Lions lean on depth in trying to reach heights
Orlando City coach Oscar Pareja is ready to start tinkering with his lineup again.
After a rare stretch with just one game per week, the Lions will ramp back up to playing three games in a week during Phase Two of MLS’ restart schedule.
After the coronavirus shutdown of play for roughly five months, teams have regularly been asked to play multiple games in a week while complying with safety restrictions.
The next sprint begins Saturday when the Lions host the Chicago Fire at Exploria Stadium. The match kicks off at 7:30 p.m. and will air locally on WRBW-Channel 65.
“We have a roster that obviously like any other team gets challenged when the games come too often,” Pareja said.
As a new coach trying to firmly establish his style of play, Pareja rolled out his first-choice lineup early in the season and pushed the group to play heavy minutes so that they would get into a strong rhythm that would set the tone for the season.
“We had tried first to go with the first initial team that we had, which is trying to be consistent with the group until we have a good development of the model of the idea of the game. And I think we have accomplished that,” Pareja said. “Sometimes we want to do everything at once, have consistency, have the regular lineup, we can have a good memory of what we want [on] the field.
“At the same time, you want to rotate players and keep them healthy. And sometimes you cannot do all of them at [the same] time. You have to choose one or another.”
Pareja has used his reserves, giving rookies and less experienced players key match minutes.
“I think what we’re doing has been bringing some benefits, being kind of the middle,” he said. “Rotating some players. At the same time, we gave come consistency to players who need it to develop that identity with the group. And I think we had done good in that part.
“These games [coming up,] there certainly needs to be some sort of rotation and we will do that. We try to use the most players we can knowing that it’s an important stage of our league.”
Pareja said the Lions are eager to earn spots in the rotation as often as possible.
Injury report
Injured defender Robin Jansson could soon return to the Orlando City lineup after training normally with the group.
Fellow defender Uri Rosell is not quite as far along in his recovery.
“Uri is returning slowly to some activity with the trainers and coaches,” Pareja said, adding the staff would monitor his progress in the next few days.
Defender João Moutinho has the most work to do recovering from a groin injury.
“João is recovering very fast,” Pareja said. “He’s not available yet, but João is much, much better. Every day, [he] is progressing.”