Orlando City close to filling
Citrus Bowl for second consecutive year.
Orlando City president Phil Rawlins said Friday he is confident the club will sell out the Citrus Bowl for the MLS regular-season opener for a second consecutive year.
The team has sold more than 43,000 tickets for the game on March 6 against Real Salt Lake. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m.
“It’s incredible,” Rawlins said at the club’s media day. “Last year the fact that we could fill the bowl, bring in 62,500 fans for the opening game was amazing, but in some ways understandable because it was a unique event, it was one day in history. To think that we
Infantino elected FIFA president in upset. C7
could do it again for a second opening game in our second season to me is just beyond unreal.”
Orlando City will be holding several events in the lead-up to the opening game next Sunday, and that includes a 5K run and a bar crawl. People who sign up for either event are given a ticket to the opener included when they pay their entry fee, and the club has had thousands of fans interested in both events.
“We are really, really close to being able to tell you we’ve sold out the bowl again for a second
year,” Rawlins said. “Which to me is amazing.”
Lions prep for Nocerino
Orlando City is expecting newly-acquired midfielder Antonio Nocerino to arrive in Orlando early next week, Rawlins said.
Nocerino is in Italy finalizing his visa paperwork and passport requirements before flying to Florida to join the team. Lions coach Adrian Heath sounded hopeful he would get at least a few days with Nocerino to judge his fitness before selecting a lineup for the opener against Real Salt Lake.
Nocerino has been training at Milan in order to stay in shape ahead of joining his new team in MLS. Orlando City has been training a 4-3-2-1 formation in order to integrate Nocerino into the lineup while also accommodating Cristian Higuita and Darwin Cerén, two of the stronger players on the team.
Heath said Nocerino will bring an experience to the club that was lacking on the roster last year, when Orlando City relied on one of the youngest rosters in MLS to navigate its expansion season.
“He’s played in one of the biggest clubs in the world, so he’s used to playing under pressure,” Heath said. “He’s played for Italy and he’s played for probably one of the most demanding leagues in the world in terms of pressure on players to deliver. No disrespect to the MLS, he’s coming here and this is not going to be a problem for him. What we have to do is hopefully try to integrate him as quickly as possible. And it does give us other options in midfield.
“. . . There’s a lot of things that we can do with his inclusion, but more importantly I think we’ve added somebody who is going to be very, very good for us. Somebody who will play in the starting 11 and make us better.”
Róchez closing in on return
Orlando City forward Bryan Róchez said he is getting closer to a return on the field after missing the preseason due to a quad injury.
“It took a little more time because I had a setback,” Róchez said in his native Spanish. “Now I’m feeling excellent and we are working on the fitness part because I didn’t do anything with the team … so now I’m training that preseason fitness on my own so I can get back incorporated with the team.”