(Photo by Victor Tan / New Day Review)

May 25, 2017 at Sylvan Lake Park

Availability: HC Jason Kreis, MF Will Johnson, MF Servando Carrasco

HC Jason Kreis

Orlando City SC is so far winless in the month of May. The Lions are 0-4-2 in their past six matches.

Oh yeah it’s important that we win. We feel the exact same way. We wanna win probably more than anybody else, I would hope. Coaches and the players wanna win the game more than anybody.

For Kreis, there are no “must-win” games.

“Must-win” nothing. “Must-win” nothing. There’s 34 games in the season. Our objective is clear. Our objective is to be better than we were last year. If we’re one point better than we were last year, we’re a playoff team. And that’s our objective. And for us to be focused on being ultra-negative when things go wrong or ultra-positive when things go right is a mistake. And so we continue to work the way we have worked and believe in our guys and believe that we’re a good enough team, at the end of the day, to make the playoffs. That’s a clear and simple objective for this team this year.

In his past seven matches, Cyle Larin has scored just one goal.

When you score seven goals in seven games, we don’t bring him to the side and put him up on a pedestal and tell him how great he is. So when he goes one goal in seven games, we don’t put him down and tell him what a nasty, little boy he is. We say, “Continue to work the way you have, and the goals will come.” He’s getting chances. We’re getting lots of goal-scoring chances. We’re doing a lot of things right. At the moment, we’re a little unfortunate to not make the plays at the most critical moments.

Despite being winless so far in May, Kreis said his team has still been “nothing short of terrific” in training.

The players are fantastic. Nothing short of terrific. The mentality and the spirit of the group for the training sessions has not faltered. I believe that the guys still believe in themselves, and they believe in us. And that’s what it’s gonna take to bring ourselves out of this. And we do it one play at a time and one game at a time, and the game in directly in front of us is a very opportune one. It’s at home against D.C. United. So, we go into this with full force, and the objective is to begin to pull ourselves back into a winning rhythm.

Team captain Ricardo Kaká is out for Wednesday’s game against D.C. United.

No, Kaká’s not available. He’s injured.

Kreis recognizes D.C. as another team in a position similar to his Lions.

D.C. is a very hungry team. They’re also a team that has had their struggles over the past couple of weeks. Have been in some negative places themselves and then, on the weekend, got a really positive result of Vancouver. So, I think they have some confidence now, and I think they’ll be coming in here full board to get a result.

When asked about right-back Rafael Ramos, Kreis said the Portuguese “should be available very soon.”

Rafa’s performance was like the rest. I think it was very strong over the first 30 minutes or so, and then the team collapsed a bit. He was part of that team. So, it’s important that we understand that when we lose, we all lose together. He was part of that performance. But, from a physical standpoint and from a playing standpoint, I believe he’s headed in a very positive direction and should be available very soon.

For Kreis, Orlando City B loanee Pierre da Silva is among several players Kreis is looking to call up.

Another guy himself, Richie Laryea—when Hadji’s [Barry] been down there, Tony Rocha, as of late—those guys have had some really positive performances, some positive contributions to their play, and so when do they do that, of course, we’re watching with a mindful eye and eager and ready to give them opportunities when they present themselves.

When asked if winning on the road has become more difficult, Kreis said it’s always been “extremely difficult.”

I don’t know. I mean, I think it’s always been extremely difficult, so, it’s hard to say that it’s getting more difficult. Really is—I think it’s a difficult thing. Again, a lot of what goes into the scheduling in our league and the travel the way that we have to travel adds onto the difficulty of just being in somebody else’s stadium in playing in front of somebody else’s crowd.

MF Will Johnson

When asked what it took for his team to get back to being even-keel, Johnson said his team is already “pretty even-keel.”

I think we’re pretty even-keel. We understand there’s a lot of positive, and the negative moments are costing us points right now, and that’s frustrating. We just keep sticking to who we are and what we do and what we believe in. We put ourselves in a really good position to win the game the other night. We created a lot of chances, and we gave away very few. But on the day, given the way that luck’s going at the moment, we lose the game. And so it’s—to get back into a good run of form, you have to keep believing in each other, stick together and look at the positives, keep trying to do those things and understand that correct the negatives, and you’ll be okay.

Orlando City has posted four goals over its past six matches. For Johnson, that responsibility is on everybody.

It’s on everybody. People wanna say that the strikers need to score more goals and whatnot. Listen, I think there’s—for our whole roster, every single guy is capable of scoring more goals than they currently have right now. Same for Cyle. Cyle could have more goals than he has right now. All the attacking guys, the defenders on set pieces, the midfielders chipping in as well—we can all score more goals. So it’s on all of us to do that, and you can’t win games unless you score. We realize that. And so now the challenge is on all of us to fix it.

