Lions coach to give players time away

After spending the past two weeks on the road and playing seven of its last 12 matches away, Orlando City is ready to be home.

“It’s crazy. A lot of traveling lately, a lot of busy, busy months the past couple of months,” Orlando City coach

said. Goalkeeper cracked a smile when asked how it felt to know he would be home for a few weeks, saying, “I think it's the first time all year that we can turn and say, ‘Oh, I’m going to be here for a month.’ So, yeah, I’m excited for that.”

After falling to Toronto Wednesday night at Orlando City Stadium, the Lions have a two-week break during an international window. Kreis said he’ll give players three or four days off during that time before returning to training in preparation for the July 21 home match against Atlanta United.

“After as much travel and as many games as we’ve had in the last two months, as we said, it’s important everybody takes a physical as well as mental break from the game and from each other,” Kreis said.

“And then we come back and the good news is we have another 10 days past that to train. Because I do feel like there’s some areas of our game where we feel we really need to improve for the second half of the season, and get back into winning ways.”

Orlando City (8-6-6, 29 points) is in fifth in the Eastern Conference, steadily falling from its No. 1 position at the start of the season. When the Lions do return to competition at the end of July, the team could have some new additions with the summer transfer window opening July 10.