You can find the 2014 Year in Review HERE, and the club-by-club history of MLS HERE.
Phil Rawlins’ purple-shrouded dream is now three months from becoming reality, and there are increasing signs that expansion growing pains may not be part of Year One in Orlando.
Investment, Flavio Augusto da Silva and Rawlins have made clear, will not be an issue. Former world player of the year Kaka will be the highest-paid player in Major League Soccer, and he’ll be surrounded by a supporting cast that becomes more robust by the day – a blend of USL PRO holdovers, talented newcomers hungry to prove themselves and in-their-prime MLS vets with Best XI potential.
They said it...
Midfielder Kaka:
“I think this is the right moment for me because I'm not too old and not too young. I have the experience to come and bring things to the league. MLS has a great, great future in soccer … This Orlando City project is so serious, and I'm so happy to be part of this project.”
Head coach Adrian Heath:
“If being demanding is making everybody play at 100 percent every time we put our shirt on, then yeah, I’m demanding. But I don’t think that is demanding, I think that’s a prerequisite before anybody plays. The one thing the coach should be completely guaranteed before the players go over the white line is that that every one of them is gonna leave every last bit of energy they’ve got out on the field, and that will never change with me.”
Co-owner and president Phil Rawlins:
"I think we can help internationalize the league if that's a word. I said this to Commissioner Garber when we first met: The league has some very lofty goals and I think there's a great future ahead for Major League Soccer on a global basis and there's no better city in the world to do that through than Orlando. The most visited city in the world just got married with the world's biggest game. That in itself is explosive."
Meanwhile, at the corner of Church Street and Parramore in downtown Orlando, heavy machinery and an small army of workers labor to build the foundation for a soccer-specific stadium. At the newly-renovated Citrus Bowl, preparations are under way for a inaugural opener against fellow expansion side New York City FC that could see 60,000-plus fans celebrate MLS’ return to the state of Florida.
Momentum is building, and if all goes right, 2015 could yet be the year of the Lions.
Buzzworthy moment
A marquee Brazilian signing was practically a foregone conclusion, and the smart money was always on Kaka, a close friendship between the then-AC Milan attacker and da Silva helping lure him to Orlando.
Still, hundreds of purple-clad, flag-waving, drum-toting supporters turned up at the airport to welcome the former World Player of the Year to Central Florida in late June. Then they all headed downtown, just blocks from where site of their soon-to-be-built stadium, for a party to celebrate the occasion.
Rockstars hope for that kind of welcome, and Kaka has the potential to be that and perhaps even more in a city that's seen soccer culture explode around the club's USL PRO dominance, MLS ambitions and, after years of effort, the impending reward for the committment shown by the city and ownership alike.
Stadium situation
No worries here, unlike their fellow Class of 2015 expansion brothers in New York City.
Shovels are in the ground a few blocks from the Amway Center in downtown Orlando, and 2016 will bring yet another sparkling, soccer-specific venue into MLS. The plans call for purple, and lots of it. If the expansion ceremony and World Cup watch parties are any indication, the pregame and postgame festivities might rival the games themselves.
“We’ve taken our time over the last three years to visit a lot, an awful lot, of MLS stadiums,” Rawlins said. “One of the reasons for doing that was to steal. It was to pinch the best bits, and take the things that we really like and the things we see that work and work in this environment to bring that into the stadium.”
In the meantime, Orlando City will call the renovated Citrus Bowl home for 2015 rather than try to rush into their new digs. It's a venue their fans are already intimately familiar with, and $200 million in improvements ought to make Year One plenty comfortable.
“The more we looked into it, we started wondering, ‘Why would we try and make this kind of change in August or September?’” Orlando COO Brett Lashbrook said. “We want to get it right. We don’t want to make an announcement [on the new stadium] before we get a shovel in the ground. We decided to just play the first year in the Citrus Bowl, and then make a big splash in 2016.”
Supporters groups
Among the myriad of benefits that come with transitioning a successful USL PRO franchise to MLS rather than building from scratch is the fan tradition and organization already in place. The Ruckus and Iron Lion Firm have been doing their thing for years at this point. Learning curve? Please.
You may have taken notice of some scattered behavioral issues this season that briefly strained relations with the front office, but those were dealt with quickly. Now the focus is on the opener on March 8, and you better believe Orlando's fanbase will be ready to show the nation what they're about on ESPN2 (5 pm ET).
Tifo? Yes, please.
Coaching philosophy and tactics
Adrian Heath is Orlando City. He's the only coach the club has ever known, and that bodes well for 2015 and beyond.
Heath's done nothing but win in his four years leading the club in USL PRO – three table-topping regular-season campaigns and two championships – and he's done it with an attack-minded 4-2-3-1 that should continue in the first division.
And with Kaka, reigning USL PRO MVP Kevin Molino, Brek Shea and Honduran DP Bryan Rochez already on the roster, fireworks are coming once the calendar turns to March. Heath wouldn't want it any other way.
“When I came to the states I decided very early on that I was going to play the way I always wanted to play, as a very possession-oriented team,” Heath said. “I’ve loved the fact that people have said over the past few years that we’ve played like Barcelona and Arsenal at times, and that couldn’t be a bigger compliment for me and our group.”
Needs
1. Depth: Orlando's starting XI (or some semblance of it) is nearly in place apart from perhaps right back. Now they need to make sure they go two-deep all over the field to weather the inevitable injuries and drops in form that mark any season.
Still, tell me this group can't compete in the Eastern Conference from day one...
GOALKEEPER: Donovan Ricketts
DEFENSE (L to R): Luke Boden, Heath Pearce, Aurelien Collin, ???
MIDFIELD: El Salvador captain Darwin Ceren and Amobi Okugo holding with Molino, Kaka and Shea going to goal
FORWARD: Rochez or your choice of MLS vets Jairo Arrieta and Danny Mwanga, with further investment a distinct possibility
2. A apprentice for Kaka: The Brazilian could drop a 15-goal, 15-assist season on MLS. His talent is that prodigious. He could also miss a healthy chunk of games via injury.
With that in mind – as well as his advancing age – Orlando would be wise to bring in someone to learn under the Brazilian with the future in mind. They've already signed Rochez to a Young DP contract, and have been linked with Colombian Carlos Rivas. Might Rivas be that player?
