Football Season Guide

A major reconstruction of the roster puts Orlando City in a strong position to finally make it to the playoffs on the fourth time asking as the club head into the new season with renewed optimism backed by the acquisition of a number of eye catching signings. A flying start to the campaign last season looked to have put Orlando on course for a place in the playoffs as they won six of their opening seven games but a porous defense meant that they could only manage four more victories for the rest of the campaign and had to fight hard in the final weeks to avoid dropping to the foot of the Eastern Conference standings. To make matters worse, Orlando lost two of their key players during the off-season with Kaka announcing his retirement while Cyle Larin was sold to Turkish club Besiktas. Orlando though have been busy bolstering their squad though and their biggest acquisition is of Sacha Kljestan with the midfielder having dominated the assists charts over the last two years he has been with New York Red Bulls. Justin Meram and Josue Colman will provide extra creativity from the flanks while Dom Dywer is a readymade replacement for Larin and the club should improve on their partly tally of 39 goals from last season. Coach Jason Kreis will also hope that the arrivals of Oriol Rosell and Ludovic Sane will provide some steel to the defensive aspect of the game. Orlando will be heading into the new season with arguably their strongest squad in their short history as an MLS franchise but with the two New York teams, Toronto FC and Atlanta United by far the strongest sides in the Eastern Conference, the Lions will have to fight with other teams for the final two playoffs spots.