Orlando City
welcomes back leading scorer Cyle Larin, who missed three games after a recent DUI charge.
Orlando City leading scorer Cyle Larin returned to training Tuesday morning after he was cleared by Major League Soccer’s substance abuse program following a DUI charge.
Larin, 22, missed three games while he underwent an assessment by MLS’ Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health program doctors in South Carolina. He will continue to participate in the program locally but is now “eligible for team activities and competitions,” according to a statement released by the league.
“Cyle addressed the team before the session,” Orlando City coach Jason Kreis said after training Tuesday. “So it’s obvi-
ously nice to have him back and nice to see that he’s regretful about his actions.
“And as we said before he left, once we take responsibility for our actions and apologize for that, we forgive and move forward.”
Kreis said Larin delivered a strong training session, looking “pretty good” alongside teammates who are coming off a rough Wednesday game at Seattle and Saturday game at Chicago.
“Obviously, [he] had a week of rest or 10 days of rest,” Kreis said of Larin. “Pretty good energy, which is nice to see.”
Larin’s DUI charge came in the early-morning hours of June 15 after a night out downtown. He was pulled over by a state trooper for driving the wrong way down Orange Avenue near Lake Ivanhoe Boulevard, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
An oncoming car stopped a few feet in front of Larin’s vehicle, “averting” a headon collision, troopers said.
He blew a .179 and a .182 on sobriety tests. The legal limit is .08.
FHP released dash cam footage from his arrest, which showed Larin driving the wrong way, nearly hitting an oncoming car and failing a field sobriety test.
He was with a female passenger. They said they were coming from Club ONO in downtown Orlando.
“I play for Orlando City,” he told the trooper. “I was just trying to drive her home.”
His eyes were bloodshot and glossy, troopers said, and he had “difficulty” answering their questions. He was bonded out of jail later that day and was immediately suspended from all MLS competition pending an evaluation by the league’s substance abuse program.
MLS players in similar situations previously missed about three weeks of play, which included three or four games. However, that included additional suspension after the evaluation. Larin’s return with no additional suspension was the best-case scenario for Orlando City.
During Larin’s absence, the Lions went 0-1-2, including Saturday’s 4-0 loss in Chicago that was one of their worst defeats of the season.
The team was at risk of having to field a lineup without either of its starting strikers for Friday’s match in Real Salt Lake after Carlos Rivas suffered an ankle sprain in Chicago. Rivas had an MRI scan late Monday and is day-to-day, a spokeswoman for the club told the Orlando Sentinel.
Larin led Orlando City in scoring the past two years and currently has a teamleading eight goals.
He’s also a staple in Canada’s national team lineup, and his DUI charge threatened participation in the upcoming Gold Cup. He was left off the final Gold Cup roster, though there is an option to swap players for the knockout round.
A day after Larin’s arrest, Kreis and team captain Kaká spoke to media, condemning Larin’s actions but conveying their support as he worked through the consequences.
“Having to wake up to that phone call was difficult,” Kreis said at the time. “Cyle is obviously distraught, very, very disappointed in himself and his decision, but is wanting to move forward as quickly as possible. We disagree with [his decision] vehemently. It goes against what we’ve tried to establish here in this club and how we want to comport ourselves publicly.
“On a private side of things, though, we also believe very strongly that we are a family, and families come together when mistakes happen. So, we need to be strict in our view of it and tell Cyle and the rest of the group that these decisions are poor and they affect everyone. But then we need to move on from that and say we’re family, and family members forgive.”