyle Larin who has scored 13 goals against the two Gotham-area sides.
“There are a few players here that have a lot of fond memories playing in New York and against New York teams. So we head into this knowing we certainly have had a difficult stretch, but we head into this with a really positive frame of mind because we believe that with the schedule we have remaining we still have a chance to reach our objective” said Kreis.
Will this be the weekend that Orlando City needs to shake off a tough patch of play?
All it takes is one.