For Johnson, “luck” isn’t a word he wants to use too much.

Yeah a little bit. “Luck’s” an interesting word. You know, I don’t wanna use it too much. You know, you make your own luck, per se. I think if we play like we did on Saturday tomorrow night, we’ll be okay.

Johnson doesn’t see this time of the year as typically being the difficult part of the season.

Yeah, usually, the parts coming up are more difficult. May is usually not. But I could see why teams struggle during that. You know, when you get off to a good start, and then the season starts to grind a few injuries and national-team call-ups start to come in, so I could see why. But, you know, for us, each game’s three points. We’ve got a good chance tomorrow night to rectify this bad streak that we’ve been on, and so we look forward to that opportunity, and hopefully we can get a win before the end of May for you.

When asked if there was a sense of urgency for his team, Johnson was brief.

Absolutely. Hundred percent.

Despite being No. 10 in the Eastern Conference, Johnson acknowledges the difficulty D.C. presents.

They’re a team that went into, I remember a few weeks ago, Atlanta. Very tough place to play. Got a good result. Flew all the way to Vancouver, got a result. So they’re a team that, on the road, can get results and keep it tight, and if you’re not fully ready to compete and engage and perform at the best of your abilities, you’ll struggle against them. They’re a good team. They grind, they work, they fight for each other. You know, the results at home have killed them more than on the road. So we’ve gotta have our guard up, and we’ll come out and give it everything we got ‘cus we need the points.

They’re a team. They’re a proper team. Every guy works. They don’t have a couple superstars. They’re very difficult to break down. Their back four is solid. They’ve got a great goalkeeper in Bill Hamid, so, defensively, they’re very good. I think in those two roads wins I mentioned, they maybe gave up one goal against a good Atlanta team and zero in Vancouver. So that’s impressive in and of itself.

In the 2014 Major League Soccer All-Star Game, Johnson was administered a yellow card for a challenge on then-FC Bayern Munich midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger. Then-Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola refused to shake hands after a 2-1 MLS win.

[I approach Sunday’s game the] same as I approach every game. And All-Star games, for me, are the same. I try to win. I try to compete. Obviously that’s an unfortunate incident that happened. You never like to see guys get hurt, but it’s a contact sport, and things, unfortunately, happen. I think he’s been fantastic, signing for Chicago. He’s been part of what they do. He’s been a fantastic signing for the league, in general. His quality on the field has surprised many, many people. So I just look forward to competing against him again. I think it’ll be a wonderful night against a very, very good Chicago team. But, I think like you said in your question, we got a big one tomorrow night to look forward to first.

They’re in preseason. Those games mean different things for different people. Not surprised. Nothing surprises me anymore.

MF Servando Carrasco

The Lions out-shot Minnesota 20-5, including 7-2 in on-target shots.

We created a bunch of chances. You look at the chances that Carlos [Rivas] had, Cyle had. So, I think we’re very hungry. I think we’re very hungry. I think we’re ready to kinda change this script. And look, these two games at home are gonna be huge.

For Carrasco, the kind of slump Larin is experiencing is expected.

I think strikers always kinda go through those ups and downs. But, to me, in practice, they still show those flashes of what they can do. And I think Cyle’s trained extremely hard. I think he’s still creating a bunch of chances, and it’s only a matter of time before those chances become goals again.

Carrasco doesn’t see that there’s a sense of panic for City.

Look, I don’t think there’s a sense of panic. I think there’s a sense of urgency that, look, we have these two games at home, and we wanna take full advantage of that.

For Carrasco, any team can beat any team at any moment.

It’s really dangerous when you say good team or a bad team. In this league, any team can beat you. D.C. is a team that got a really result away from home, so they might feel a little sense of confidence, but, look, we gotta get back to our basics. We gotta get back to what made us really good in the beginning of the season, and that’s—we all have to be on the same page. We all have to work for each other. So, that’s the main goal. That’s the main objective for tomorrow night is to show that we’re still very together in this, and we will get those three points.

Carrasco really isn’t sure what has been the cause for his team’s latest struggles.

It’s really hard to say. I think any time that you have so many games in a very limited time span—I mean, when you look at it, in May, we’ve probably had, what, eight games? So, there’s a lot of travel, there’s a lot of fatigue. Maybe those are excuses. I’m not sure. But that’s in the past now, and the only thing that we can focus on is Wednesday and then Sunday.

Orlando City hosts the Chicago Fire on Sunday.

Firstly, we’re focused on tomorrow, for sure. But I think Chicago is a team with a new mentality, with a new identity. I think with the addition of Bastian and Dax [McCarty] and guys like that, guys that know how to win, I think that’s infectious. So I think they’re a very improved team, but, first and foremost, the game is tomorrow versus D.C.

For more on Orlando City soccer, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.