For Orlando City, ‘It’s Down To Us, Not What Other People Do’

It’s not a stretch to say that Orlando City is in good form as of late. Winning three straight games, two of which were without captain Kaká, as well as beating the best team in the East, has kept this Lions team in the race for that sixth and final playoff spot. As their good form continues into the last three games of the season, their biggest game of the inaugural campaign will be coming up this weekend against the Montreal Impact.

The Lions have played Montreal twice thus far this season, with both games taking place up in Canada. Their first match-up was a 2-2 draw and the second game was a 2-0 loss for the Lions. Although Orlando has experience playing Montreal, the Impact are a bit of a different animal now with mid-season signing Didier Drogba creating a much more dangerous attack.

"He's come in and has lifted everything else," Lions Head Coach Adrian Heath said on Monday in regards to Drogba. "You look at the atmosphere in Stade Saputo, it's like nothing I've seen since I've been here. The one thing is you're playing against probably one of the typical number nines: big, strong, backs in, gets all types of goals, beats people and scores, great headers. He's a top-drawer player."

While Drogba and Montreal are playing well, Heath believes his team still has the advantage.

"This is at the Citrus Bowl," Heath added. "[Drogba] will have played in atmospheres like it, but I'm looking forward to it because, as I've said before, whenever we've asked our supporters to turn up and really get behind us, they've never let us down and I don't think they'll do that this weekend."

As much as the team is preparing for this weekend's game, the Lions are still more focused on themselves rather than the other teams in the standings.

"This is going to be down to us, not what other people do," Heath said about his team. "If we can win the next two home games, I think it'll put us in a great situation heading into Philadelphia. We're at that stage of the season now where we probably have to win out."

With so much pressure coming into play with only three games left in the Lions' inaugural season, Heath still believes that his team is fully capable of making that run to the playoffs.

"I did say a few weeks ago that I think this team is capable of winning four, five games on the spin and we're gonna have to do that."

Midfielder Lewis Neal also weighed in on the team's focus going forward.

"It's the old cliche, we have to take care of our business and take care of what we can control and unfortunately it's not in our hands," Neal said. "But like I say, we've just got to control what we can control and that's trying to win that game against Montreal."