Orlando City Coach’s Show Recap: Heath Talks Philly, Sermanni Talks NWSL, Pulis Talks Development

In this week’s Orlando City Coach’s Show with Adrian Heath, the Lions’ head coach was joined by Orlando Pride head coach Tom Sermanni and Orlando City B head coach Anthony Pulis to discuss the team’s final game, building the NWSL roster, and Orlando City’s youth development.

Quotes from Adrian Heath

Philadelphia Union Game

"I was disappointed in the performance."

Looking Back at the Season

"We had a horrible July and August."

"If we had got in the playoffs we'd have been a dangerous team."

"One of the lessons we learned this year is that every single game, if you can stop it from going from three to four to five, it might come back at some stage to haunt you. That's what happened to us in the end."

Quotes from Tom Sermanni

Abby Wambach

"When she was at her peak, she was an outstanding player. She still is to be fair. Her physical presence was unmatched anywhere in the world."

Building Around Alex Morgan

"We're extremely excited. And she's extremely excited which is more important. She wants to be the face of this franchise. She's the face of women's soccer worldwide but she's still fairly young in soccer terms and she's still been one of the younger players in the national team. Coming here gives her the opportunity now to be one of the key players on and off the field. And for her to come to this team is really, really important for her. And it will help to increase her leadership role both here and in the national team."

Building a Roster Around International Games

“World Cup year and Olympic year are really disruptive for the women’s teams. In the women’s game, the national team is still a major team so they tend to be with the national team even more than male players. So it’s trying to get the balance right where, ideal would be to pick up the best players from unsuccessful national teams because they don’t go to any major tournaments. But you can’t always do that so it’ll be a challenge next year.”

Quotes from Anthony Pulis

Signing Homegrown Players to Orlando City B

"I'm not 100 percent sure of the rules. We're in discussions with two at the moment. I believe the rules to signing to a USL contract are different to signing them to a MLS contract. They would be able to sign an MLS contract and then get loaned down to us."

Status of the Academy

"It's getting better. We've got some promising players that are within our academy system and there are a handful of boys that I would like to come in and train with us on a regular basis."