After stringing together six consecutive victories, the Lions have hit a bump in the road. A loss at home to Atlanta United followed by a last minute defeat in Toronto may have many saying, ‘here we go again’, but you won’t find that mentality inside the Orlando City locker room.
“Well, nobody ever wants to take back-to-back losses,” said Jason Kreis following the result in Toronto. “From my point of view, it’s difficult as well as neither performance could I say I was disgusted with the performance. Actually I think there were moments, and stretches, in both of those games where we were really pleased with what we see.”
If you remember, during the six match win streak, Kreis was not nearly as complimentary of his team’s play. When you look at the last two matches, you’ve seen a team who has shown they can compete with some of the league’s best. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the Lions deserved at least a point from each of the last two matches.
“In my honest opinion we have to feel a little bit hard done,” said Kreis. “We also have to continue to believe that if we continue to play this game, most nights, we’re going to do better and end up with more points than we have in this two game stretch.”
A big positive for Orlando? A chance to right the course this weekend at home when the Chicago Fire come to town.
“We’ve got to stay strong,” said Sacha Kljestan. “We know we’re going back home where we’ve been very strong this season and we’re going to try and continue to get that going again. Every time you lose a game you just want to win the next one to try and get yourself back on the right foot and I think the mentality will stay strong, we just have to keep plugging away.”
A week of training and preparation awaits the Lions as they will look to end their two game skid when they take on the Chicago Fire at Orlando City Stadium at 7:30pm on Saturday.
