This past weekend, Orlando City B won their final match of the season 2-0 against Bethlehem Steel to clinch the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The team finished the season on a high note on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball, and are thrilled to have qualified for the playoffs in their inaugural USL season.
“It’s a fantastic achievement,” Head Coach Anthony Pulis said. “The players deserve a lot of credit. Any expansion team in an inaugural season, I think it’s shown before it doesn’t matter what level, it’s very difficult to achieve success. Obviously the players deserve a lot of credit, there’s a lot of moving parts within this team, players moving back and forward from the MLS group so to achieve continuity is almost impossible so I think it’s a fantastic achievement and everybody should be very proud of themselves.”
“It’s a great achievement for everybody involved with Orlando City and OCB,” Lewis Neal said at training this week. “We’re obviously delighted to have made the playoffs and we’ve had an up and down season, we’ve had some great performances and some not so good performances but that’s the idea of this team. It’s a development team and that’s always going to be the case. In our first year to make the playoffs is obviously exciting and it’s great for everybody involved from the coaching staff to the players to the people in the front office it’s great.”
When the second goal hit the back of the net, Orlando City B knew that they were going to be victorious. The emotions running through the minds of players and coaches alike was strong. “There was a lot of emotion,” Pulis said. “There’s a lot of goals within this team individually and collectively, and the main collective goal to start the year was to try and make the playoffs. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy but we’ve achieved that goal and now the next goal is to go and see if we can get a result at Red Bull Arena on Sunday.”
Orlando City B will travel to Red Bull Arena on Sunday, October 2nd to take on the New York Red Bulls II. The match kicks off at 4:00pm.
