HC JASON KREIS: “It’s a funny question because, for me, every game and every training session is a dress rehearsal for next year. And, as I said in the press conference after the game, we play a professional sport. Our jobs are on the line. If we don’t perform, we don’t get wins, then we are at jeopardy of losing our jobs with this club, so, for me, it’s the same. It has been the same all year, and it will be the same on Sunday.”

“Could be [a chance for players to solidify a spot for next season]. Could be. I haven’t really fully vetted that out or fully thought about it enough to say that I’m set in my starting lineup. I’m not. I’m watching the training sessions very closely, right now, to see who I think deserves an opportunity to play in this last match.”

“For me, it’s about ending well. Everything that we do, we should wanna do well at the end. That’s why we’re competitors. That’s why we’re professional athletes, professional coaches. We wanna finish well. We wanna be able to walk out of the season with our heads held high and our chest out to say, ‘Okay, we gave everything we had.'”

“Yeah, I mean, I guess I would say that the objective would be a good one [to beat last year’s point total]. I really went into these last two games and thought, for us, I wanted to finish top of all the teams that were on 39 points. I think that’s still somewhat possible, if some other results go our way. Another objective, I think, that was there for us was to finish with the most points ever that Orlando City’s had, which would’ve been 45, which we could’ve got to with six points. So, now, yeah, I do think it’s about—that’s another objective that we can have is to have more points than we did last year, but I would say the flip side of that is I don’t think that we’re gonna—you know, that’s gonna alter any of our course or decisions in the offseason, if we finish with more points than we did last year.”

“I absolutely think [there are positives with the first-year players], and I would like to tell you thank you for asking about positives. It doesn’t get often done in interviews with people that are working in the press, so I appreciate that. I think there’s been a lot of positives this season. Certainly, when the end goal was to make the playoffs, and it was pretty clear in all of our hearts, in all of our feelings, we’re certainly deeply sad that we didn’t do that, but we do need to take a moment and look for the positives, and I do think there was quite a few.”

“I don’t know, yet, [how long I’ll rest before beginning offseason work], to be honest. I feel a tremendous amount of angst to get right back to it, to just continue working and plowing through because that’s how badly I want it. And that’s what I like to do is work. So, I also know that, mentally, at some point, I’m gonna need a break, but I think there’s gonna be one coming up at Christmas. So, I’m leaning towards just pushing right through and working on and focusing on that break that’ll come at Christmas time.”

“Yeah, [my wife’s] always the more level-headed one and the calm one and the rational one. But she’s on the same page as me. We really want this to go right here. We really love it here, and we would like to be here a long time. And we know that that’s gonna take winning.”

GK JOE BENDIK: “For me, personally, I don’t think you need any motivation. Every time you step on the field should be the same exact way, whether it’s a final, a first game of the season or the last game of the season. You know, this is your job, and that’s what you’re here to do.”

“Yeah, I mean, we added a lot of excellent players and a lot of excellent personalities. You know, when that middle of the season kinda came, I don’t know if maybe we just lost track of it or what exactly happened. Obviously, I knew maybe we wouldn’t have lost, but, you know, we have a lot of strong personalities, and that makes me very, very hopeful that we have a strong foundation here, and we just need to keep at it and keep working at it.”

“You know, we need to change something. I still think that the group of guys that will stay is very, very close to being right there. We’ve showed that throughout the year, how strong we started the season, and also, you know, we had some really strong performances. It was a very roller coaster year, so, hopefully, maybe just a little bit of a mindset change to where we can stay more consistent throughout the entire year where we’re not giving up four goals in one game. You know, maybe just 2-1 or 1-1, 1-0, where we’re not giving up these ridiculous losses. Those really—you know, they’re momentum changers. So, yeah, like I said, just be a bit more balanced throughout the year.”

RB SCOTT SUTTER: “You know, it’s not always easy when you go into the final match, and there’s not much, really, to play for, with regards to points, and I know, obviously here, the playoffs. But you always wanna finish the right way. I think it’s a good opportunity for us to finish the season, despite the disappointment of not making the playoffs, to finish off the right way. And it also, I think, finishing the season in a good, positive way gives us a good kind of start, mentally, for the next season.”

“Well, I mean, obviously, it’s been disappointing, in regards to missing the playoffs. We all set out with that as our aim. It was a realistic aim. You know, we didn’t come out and say we’re gonna win the MLS Cup, but we wanted to make the playoffs. We wanted to be the first team in Orlando’s history to do that. We failed. We didn’t achieve that, what we set out to do. So, in that aspect, it’s been disappointing. For me, on a personal note, I’ve loved, despite the middle of the season where it really cost us, I’ve enjoyed kind of every minute of it other than, obviously, the defeats. But, you know, just the transition to a new team, to a new city—it’s been great for me. I’ve really, really enjoyed being here and transition and how easy everyone made it for me. So, I feel right at home, and, you know, I already can’t wait for next season.”

“Performance-wise, I think, I mean, other than points, obviously, I think we need to be more dominant of opponents. I think we need to really dictate play, not just at home but also away. Keep more of the ball. I think even in the earlier games, where we were getting results, we didn’t have as much possession as we would like to a lot of the times. Couple of results, we kinda got away with it possession-wise where we were struggling to keep hold of the ball, and we kind of just clawed over the line. So, I’d like to see us finish more games out confidently and, you know, with a bit more dominance. So, there wasn’t many, or too many, games where we were 2-0 or 3-0 up and kind of cruising to the end of the [game]. I think there’s like two or three times that that happened, New England being one of them, and they were a man down. So I think I’d like to see that, and I think we have got the players already, and I think, with the coaching staff behind us and maybe a couple of additions in the offseason, I think we will definitely, definitely have that.”