Lions’ Gil is chasing consistency
Orlando City coach Jason Kreis said midfielder Luis Gil’s progress has mirrored his teammates’ performances during the past month.
Gil, who Kreis previously coached at Real Salt Lake and acquired to bolster the Lions’ roster this season, has struggled to always deliver strong play.
“He’s had some good moments and he’s had some bad moments. And the good moments have been very good and the bad ones have been very bad,” Kreis said of Gil.
“… Luis knows what he’s capable of individually and I know what he’s capable of individually and it’s probably not consistently as high as it should have been, but that goes for every player on the team.”
After playing outside of MLS in Mexico last year, Gil has started six times for Orlando City this season and participated in 14 of the Lions’ 18 matches.
While he has not quite met Kreis’ high expectations, Gil’s teammates said they appreciate what he brings to a match.
“Luis is a good technical player, works hard, very intelligent,” forward Giles Barnes said. “He’s a very good thinking player.”
Gil is still working to play at high level every minute he’s on the pitch.
During his best season with Real Salt Lake, he recorded five goals and three assists. This year, he has spent more than 500 minutes on the field and has not scored or assisted on a goal.
“Honestly, I like to be hard on myself. It’s been kind of up and down, you know. I need to find that consistency,” Gil said. “Sometimes coming off the bench, you know, obviously it plays a different role as well, you know, depending on the score and stuff like that. But I feel like the chances that I’ve gotten, . . . sometimes I haven’t really been taking advantage of them.”