ORLANDO, Fla. – There was no magic half-time team talk on Sunday night, said Orlando City's new head coach, Jason Kreis, during their home game against the New England Revolution. Instead, it was all about hard work and maintaining focus.
But Orlando City’s new head coach will have a hard time convincing the fans – and even some of his own players – that he didn’t weave a spell or two during the interval. Indeed in the second half of the game, the Lions roared back from being a goal down to emphatically repelling New England 3-1 behind a scintillating second 45 minutes.
Cyle Larin equalized within 50 seconds of the re-start, and Kevin Molino struck twice in devastating fashion to complete the Lions’ first ever win over the Revs in five meetings.
It marked only their second win in 10 games, but it breathed new life into Orlando's playoff hopes. It also started the Kreis era in Orlando with a notable flourish.
“I am really, really happy,” Kreis said. “But I don’t think it was about me, to be honest. It was about the players continuing to work on what we’re asking for. In the first half we just weren’t getting the right number of players into the attack, and so at halftime we just had to show them a slight tactical adjustment and that made better chances for us.
“Clearly when the players adjust to that in the final third, it makes a difference and we score the goals.”
For his first league game in charge of the Lions, Kreis admitted it had been a special occasion, especially in front of the fans who had been a deciding factor in helping him to take the job.
“I made a point to myself to really enjoy tonight regardless of the result,” he said. “Even when we were down, I was still enjoying myself because I was seeing some good things that we talked about in our training sessions.
“It wasn’t as clean as I would have liked, and there were a couple of situations where clearly we weren’t doing the right thing and that led to their goal. But it’s always rewarding as a coach to be spending a lot of energy on things and see them take shape in the game.”
Kreis made several bold decisions in his lineup, bringing in Antonio Nocerino for only his second start since mid-May, and partnering him with Servando Carrasco in a fluid 4-2-3-1 formation. He also left regular starters Darwin Ceren, Cristian Higuita, and Brek Shea on the bench.
Shea then came on at half-time in place of first-round SuperDraft pick Hadji Barry as part of the big second-half turnaround. It was also Shea who set up Molino’s first goal with a deft run and cross.
And Kreis insisted the players who started had fully deserved their chance from what he had seen in training, as well as the midweek friendly against Stoke City.
“Those players were given their chances because of their performances in training and what I saw on Wednesday night,” he said. “I wanted to leave what happened before in the past and evaluate players on what I saw [in them].
“It doesn’t really affect how I feel about the potential of the players that were left out tonight, because I still think there’s some really high potential in those players as well. And we are going to need all of them in due course; this is not about 11, or 12 or 13, it’s going to be about all 28.”
