ORLANDO, Fla. – Adrian Heath knows his team missed their chance to bag its first win of the season in Orlando City SC’s 1-1 home draw with 10-man Chicago Fire, but he is confident the missing link is not far away.
Still, after successive draws to start the season, the Orlando City head coach was far more disappointed with their latest outing at the Citrus Bowl than their dramatic last-gasp match-savers against Real Salt Lake on Sunday.
“We had plenty of opportunities again tonight, our quality just wasn’t quite good enough in the final third,” he said insistently. “We were nearly very good a lot, but the final pass lacked the right execution, or the final decision wasn’t quite right.
“But you have to give [Chicago] great credit. They were well organized, and they always had the threat of the counter-attack, which is something we spoke about beforehand.”
Heath was still delighted with hit man Cyle Larin, who made it two goals in two games with his fourth-minute strike and came close several more times, including hitting the post in the 79th minute. Larin also appealed in vain for a penalty when he went down under a challenge from Johan Kappelhof in stoppage time.
“I thought Cyle was outstanding tonight, arguably the best player on the field,” Heath said. “It was a great goal from him. He had a couple of other chances, should have had a penalty and hit the post. He’s only going to get better in future.”
The full debut of new Italian ace Antonio Nocerino – who lasted 63 minutes in his first start since Aug. 29 with AC Milan – was relatively quiet, but Heath was pleased to have the midfielder up and running so soon after arriving.
“He did what we thought he could do,” Heath said. “He is good in possession and sees the field well, and he will get better as he progresses and gets a lot fitter. He is shattered in there right now.
“You don’t play 15 times for Italy without having a lot about you, and we will see that in a game or two once he gets match fit.”
