CHAMPIONSGATE - Orlando City may have walked away with a victory over the New York Red Bulls, but Lions coach Adrian Heath was not all too pleased with the team's performance afterwards.
Goals from Kaka, Adrian Winter and Pedro Ribeiro saw the Lions edge the Red Bulls 3-2 on Wednesday morning at the ChampionsGate Sports Complex.
"As pleased as I was at Jacksonville, I thought today was very poor," Heath told reporters. "Our body language was poor from the beginning, didn't look like we were ready to come and play. I thought our second group was a little better, it looked like it meant something for the second group, and it did."
There weren't any halftime changes for the Lions but as the game entered the second half, Orlando squared off against a second-team Red Bulls headlined by Mike Grella. It wasn't until Heath made a complete lineup change that saw Orlando City take more control of the game and eventually the result.
"It was disappointing," added Heath. "Yeah, Orlando won 3-2, but that scoreline doesn't paint a true picture of what the game was. It just looked like [Red Bulls] wanted to win the game more than we did, and that shouldn't happen. The problem wasn't anything to do with fitness, it had to do with attitude. All in all, it's been probably a wasted day."
While Heath mostly pointed at how poor the team played on Wednesday, the Orlando City bossman praised goalkeeper Joe Bendik, defender Rafael Ramos and midfielder Adrian Winter on their time on the pitch.
Molino in action, notches assist
Kevin Molino's return to full fitness continued on Wednesday.
The Trinidad and Tobago international was part of the team's second team that was inserted into the field toward the latter part of the game. The 2014 USL MVP didn't find the net, but assisted in the game-winning goal that was scored by Ribeiro in the 80th minute.
"He's only had 10-15 minutes, but he looks OK," said Heath. "We're just hoping we can get more minutes between now and the beginning of the season because bottom line is he's one of our best players."
Molino is slowly coming back from an ACL tear that occurred last year during a friendly. The injury, which happened early in the MLS season, forced the midfielder to miss the entire 2015 season.
More Lions action
Orlando City B 1, Toronto FC 0
Buzz: Pierre Da Silva's goal in the sixth minute saw OCB (3-0, preseason) defeat Toronto.
Second-half XI for OCB: Ridgers; Ellis-Hayden, Nitti, Callan-McFadden, Turner; Aguilera, Mendoza, Trialist, Da Silva; Cox, Eyang. - via The Mane Land
(Orlando Soccer Journal staff photos)
