ORLANDO, Fla. – Cyle Larin has managed just one goal in the past seven games, and Orlando City SC have scored only six times in that spell, going winless through a miserable May.
The Lions started the season with six wins in seven outings, with the Canadian hitman bagging six goals in that opening rush. So, is there suddenly a problem with Orlando’s top striker?
Not according to head coach Jason Kreis and his teammates. For them, the next Larin goal spree is just a moment or two away.
“When he scores seven goals in seven games, you don’t pull him aside and put him up on a pedestal and tell him how great he is,” Kreis said. “When he scores one goal in seven games, we don’t put him down and tell him what a nasty boy he is either. We just say continue to work the way you have and the goals will come.”
The stats tend to bear the Orlando coach out. Larin had 15 attempts on goal through his first six games, and another 15 through the following seven.
“He is getting chances, we are getting lots of goal-scoring opportunities, we are doing a lot of things right,” Kreis added. “At the moment we’re just a little unfortunate to not make the plays at the critical moments.”
Midfielder Servando Carrasco is a keen observer of his teammates, and sees nothing different in Larin in recent weeks.
“I think strikers always go through these kinds of ups and downs, but they’re still showing flashes of what they can do,” he said. “Cyle trains extremely hard, he’s still creating a bunch of chances, and it’s only a matter of time before those chances become goals again.”
Will Johnson, who has taken the captain’s armband in the absence of Brazilian ace Kaká – who will again be absent with a calf injury for Wednesday’s home game with D.C. United (7:30 pm ET | MLS LIVE) – also insists there is no finger-pointing about the current lack of goals.
“People want to say that the strikers need to score more goals, but it’s on everybody,” said Johnson. “Every single guy here is capable of scoring more goals than they currently have, the same for Cyle. All the attacking guys, the defenders on set pieces, the midfielders chipping in as well. So it’s on all of us to do that. You can’t win games unless you score goals, we realize that, and the challenge is on all of us to fix it.”
With the team a month removed from their last win – 2-0 at home to Colorado on April 29 – Kreis believes it’s “important” to get back into the winning column. But it’s not a must-win scenario.
“No. There are 34 games in a season and our objective is clear, and that’s to be better than we were last year,” he said. “The mentality and spirit of the group has not faltered. I believe the guys still believe in themselves and they believe in us, and that’s what it’s going to take to bring ourselves out of this.
“The game directly in front of us is a very opportune one. So we go into this with full force and the objective is to begin to pull ourselves back into a winning rhythm.”
Carrasco underlined the players’ mentality.
“I don’t think there’s a sense of panic; I think there’s a sense of urgency,” he said. “We have two games at home and we want to take full advantage of them. We’ve very hungry, we’ve had some good performances without getting the points, and we’re ready to change the script.”
