Camaraderie. Togetherness. Companionship. This is something that has been critical for Head Coach Jason Kreis since the start of the offseason.
In the first week of preseason, the team took a trip to Jacksonville to train. They roomed together, ate together, spent their free time together. New players were able to meet and bond with veterans, old friends reunited after a long offseason.
That connection, Kreis believes, absolutely translates to the pitch. And it’s crucial to winning games.
“To me, it’s critical. I think everybody puts a different level of importance on such things as camaraderie and teamwork, togetherness,” Kreis said this week. “But for me and for this club and for this staff, it’s something that we think is very important, and we talked a lot about it in the offseason and during the preseason, about trying to have a group of players that are more tight knit and would do anything for each other.”
The Lions have shown that mentality both during the preseason and in the first weeks of the regular season. As Matias Perez Garcia said in training this week, “The most important thing to keep in mind is that the team is first.”
That’s something that we’ve heard from Orlando City players time and time throughout the year: I just want to help the team. And when you’re focused on how you can help the team, instead of how you can make yourself look better on the pitch, everyone wins.
“I’ve always felt in this league that it’s not the teams that have the black and white, the most talent,” Kreis said. “It’s the team that has the most gray, and the most togetherness, that often times wins in this league.”
