Orlando City B Isn’t Winning Games, But You Shouldn’t Really Care About That

Orlando City B dropped its first road match of the season on Saturday night, falling to Louisville City FC, the Lions’ previous USL affiliate in 2015, by a score of 4-1. The loss dropped the team to 0-2-1 on the season. The Lions’ USL side is winless on the young campaign through three matches and, if anything, they’re not the Orlando City that fans were used to seeing dominate the USL from 2011-2014.

If anything, they're the complete opposite.

But when you really look at the existence of OCB, should wins even matter? The short answer: no.

The more explained answer: no, but only if the players are playing well.

The only problem in this case is that the team isn't playing well, and it's looked bad in all three of their matches. And that's somewhat understandable, though. This is an expansion team, with mostly young players, and it's okay for them to not be able to play together perfectly at this point. And it's also okay for Anthony Pulis to not have all the answers as a head coach in the early days of his first professional job.

OCB was put together with one goal: development. Wins are great, and if this club goes on the make the playoffs that's awesome, but right now, it doesn't really matter what the outcomes of their games are. This team is, as one Mane Land writer put it our Slack channel, an extended preseason for Orlando City players who aren't getting regular playing time with the first team.

I'm sure you all know by now how important having this USL side is for the club, and I know I don't have to argue to hard at this to get my point across.

As long as players are getting their time on the field to get better, the job is done. Not winning? Whatevs, man.