“I didn’t think it was a red card.”
That simple statement from Orlando City SC head coach Adrian Heath was all the summary the Lions head coach needed in the wake of the 5-0 drubbing at Toronto FC that all but ends their playoff hopes in an inaugural MLS season that has become a nightmare in red.
Orlando finished the game with only nine men after a second yellow card for recent signing Adrian Winter, playing as an emergency right back following the 36th minute dismissal of Rafael Ramos that sparked the second-half goal deluge.
There was more, of course, from the dejected Lions boss, who has now seen his team collapse to four straight away defeats by a combined 18 goals to four. But it was all colored by the unfortunate sequence of cards that eventually reduced the visitors to nine men with the second yellow for Winter.
“I just didn’t think it was a red card, the first one, and it changes the game,” Heath said. “There is no other way round it. Until then, we were quite comfortable. We had a couple of half-chances and we had weathered the early storm they gave us. The game plan was to keep it tight, which I thought we had done, and I thought we had a real foothold in the game.
“Then we gave away an early goal in the second half, when the last thing we said [at halftime] was don’t give anything away, make sure they earn anything they get. Then it’s a bad back-pass and it’s 1-0. The second one is a great free kick, but after that they pulled us all over the place and it was very difficult.”
Heath was also upset his team was not able to stem the bleeding at 2-0 down—they have now conceded nine unanswered in successive short-handed road games—and left gaps at the back for a rampant Toronto to exploit.
“It’s disappointing, but sometimes we are very naive,” he added. “At two or three goals down, sometimes you just have to say it’s not going to be your day and react accordingly.
“But there are a lot of young players out there, and they are still trying to chase the game and it ends up making it worse.”
Experienced midfielder Lewis Neal was disappointed in the team’s defending in the latter stages, claiming the final tally was a major black mark on the night.
“Fair enough, some of that may be expected a little bit, but to go four or five becomes embarrassing,” he said. “It’s something we need to eradicate very, very quickly. Again it’s down to discipline and organization.”
