Orlando City SC CEO Alex Leitão has made a couple of appearances at training sessions during the past couple of weeks.
The Lions are off to an 1-2-1 start, but they picked up their first win of the season last week at home against the New York Red Bulls. The club came into the season with lofty expectations after extensive roster moves, but Leitão said the club needed some time to start the season due to players missing time for various reasons.
“When you bring so many players in at the same time, you have to have some patience,” Leitão told Pro Soccer USA.
“You need to wait until this team gets together, they get to know each other, they get to know how to play with each other. This is one thing. The other thing, we faced some difficulties because of some injuries and players getting fit. That was another issue and problem that we faced in the beginning of the season.”
Orlando City faces the Portland Timbers (0-2-2, 2 points) at 4 p.m. on Sunday at Orlando City Stadium in a match that will be broadcast nationwide on ESPN.
Friday morning, Leitão watched training and saw every member of the club participating in drills.
“I think now, we’re in a very good moment for us as a team,” he said. “As you can see, everybody is available and everybody is training hard and it’s been four games for them, a couple of months for them to know each other.”
Leitão said he’s confident in the club — that includes the players and head coach Jason Kreis.
“I can’t see this team not growing, not developing, not being better … so that’s the expectation,” Leitão said. “We had our first win last game and hopefully we continue to do that this Sunday.”
Orlando City’s fan base has been fantastic, Leitão said. He said he believes supporters will be “very happy” with the Lions as the season goes on.
“I see the players that we have, the quality they bring to the trainings and the practice,” he said. “I trust in my coaching staff so I’m pretty sure we will deliver what we want and what we deserve this year.
“They did a pretty good job in the offseason, putting together this team. In preseason, we had some good results. In the beginning, we struggled a little bit because we needed time to get everyone together and we had some issues with injuries. No excuses right now. Everybody is ready and I’m pretty sure we’ll start to win and deliver what our fans want.”