ORLANDO – Adrian Heath knows the clock is ticking more urgently on Orlando City SC’s bid to be a first-season playoff contender, and he has sounded an alarm cry for his troops ahead of Saturday’s showdown at the Chicago Fire (8:30 pm ET; MLS LIVE).
The Lions have made no secret of their intentions to join the small band of clubs that have reached the postseason in their inaugural campaign, and their current position of eighth in the Eastern Conference is not where they had hoped to be 13 games in.
The Fire are serious conference playoff rivals, and Heath is well aware his team must start converting draws into wins – especially against the teams jockeying for position around them.
“These games are becoming more important by the week,” Heath said. “This is an Eastern Conference rival, and the parity of this league is incredible, hence we need to start making ground up.
“Teams around us have picked some results up, and that middle area around that last [playoff] spot is tightening up, so we know it’s going to be a difficult game. We can’t look too far ahead but we do need some more wins in the bank.”
The City head coach is heartened by their current three-game unbeaten run – a win and two draws – and is hopeful the seven goals scored in that spell is a pointer in the right direction.
“I have been more encouraged by the numbers we are getting in the box in the past few games,” Heath said. “I am never one to say we need more goals from the front men or we need to defend better – we defend from the front and we attack from the back, so it’s a collective rather than an individual thing.
“What we need is to get Eric Avila and Brek Shea, or whoever is playing in those wider areas, into those danger areas more often, and we have been doing better with that of late. But we must keep it going.”
Seb Hines, who has been Orlando’s Mr. Reliable at center back this season, is also aware the team cannot afford to lose more ground to their playoff rivals.
“This is the time to start getting results,” Hines said. “We need to start winning games consistently and climbing up the table. We have taken almost every game to the final seconds and have shown we can be a threat in this league, now we simply need to get more wins.
“We are definitely developing as a squad as we play more games together, and, while we are aware of the goal-scoring threat that Chicago pose, we need to impose our own tempo on the game and really go at them.”
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With Shea away on international duty, the left-wing spot is up for grabs. Carlos Rivas failed to impress in that role in last weekend's 2-2 draw at home to Columbus Crew SC, hence fit-again veteran Lewis Neal may well get the nod against the Fire.
Pedro Ribeiro was the late-late goal hero against Crew SC on his return after injury, but Heath is reluctant to put him straight back in the lineup, even though Cyle Larin – who is available before joining up with Canada for their World Cup qualifying games with Dominica – has drawn a blank in his last two starts.
Martin Paterson is definitely a non-starter, though, after picking up a knee injury. The livewire striker had only just made his first three appearances off the bench after shaking off a two-month hamstring problem but is now looking at another few weeks on the sidelines.
