Orlando City held scoreless in loss to Pittsburgh Riverheads
August 4, 2013
Orlando City (12-3-6, 42 points) remains six points behind first place in the USL Pro standing following a 1-0 lost to the Pittsburgh Riverheads (9-6-7, 34 points), Saturday night at the Fifth Third Bank Field at the Citrus Bowl.
Between injuries, recalling of players to Sporting Kansas City, and players being selected for international duties- City’s disjointed roster has yet to find someone willing to step up and become that missing leader the team needs since losing Dom Dwyer half way though the season.
“One or two people have to step up,” stated City’s head coach Adrien Heath following the game. “As I said before- talk is cheap, and I’m getting a little bit fed up of hearing the same people saying the same things and then showing me it doesn’t really equate to what they’re telling me when they get on the field. ”
City has only scored 11 goals since the departure of Dom Dwyer- who set the league single-season record with 15 goals- and has lacked productions from key players who have been known to contribute in the past.
Heath described the team’s performance as “poor” and “lackluster”, pointing out the team had no determination from the beginning of the game playing the way they did. Besides C.J. Sapong- who returned to the team for the weekend on loan from Sporting Kansas – he feels as if no one else gave the team a lift instead they set around waiting for their teammates to provide the spark to get the crowd up out their seats and the team going.
With back-to-back games, Sapong did not start the match-up however was subbed right in following a goal from Pittsburgh midfielder, Ryan Kinne, in the 52nd minute of play.
Sapong and Forward Long Tan attempted to give the offense a consistent push in the second half but came up short multiple times to the hand of Pittsburgh defense, which lead to a last second shot in stoppage time that sailed just over the top of the goalpost.
“We weren’t good enough tonight. By our own standers; we need to be a lot better than that and it’s definitely a missed opportunity. But we cant feel sorry for ourselves; we have another game tomorrow. We need to start winning games.”
With league leaders, Richmond Kickers, suffering a lost tonight- City’s has the opportunity to swindle themselves into a top playoff spot. With six games in 14 days, including two games against the Kickers, City’s hopes of winning the USL PRO Regular Season Championship for the third time straight comes down truly how bad they want it.
City heads to Plant City tonight to face VSI Tampa Bay FC before retuning home on Wednesday to play them again.