ORLANDO, Fla. – Adrian Heath and his players fought shy of using the word ‘frustrated’ after their latest home defeat, but there was a distinctly anxious air in the locker room in the wake of Toronto FC’s 2-0 victory at the Citrus Bowl.
It was not so much the fact the Lions fell to a third successive home defeat and are still looking for a first win in front of their own fans in their inaugural campaign, but they were ultimately left looking and feeling distinctly impotent on a night when Jozy Altidore showed the benefit of some real goalscoring savvy.
“That was the first game we have had all season where we didn’t look good in terms of moving the ball,” head coach Heath insisted. “They played their most experienced team and made it difficult for us all night long. We fell into the trap of trying to force it into the middle of the pitch and as we were chasing the game we got a bit desperate, which showed with their second goal.”
In previous games, Orlando has been the dominant force and simply lacked the finishing touch. This time they ran into a red wall that soaked up their pressure and hit them with two sucker punches on the counter-attack.
“That is the biggest disappointment,” Heath added, “Because one of the big things before tonight is that we have played well at home, and I can’t say that this evening. At times it was the final ball, at other times it was poor movement in the box, but our quality simply wasn’t good enough in the final third.
“Sometimes you have to take it on the chin and move on. But this group has proved on more than one occasion that we can play at this level and we have to evaluate this and regroup.”
Team leader and skipper Kaká also cut a disconsolate figure afterwards as he repeatedly ran into the Toronto ranks that were well-marshalled by US international Michael Bradley. The Brazilian's runs were either swallowed by red-shirted defenders or his passes failed to find a teammate in space.
“I don’t know what it is here but we can’t score at the moment,” the Brazilian ace admitted. “It is difficult when teams come here and defend but we must find a way. We also made a lot of mistakes tonight.
"The second half was very hard because we conceded the goal and after that they just sat back and waited until we made another mistake. Now we need to work hard to convert this anxious thing into a positive thing.”
Fellow midfielder Kevin Molino admitted the team is definitely feeling the weight of the long victory drought at home, but remained confident it is not a major setback.
“In a sense there must be pressure [for the first win],” he conceded. “It is very difficult at this moment but we have to stay positive.
“All credit to Toronto – their game plan was good and they had clearly studied us a lot. We just have to accept the loss and move on. We just have to go over the things that didn’t work well tonight, work on them in training, and stay positive.”
Young striker Cyle Larin was even more straightforward, insisting Orlando still had plenty of reason to look ahead.
“If we get the final ball right, we will score,” he said. “That’s all we were lacking tonight. We can be a bit more direct, and we can put that right. We will score goals here.”
