All tourney players in MLS bubble
Sources report absences, but team won’t confirm or deny
An Orlando City source says the team’s entire tournament roster is on site at the Disney Swan and Dolphin Hotel and training in preparation for the MLS is Back tournament.
The Athletic reported six sources told the website at least one Orlando City player tested positive for COVID-19 and several did not join the Lions checking into the Disney hotel. The report did not specify when that positive test result occurred.
A club source declined to release the team’s full roster for the tournament or confirm whether anyone signed by Orlando City SC had not arrived at Disney, but the source added every player expected to play in the tournament is in the MLS bubble and training with the team.
“As it isn’t mandatory to release roster information at this time, we won’t do it,” the club source said. “When every team
is obligated to do [it], we will. We are in competition mode, full training inside the bubble, and we won’t do any further comment about COVID until this competition is done and we are out of the bubble.”
A club source told the Sentinel every Orlando City player received a negative result after going through coronavirus testing Sunday and Tuesday. League policy does not require teams to report positive test results or their travel roster for the tournament.
Orlando City arrived at the hotel Thursday and has since completed multiple training sessions, including a full-team scrimmage Saturday morning.
At least 24 of the 27 players on the Orlando City roster are confirmed to be in the bubble via media appearances and social media posts. This includes every player who participated in the Lions’ first two games this season, designated players Nani and Dom Dwyer and all three goalkeepers on the roster.
The remaining four Orlando City players could be on site, but they have not been visible in team availability or on teammates’ social media accounts during the two days since the Lions checked into the team hotel.
Orlando City arrived at Swan and Dolphin Resort on Thursday, 15 days ahead of its first match, the tournament opener against Inter Miami on July 8. The schedule could allow the team to place a player in two-week quarantine due to a positive test result and eventually rejoin the team in accordance with MLS tournament rules.
All MLS teams are allowed to arrive at least two weeks in advance of their first match. This differs from the National Women’s Soccer League, which saw players arrive Wednesday in Utah for the Challenge Cup, three days ahead of the first matches.
The short window forced the Orlando Pride to withdraw from the Challenge Cup on Monday after at least 10 players and staff members received positive or inconclusive test results.
Pride star Ali Krieger wrote in an Instagram post Friday that she tested positive for coronavirus Monday, then received a negative test result two days later. She was one of many Pride players who tested both positive and negative for the virus during a three-day period.
An NWSL source told the Orlando Sentinel a few younger players visited a bar, exposing numerous other players and staff members to the virus.
Florida reported a record-breaking daily number of 9,585 COVID-19 cases Saturday. However, those numbers were not concentrated in the Central Florida region.
Orange County and Osceola County — which includes Disney campus spans and where many Disney workers reside — reported 989 and 164 new cases, respectively, Saturday. The two counties have recorded a total of 10,486 cases since the state first began announcing coronavirus test results in March. Orange County has seen 56 deaths while Osceola County recorded 24.
Despite climbing numbers in the region, NBA and MLS officials have said they believe they can safely host tournaments at Disney during the next two months.
“We are confident that we’ll be able to manage our tournament, which is isolated from the public,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said in a videoconference earlier this month. “The public is not going to have contact with them without wearing PPE face masks and the like.
“It’s not as if the tournament will be open to the public. There won’t be any guests in the environment where we are going to be. So it’s something that we are confident we’ll be able to manage.”