Red-hot Lions see room to improve

There’s a clear message ringing out from Orlando City.

Despite a recent run of success, coach

and the club’s players are staying grounded. The Lions (5-2-1, 16 points) will go for their sixth-consecutive win on Sunday in Orlando City Stadium against Real Salt Lake.

After a slow start, Orlando City won its last March match and went undefeated through the month of April. Midfielder

said the club has proven it can win in multiple ways, which is a good thing. During the Lions’ five-match win streak, they’ve battled from behind three times, mostly controlled a match, and held on after building an early lead.

Still, a win streak doesn’t mean things have been flawless.

“You know, it’s been some up and down games,” he said. “It’s been some crazy games. We’ve had to come back. I think we’ve just battled it out because it hasn’t been perfect, that’s for sure. Five wins is great, but it hasn’t been perfect.

“The good thing is I think we’re getting better and we’ve got a good group of guys that are pretty humble and very hungry.”

Orlando City has cut it close in a few of its games COMMENTARY during the winning streak. Games against the New York Red Bulls and the San Jose Earthquakes were nail-biters. The win over the Portland Timbers came down to the Lions scoring three goals in about eight minutes, starting in the 80th minute.

“Like I said, it hasn’t been perfect,” Kljestan said. “We’ve gotten some wins where we really had to do a lot more work than we needed to. We’ve had wins where it was way too close. I’m thinking about the Portland game. I think we played bad for 75 minutes and then we were good for the last 15.

“Every game is different. So far, I would say we haven’t been perfect, but we’re getting better and that’s the most important thing.”

Four of Orlando City’s five wins have been by one goal.

After Orlando City’s 2-1 victory over the Colorado Rapids, Kreis said the club has to ignore the hype — just like it ignored the naysayers after dropping eight points in its first three matches of the season.

There’s certainly attention on Orlando City. On Monday, MLSSoccer.com released a video asking if the Lions are contenders.

“We didn’t feel overly bad about ourselves in the first three matches,” Kreis said. “I know there were a lot of people who did but in our locker room, we didn’t. Now we don’t feel overly good about ourselves. There probably are a few people out there that may think more of us than we do.

“We know who we are. Our feet are on the ground. We’re humble, we’re hungry and we know that we need to improve.”

Center back and team captain

(concussion) has been feeling “much, much better,” and will be starting exercise protocol to see how that impacts in symptoms, according to Kreis. Spector has been out since suffering a second concussion in Orlando City’s march against Portland on April 8. Right back

(knee) has been running on the field during training and could be back in training within the next week or so.