Orlando City Coach’s Show Recap: Adrian Heath Talks FC Dallas, Looks Forward to West Brom and Red Bulls

On Tuesday night’s Orlando City Coach’s Show with Adrian Heath, the Lions boss discussed Saturday night’s loss to FC Dallas, previewed this week’s upcoming games against West Bromwich Albion and New York Red Bulls, and other news around Orlando City SC.

Performance Against FC Dallas

"If we're going to lose, we go out fighting and we go out on the sword. And I didn't think we did that enough and I was really disappointed in our players on Saturday evening. And that's something I don't say very often but I thought it was something that needed to be said after the game."

FC Dallas Penalty

"It was a penalty. It was a good decision from the referee."

Coming Out in Second Half

"We're better when we're on the front foot and that's why we changed (formation). I thought we'd push maybe five on and let Amobi be the protector for the back four and try to get everybody pushed on. It worked well."

Message to Supporters

"We will be better on Saturday. I guarantee you we will be better on Saturday."

Sean St. Ledger Injury

“Fortunately, the news was quite good. We don’t think he’s going to have a major problem. Might have to wear some sort of protective bandage on the shoulder but we think he’s going to be okay.”

Luke Boden's Second Yellow

"He raised his elbow but he didn't catch the kid. Bodz said it as well as he could that Bodz's six-two and the guy is smaller than me and Keith (Buckley). So it doesn't have to be hard to catch him in the face. I didn't think it warranted it but it is what it is. We can't complain. That incident and the penalty pretty much summed the evening up for me."

On Missing Players for International Tournaments

“You can’t be missing half of your first team when an international comes round.”

“Maybe in the future we have to start thinking about Gold Cup, Africa Cup of Nations, and every conceivable international tournament that could affect us.”

On Kaká Being Selected to All-Star Team

"We're delighted for him."

On Cyle Larin's Miss

"I told him to not let it affect him going forward."

On Timing of Gold Cup

"I'd like it to not be at all so we'd have everyone in there."

"I'd like it if MLS would cancel games for teams with four or five players there."

On Becoming a Better Coach

"I try to read as much as I can. I try to get as much information as I can. I've got every sort of coaching license you can have. I just try to make myself better any way I can. I think that when the season's over, I invariably try to go and watch two or three people work in the off-season. People I like. I tried to go see (former Marseille coach Marcelo) Bielsa, couldn't do it, I'm going to try again this year. I'm going to go to Spain to see Marcelino down at Villarreal."

On Relationship Between Academy and Public Schools

"There has been a little bit of a conflict between playing high school football (soccer) and playing academy football."

"I think one thing we are trying to do is get more and more connected with the community and certainly the smaller age groups to make sure that we are getting the best kids in the area coming through the club."

On USL Team Being Called Orlando City Manatees

"I don't know what we're coming up with because people are calling it OC2 and OC Reserves. I think they should just be called OC2 or OC Reserves."

On Club vs. Country

"I have never ever tried to stop a player for going and playing for his country. I know how much it meant to me when I played and I would never stop him. I think we're just in a situation now where we have to look for everybody. You can't say to players you can keep going away with the national team when it's affecting the (MLS) clubs like it is."

On Thinking Now vs. Future

“I think of the future of the club probably too much at times. I’m certainly not a manager who manages for today and doesn’t worry about the future. If I did, I’d probably have gone a different route in the summer with some of the recruitment that we did. We bought young players to develop. The likes of Cristian Higuita, the likes of Rivas, the likes of Rochez and all the younger ones we signed, to bring them on and hopefully they’ll have a future with this club. I don’t want everybody in the team to be 30 years of age because we’ve got to win now. We have to look at the long term picture as well.”

On Friendly Rules

"We work with the team that's coming in and if they want to use 28 players they can use 28 players if they want. One of the issues that we have is that we can't bring trialists in. We wanted to get one or two of our players from the academy an opportunity to maybe step up and play this time but the league won't allow us to do it. Something to do with the CBA, which is an issue."

On Friendly Expectations

"As much as we're going to take it serious and get everybody minutes, we are down to the bare bones and this game couldn't have come at a worse time for us. I would've loved to have gone with a full-strength team and said ‘Let's go for it," but we're going to have to really be careful with how many minutes we give to the starters because we have a really important game coming up Saturday against an Eastern Conference team who are in and around us in the league (standings)."

Bryan Rochez

"He's now back in town which is a start. He's been away for about six and a half weeks, seven weeks. He's got all his paperwork done now he's back in town. He will play tomorrow night against West Bromwich Albion. He needs some games so we'll give him a runout tomorrow. Hopefully get Bryan going in the next month or so because he's had a real frustrating start with us."

Danny Mwanga’s Playing Time

"Danny's playing tomorrow."

West Brom Friendly

"They've established themselves now as a Premier League club. And Tony (Pulis) went in there with difficult circumstances and has done a great job with them. They've got something like nine or ten internationals on their squad so good opportunity for our supporters to see top flight football. I think it's a great opportunity for kids around our town. Kids from our academy, kids playing around town or in high school to come and watch one of the premier clubs playing in the Premier League."

Estrela

"He's another one whose been complaining he hasn't had enough time so tomorrow's an opportunity for him."

Player Usage in Friendly

"We'll use Luke (Boden). Obviously Aurelien Collin needs time. Kaká missed last week so we'll probably give him 30 minutes, maybe 45. Rochez needs to play. Danny Mwanga needs to play. Estrela needs to play."

"You'll see Donovan (Ricketts) and Earl Edwards. Tally (Hall) won't play tomorrow."

New York Red Bulls

"I guarantee we'll be in a better physical and mental frame of mind than on Saturday."

"They're in a little bit good run of form. It's going to be tough for us but it's a really important game because obviously they're in and around us as well in the playoffs. So important game for us."

Replacing Luke Boden

“We might have got somebody for the weekend (Corey Ashe from Houston).”