ORLANDO, Fla. – In the midst of a seven-game losing streak and a coaching change, the mood in the Orlando City camp has taken a notable downturn, the Lions' six-game win streak in the early part of the season now a distant memory.
That what was the sentiment from Orlando interim boss Bobby Murphy after his team fell for the seventh consecutive time during a 2-0 loss against the Montreal Impact on Saturday night at Orlando City Stadium.
“They’re down for sure. They’re disappointed,” said Murphy. “The challenge is all the feel-good stuff that we talked about for the last three days, having come off the victory, now you can’t abandon that stuff. Now my having to hold them accountable is even more important.
“There’s nowhere to hide in this. It’s not good right now,” he added. “But it doesn’t have to stay that way. That’s a choice. We just got to keep going and go back to work. For as long as they’ll employ me I will keep pushing them and holding them accountable and trying to get the best out of them.”
The last time Orlando City won a game in league play was on May 6, a 3-1 victory at home against Real Salt Lake. Since then, the club’s slip down the standings is beginning to take a toll on Orlando’s playoff hopes.
After a coaching change last week and with rumors swirling about a potential new hire, Orlando's players are still looking to do whatever the can to right the ship as they await news on the person who will become the club's third full-time head coach in the MLS era.
“We need to find a way to dig deep, to try and get a result here and we just weren’t able to,” said Jonathan Spector. “We need to do whatever it takes to either get back in the playoffs or stay in the playoffs. We’re not in a bad position yet. Obviously, the run of form has been really, really poor but we’re not in a terrible position.”
Right back Scott Sutter, who missed almost nine weeks of action because of injury, said he’s never been part of losing streak this bad. The Englishman acknowledged the team has been devastated during this bad stretch of game, but insisted Orlando has to work its way back to winning ways.
“When you're in the locker room you see it in everyone's face that everyone's absolutely gutted and rightfully so,” said Sutter. “I don't think many of the games have ever had this many defeats in a row in the league and I don't think I have either and I definitely don't want to. We will try our hardest to get back out there and get a win.”
