As Orlando City prepares to head to Toronto for a final matchup with Toronto FC, things are pretty bad.
Adrian Heath noted on his coach’s show Sunday’s loss was probably the lowest point of the season. The Lions were outplayed and outclassed in just about every way. Really since the beginning of July, Orlando City has hit a doldrum in the season. The team has been unable to accumulate critical points and unable to find any consistent rhythm.
There are a number of reasons for this, of course.
The Lions rely pretty heavily on Kaka to create offense and connect the midfield to the attack. Rookie Cyle Larin has gone through his rookie growing pains as he continues to learn the professional game (pretty successfully too). But he still has his moments of looking like a rookie. Many of Orlando City’s players are still finding their way to assert themselves without deferring to Kaka as much.
The international tournaments this summer also hurt Orlando City (in more ways than one). The Lions had several players miss time with international duty. That left the lineup shuffled a lot throughout the summer. And then opened things up to injuries.
Injuries have not helped Orlando City at all. The team’s depth has been tested pretty heavily with Brek Shea out with a sports hernia. Kevin Molino going down earlier to a torn ACL. Conner Donovan going down to a torn ACL in his first appearance with Orlando City. And then Rafael Ramos pulling a quad and missing several games.
For an expansion team, that is a lot to lose. It is a lot to lose for any team. The Lions just have not been able to hold the ship steady with all the losses. As the team has gone further and further down this rabbit hole, the pressure has been a lot for the team to take on.
The good news for Orlando City as this critical closing stretch to the season comes up is reinforcement are coming.
Rafael Ramos is set to come back for the first time in five games from that quad injury, giving Orlando City a big boost on its defensive back line.
Ramos is certainly a bigger threat offensively from the back line than Luke Boden, Tyler Turner or Corey Ashe has been. Ashe has been pretty successful since he came over on a transfer. Turner is certainly a more conservative player.
The young Ramos though brings a lot of speed and a lot of pace to play. He pushes the issue a little bit more and can get down the width of the field, putting pressure on defenses. Orlando City does not have a player that has quite his ability to do this. And Ramos even is a strong defender.
His return is a big boost to the team’s overall play.
Shea too also appears close to returning.
While no timetable is set for Shea to return from his sports hernia, he remains hopeful that it will be coming sooner rather than later. He knows how important his absence and his return is to this team, as he told Paul Tenorio of the Orlando Sentinel:
“It’s not fun,” Shea said. “Obviously I’ve watched all the games and the kind of person I am, I want to be out there to help and try to fight with my friends and teammates. But obviously every team goes through a rough patch, and I think we’ve dealt with a lot of injuries and think we just need to get over this hump and things will start looking brighter.”
Shea is still a little ways off. He just moved off the treadmill to running on the field. He still has some fitness to build up along with practicing with content.
The sooner Shea gets back the better though. Shea is a truly world-class player and provides a lot of support to Kaka whether he is playing as a left back (not likely with Luke Boden’s emergence the last few weeks) or in the midfield, where he often plays next to Kaka.
Even expansion pick Tony Cascio, who suffered a bulging disc early in the season, is finally making his way back to the field.
This is all good news for Orlando City. It may take some time to integrate new players back into the lineup — Orlando City is doing that anyway with new transfers like Ashe, Eric Winter and Servando Carrasco — but the Lions need all the reinforcements they can get to make one final push to make the Playoffs.
Even with all the struggles the last two months, Orlando City remains within striking distance of a playoff berth.
Every game counts though.
