NEW YORK — When Jason Kreis walked into Yankee Stadium on Sunday — his first time in the building since being fired as head coach of New York City FC in November 2015 — it would have been natural if he felt some strong emotions about his return. But he didn't. Not because his one year as NYCFC coach didn't have an impact on him, but more because that season here was such a blur.

Red Bulls hitting their stride

So no, there was no walking into the wrong locker room, or staring nostalgically at the famous stadium as he recalled memories fond and not so fond. In fact, it actually seemed to surprise him just how little attachment he felt when he walked around Sunday for the first time as the visiting coach.

"I have to tell you, that the year I was here was such a whirlwind," Kreis told Goal. "I just never really felt like my feet were under me. Even my memories about this stadium are just very fleeting. I just didn't feel settled, and so coming back here there just wasn't a whole lot (of emotion).

"Nothing like it was the first time I went back to (Rio Tinto Stadium)," Kreis said, referring to Real Salt Lake's home stadium, where he coached for seven seasons. "That's a whole different ballgame. I think some of that is part only being here for one year, and some if it is a part of trying to do so many things to get a hold of it that year."

Having already beaten his former club in the season opener, Kreis was far less focused on revenge and more focused on helping his Orlando City team continue its impressive transformation from defensively flawed strugglers to defensively stingy conference leaders. That transformation continued on Sunday with Orlando's 2-1 victory over NYCFC, which helped the Lions jump into first place in the Eastern Conference.

Orlando rode a pair of Cyle Larin goals to victory, but it was also the continued defensive improvement of Kreis' squad that ultimately neutralized NYCFC's dangerous attack. As much as NYCFC has developed into a tough team to beat at home, one formula has proven to be successful at Yankee Stadium: using a high press to punish Patrick Vieira's side for its commitment to building out of the back.

"That was our objective," Kreis said. "I don't think it's any secret that New York loves to build out of the back. They take a certain amount of pride in that, and they're resolute about doing it all the time. So for us, the objective was to see if we could press them in their half and nick a goal, but also just to disrupt their rhythm.

“I think that you won’t find a coach more familiar with this field than me,” Kreis said. “There’s something about the dimensions and the size of it that we try to play to our strengths. I’m very, very familiar with how Patrick wants to play after watching him for four or five months coaching his team there. We did go into the game with a very clear gameplan.”

"For me, they're a harder team to play away from home because they've got good footballers, and on this tight field it kind of takes away their advantage of what their special players bring to the table," Orlando midfielder Will Johnson told Goal. "So we were able to keep our lines tight, get the ball wide and get some crosses in on this small field, and Cyle was able to produce a couple of finishes for us."

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