New York City Football Club face off against Orlando City SC tomorrow.
For this edition of 'The Away End' presented by Berkeley College & Rennert International, we spoke to Antonio Cruz, a podcaster with the Orlando Lions Den Podcast.
Hi Antonio, thanks for speaking with us. How long have you been covering Orlando City?
I have been a supporter since the opening season and then started the podcast 6 seasons ago.
What has been your highlight in that time?
Definitely winning the U.S. Open Cup at home. Also, the first MLS match ever versus you guys. Seeing Kaka in person and over 60k fans there.
What were your thoughts on the 2023 season?
Overall it was our best year in MLS. We went on a tear and were one of the best sides in the league for most of the second half. I do believe that if we beat the crew in our matchup we did have a chance to win it all but unfortunately, we went back into our defensive shell and just didn’t have enough to beat a really good crew squad. So it was a positive year to build on but ultimately I felt we left some meat on the bone as they say.
What are your hopes for the 2024 season?
Given our poor start, we have some ground to make up so that tempered my expectations some. Especially after finishing second for the shield last year. My hopes for this year is to get home-field in the opening playoff round and see what can happen from there. We are on a good run right now but also haven’t played good teams either. Facing you folks this weekend will be a good test to see if we really turned it around. For now, my expectations are what the norm is under Oscar which is around 5th place and maybe advance one round in the playoffs. I hope I’m wrong though!
What do you think will be the deciding factor in Saturday's game?
I think we need to control the midfield better. I felt we couldn’t put a few passes together versus you guys and lost the ball in bad areas. This will help minimize some of those transition opportunities you seem to be lethal at.
And for any fans that might be in Orlando for the game are there any spots you'd suggest they check out?
With your fans being from New York it’s hard to find anything that really compares to the city but we do have a nice downtown area and the stadium is within walking distance to it. There are cool places to eat there and hang out.
