SANFORD, Fla. — For Orlando City SC, six games remain until the end of yet another disappointing season.
An embarrassing 4-0 defeat to the Chicago Fire last Sunday sunk Orlando to the bottom of the Eastern Conference table.
With the goal of making the playoffs fading, Lions boss James O’Connor said he wants to see more action and fight out of his players heading into the final stretch of games this year.
“What we need to do is acknowledge where we are, and we need to make sure that on Saturday we get that level of fight and we get that level of intensity that we all want and expect from each other,” O’Connor told reporters before Wednesday’s training session. “So, I think again, it’s speaking about it. It’s having very honest conversations. It’s action now, the time for talk is over, we need to see action.”
The Lions host the Houston Dynamo on Saturday (7:30 p.m ET | TV & streaming info). But after FOX Sports' Stu Holden said during last weekend's broadcast the Lions looked like they quit for the rest of the year, O’Connor pinned the team’s ongoing problems on the field to a lack of belief, not effort.
“From a player’s standpoint, I don’t think anyone intentionally goes out and tries not to play well,” said O’Connor. “There’s, maybe, certainly a lack of confidence I think you can see. What the players need to do is maybe play with a little bit more courage. A little bit more intensity and for all of us to show the fight and show that we’re committed.”
Orlando has just one win in their last 19 league games – coming July 14 against Toronto FC, in the second of 11 matches the team's played under O'Connor since he was hired as a mid-season replacement for Jason Kreis.
Defensively, the Lions have allowed a league-high 66 goals as they edge closer to an MLS-record 70 goals conceded in a single season set by Minnesota United a year ago.
For midfielder Sacha Kljestan, to turn things around, there needs to be an individual effort from everyone.
“For me, I feel like I always have that, I feel like I always want to win,” said Kljestan. “I always want to play my best and if you don’t have that, I don’t know why you’d want to do this for a living because everything is much better when you’re winning. Right now, obviously we’re stuck in the mud and there’s something going on here that we have to fix and it’s taking to long to figure that out.”
