At the end of last year, Orlando City’s offseason objective was clear — strengthen defense. The team had allowed a league-high 60 goals.

This year, after closing out the worst performance in the club’s short MLS history on Sunday with a 6-1 loss in Philadelphia, the team needs wholesale improvement. There isn’t one targeted area of need, and Lions coach Jason Kreis said the hyper-focus on defense last year may have ended up hurting the team.

“I think we put a ton of focus on that but in doing so we also lost the effectiveness of some of our attack,” Kreis said.

He went on to say the team never really replaced one of the its best attacking players from 2016, referring to former midfielder Kevin Molino, who was traded to Minnesota. Kreis also said another player he “expected to have a huge year but got injured for the first quarter of the season,” likely referring to Kaká, who pulled a hamstring in the 2017 season opener and missed five consecutive games.

“And so we lacked a little offensive rhythm and flow, which I think put way too much pressure on us defensively,” Kreis said. “And then it seemed like if there was one mistake, the game was pretty much over because we could never sort of rebound offensively from that.”

So Kreis said he will look at everything that went wrong, from the preseason plan to the character of players on the team to the formation and tactics deployed by the coaching staff.

“It's so many things, so many things,” Kreis said. “First and foremost, we need to look at what we did before the season and why we started so well and then took a major downturn.

“From my point of view it’s now more about finding the right type of people that really want to be here and give everything it takes and [who] want to be professionals and represent this club the right way.”

Atlanta to host all-star game

Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber announced Atlanta will host the 2018 MLS All-Star Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Garber held a news conference at the stadium Monday afternoon to make the widely-known decision official. He was joined by Atlanta United FC owner Arthur Blank, Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed and Atlanta Sports Council president Dan Corso, among others.

Atlanta United FC joined the league this year and in August opened “The Benz,” which is shared with the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. Atlanta set MLS attendance records, averaging more than 48,000 people at home matches on its way to third place in the Eastern Conference for a playoff berth in the club’s inaugural season.

During Monday’s conference, Garber called Atlanta United “one of the most impressive and successful launches of an expansion team in professional sports history.”

In a statement released by MLS, Garber said, “We’re proud to bring our 2018 All-Star Game to Atlanta, a city and club that have taken Major League Soccer by storm. Atlanta and its supporters have earned the opportunity to host MLS All-Star week and showcase their passion for the beautiful game.”

Pride make contract offers

The Orlando Pride released end-of-season contract details for all players on Monday, and true to coach Tom Sermanni’s previous comments about his offseason strategy, the majority of the roster remains intact.

The Pride exercised contract options for 10 players, offered new contracts to four and placed three players on the re-entry wire, according to a statement released by the club.

McKenzie Berryhill, Jocelyn Blankenship and Jordan O’Brien were placed on the re-entry wire.

The Pride offered new contracts to Chioma Ubogagu, Dani Weatherholt and Australians Steph Catley and Alanna Kennedy.

Options were exercised for the following players: Aubrey Bledsoe, Camila, Nickolette Driesse, Kristen Edmonds, Danica Evans, Jamia Fields, Rachel Hill, Monica, Toni Pressley and Jasmyne Spencer.

Marta still is under contract, and U.S. women’s national team players Alex Morgan, Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger remain on the roster as 2017 federation players. Their federation status for 2018 will be announced during the offseason. If any of them are not designated as federation players next season, the club will then have to negotiate contracts and pay their salaries.

After the Pride’s season ended with a loss to Portland in the National Women’s Soccer League semifinals, Sermanni told the Orlando Sentinel he will focus on stability for 2018 and make only small tweaks to the roster.

He’s looking to add only a couple versatile players to strengthen the midfield and defense.

“We’ve got the foundation of a very good team, so this offseason is really just about adding, hopefully, finishing pieces and keeping stability, the stability that we’ve got now,” Sermanni said. “I think that’s the next key step.”

ardelgallo@orlandosentinel.com