Former Orlando City
coach Adrian Heath says launching expansion team Toronto FC presents the same problems he faced bringing the Lions into MLS in 2015.
The scene was familiar, but some details were off.
Adrian Heath, Mark Watson and Ian Fuller huddled around each other on the edge of a soccer field in Orlando. It’s happened countless times before, but this time their wardrobes were all black, gray and light blue — no purple in sight.
Heath was fired in July after nearly six years as Orlando City’s head coach, dating to when he moved with the then-United Soccer League team from Austin to Orlando in 2011. He’s now head coach of 2017 expansion team Minnesota United FC and is back in the Sunshine State for preseason competition.
Watson and Fuller, both former assistants with Orlando City, are now part of Heath’s new coaching staff.
“Obviously, this has been home for a long time now,” Heath told the Orlando Sentinel after Minnesota played Toronto FC on Wednesday at ChampionsGate. “I have a lot of happy memories from Orlando. It’s been a big part of my life, so I will never forget what the last four or five years were, but now it’s on to new chapters. We move on to something new and I’m really looking forward to the challenge that we’ve got.”
Heath said he’s settled in to his new team, but not yet his new city of Minneapolis. There just hasn’t been time. He’s been traveling all over the country, from Los Angeles for the MLS combine and SuperDraft to Arizona, Oregon and now Florida during preseason.
Plus, Heath’s home and wife are still in Orlando. They hope to make the move north before Minnesota’s first home match March 12 against expansion twin Atlanta United FC.
Heath said launching Minnesota’s MLS team has been similar to Orlando City in 2015.
“It’s the same, the same problems, the same issues with the main things, trying to integrate an awful lot of players in a very short period of time,” Heath said. “The preseason’s been very good. The players have worked extremely hard and we’ve seen some good stuff from them and stuff that we know we’ve got to work on.
“But I said before . ... All this is going to be a work in progress for quite a while yet. We’re nowhere near the finished article, and today reminded us of that.”
The Loons dropped the Toronto match 3-0, with two of TFC’s goals coming during heavy rain in the first half. Orlando City also lost to Toronto 3-1 in a preseason meeting four days earlier.
“We’re talking about probably one of the strongest in depth and one of [the] teams with the best individuals in Major League Soccer,” Heath said of Toronto and Sebastian Giovinco, respectively. “So today it was a little bit of an eyeopener for us in terms of the quality of the opposition at the top-end of the MLS.”
Former Orlando City midfielder Kevin Molino, who was traded to Minnesota at the end of January, did not play in the scrimmage because he was sick, according to a spokesman for the club, but is expected to be the Loons’ primary playmaker and will be ready for the start of the season.
The Molino trade involved a record amount of allocation money, with Orlando City receiving $650,000 after refusing initial offers.
“We eventually got it done in the end, and as I’ve said all along, I think we’ve got somebody who can be the best in the league, so I’m delighted to have him,” Heath said of Molino.
The longtime Lions boss may live in a state bordering Canada now, but he won’t be picking up any new sports in the cold climate. He’s sticking strictly to soccer.
“The one thing when you’re starting a new team and you’ve got all these players coming in, you ain’t got much time for any skiing, don’t worry about that,” Heath laughed. “No, we’ve got an awful lot of work to do on and off the field and that’s consuming all our time at this moment.”