Orlando City coach Jason Kreis still believes his team will make the playoffs.
Orlando City leaders sure they can make playoffs
Two wins since the beginning of May, eighth place in the Eastern Conference, a suspended captain, a striker coming back from nose surgery, an injury to arguably the team’s best defender — and coach Jason Kreis still believes.
Orlando City will make the playoffs, he says. Why? “What was our record in the first seven games?” Kreis asked, referring to the 6-1 run that opened the season. “Was it different players? For the most part all the same players, they’re still here. We still have that ability to win games, and you see that in the way we played the first 45 minutes against the Red Bulls. And so you see it, that’s what I mean.
“It’s really not me believing in some sort of fairy tale or Santa Clause. I believe in the players that we have and I believe in them for a reason, because I’ve seen them perform.”
If the Lions (8-10-6, 30 points) turn it around in these last 10 MLS games, starting Saturday at home against Columbus, they’re still at risk of being the last Orlando City Soccer Club team to make the playoffs despite being the first to exist.
The Pride missed the post-
season last year but climbed from the bottom of the National Women’s Soccer League table to a playoff position last week. They continue to fight for one of the top four spots with six games left in the regular season and an attack that seems to have found its spark behind superstars Marta and Alex Morgan.
Last season, a late surge from Orlando City B ended in the first round of the United Soccer League playoffs. Wednesday, OCB turned in a 3-0 victory over the Ottawa Fury, extending its unbeaten streak to nine games and jumping into the final playoff position with nine games remaining.
“I think we can definitely take confidence from the fact that we did it last year,” OCB coach Anthony Pulis said a day before that win. “We do have a different group of players this year, and I do think the league is a lot stronger this year than it was last year. We know that every game between now and the end of the season is going to be really important.”
Those words ring true for Orlando City as well.
The playoffs were the club’s MLS goal since joining the league in 2015. The risk of missing them for a second year was one of the reasons cited for firing former coach Adrian Heath midway through last season and hiring Kreis.
A series of player moves during the offseason were made to create a playoff team, according to the front office and coaching staff, as were the roster changes during the secondary transfer window, which closed Aug. 9.
Orlando City centerback Tommy Redding said the club’s other teams climbing their league tables motivates him to push harder.
“Yeah, of course,” he said. “When one has success, everybody is very happy for them and when one is down, the others try to pick them up. I think it’s important for us to just keep going and it’s really big for us to get the three points this weekend.”
A playoff push is harder now than it was a couple of weeks ago. The Lions need to leap into the top six. They are three points behind seventh place and five points behind sixth, while holding only a onepoint lead over the ninthand 10th-place teams.
But Kreis believes it will be done, and the players say they do, too, because recent performances show they are capable. But nobody remembers the first 45 minutes of games, Kreis said, except for “coaches trying to stick up for themselves.”
“The rest of everybody else needs to see it for 90 minutes,” he said. “So that’s the task in front of us.
“I’m doing my job. I would tell you this coaching staff, without any hesitation, is working harder than we ever have before, and this coaching staff has had a lot of success in this league. So, I believe if we continue to work that way, the success will come.”