Adrian Heath helped Orlando City ascend from a lower-division club training at city parks to a Major League Soccer franchise now playing in its own soccer-specific stadium.

He didn’t care for the way he was fired.

Last July, Heath was on his way to meet with club management when media members broke the news to him in sympathetic text messages.

“I think there is a way of doing things, treating people with respect that they deserve,” Heath said. “And after six years of spending nearly every day — and I mean every day, working 24 hours a day — trying to build that club, I think I deserved a little bit more respect.”

Heath said being sacked halfway into the three-year plan he had for the 2015 MLS expansion franchise has made him “more determined” as he navigates his first year with another MLS startup. And it certainly will be on the head coach’s mind when his new club Minnesota United (3-7-2) faces Orlando (6-4-2) at 7 p.m. Saturday at TCF Bank Stadium.

“Maybe there is little bit more to prove to one or two people,” he said Friday. “But more importantly, I want to build something here that’s lasting on good foundation.”

When Heath was hired in November, he acknowledged the Orlando City matchup would be quickly circled on his calendar.

Heath was brought to Minnesota based in part on his previous coaching resume in the U.S. He became the coach of the Austin (Tex.) Aztex in 2008, and moved with the club to Orlando in 2010, where he led the Lions to a pair of United Soccer League championships.

In their first MLS seasons, Heath’s side went 12-14-8, tied for the fourth-best debut among the league’s 13 expansion franchises since 1998. But after narrowly missing the playoffs in the first season, Heath was fired after a 4-4-8 start.

At that time, Heath was looking forward to additions during the summer transfer window, but the Lions’ new management upended his goals.

“He was hurt,” said United assistant coach Ian Fuller, who also worked with Heath in Orlando. “We only had success in Orlando; to see it go south and not get a chance to move into the new stadium like I know he wanted to. To see him leave on those terms, it wasn’t good.”

In January, United pulled off a trade with Orlando to acquire midfielder Kevin Molino, who played under Heath since 2011. United allocated a record high $650,000 to Orlando for Molino and third-string goalkeeper Patrick McLain. Heath called it a bargain.

Molino, who has five goals and three assists this season, was part of the growth in Orlando.

“It was shocking to me because … we didn’t even have a locker room in USL,” Molino said. “To see how tremendous the club has grown over the couple of years, and see they are one of the No. 1 fan bases in MLS, it’s great. But most important, I’m looking for this club (Minnesota) to have that.”

Heath said the matchup would have been sweeter if they were on the road at Orlando because he was part of the design process for the Lions’ 25,500-seat stadium, which opened this season. In November, Heath said a road game there would be an opportunity for “closure.”

But that will have to wait until at least 2018, Year 2 in Heath’s plan to build United into an MLS contender by 2019.