With the season’s midway point in the rearview mirror, playoff conversations are slowly branching into a stage of realism.
Orlando City SC coach James O’Connor didn’t mention playoffs directly, but what unfolds Wednesday evening (7:30 pm ET | MLS LIVE on ESPN+ in US, on DAZN in Canada) against the Eastern Conference-leading Philadelphia Union could certainly impact those hopes.
Namely, the match at Exploria Stadium jumpstarts a busy July with six matches, five of which come against fellow East clubs. They follow a June stretch in which the Lions went 4-1 across all competitions, even booking a spot in the U.S Open Cup quarterfinals.
“If we can get July the same then we’d all be pretty pleased, wouldn’t we?,” O’Connor said. “We want to try and win as many games as we can, so hopefully July will go as well as June did for us.”
To execute that hope, Orlando approach back-to-back games against Philadelphia, who remain atop the East with a one-point lead. The Union are coming off a one-point week from a New England Revolution and New York City FC road trip, so O’Connor knows how hungry coach Jim Curtin will have his team.
“Jim has done an incredible job. Huge respect for the job Jim has done there,” O’Connor said. “I think he’s someone that gets on with it, and he’s dealt with a lot. Great credit to him. They’re playing really well, they’re a tough team, so they have a lot of weapons to choose from. We need to be mindful of what they may do and then be prepared to hopefully try and cause them some problems when we have the ball, too.”
But O’Connor is also high on what his team has done, namely a 2-0 win against the slumping Columbus Crew last weekend. Chris Mueller and Tesho Akindele both scored on two of the team's three shots, with plenty of praise going the Canadian forward’s way. Akindele, acquired from FC Dallas via trade in the offseason, has six goals, one shy of tying his career high.
“The quality of his goal was excellent, but his movement, he’s pulling people around the field because he’s a constant menace,” O’Connor said of Akindele. “He doesn’t stop running. You look at his work, what he gives the team, it’s been a breath of fresh air to see someone have that boundless energy and continually strive every day to get better.”
Now, to keep trending in the right direction, O’Connor repeatedly returned to “togetherness.” That could prove vital for the fifth-year club that’s never made the MLS playoffs.
“What the players have shown is an incredible togetherness, I think that’s been the big thing I’ve been really pleased with,” O’Connor said. “You can see just how together the group is, which is really important."
