Coming hot off the back of the defeat to Real Salt Lake, Patrick Vieira believes that Sunday’s game at Orlando City is perfectly timed.
After any disappointing performance, players and coaches are often eager to get back onto the field at the first available opportunity, to give their answer to a setback with actions rather than words.
Vieira is no different in this respect and he’s expecting a big response from his players on Sunday night.
Patrick told NYCFC.com: “It’s really important for us and players want to play because they didn’t perform at the level against Salt Lake and it was a disappointing performance. The game against Orlando is coming at the right time – there’s no fatigue, there’s just a desire to compete, to do well and give our best to try to win.”
Cyle Larin is unsurprisingly being touted as the dangerman going into the game.
The Canadian has scored 10 times against NYCFC but Vieira will not make a special plan for the forward, instead, he calls upon his whole team to help defend and keep the ball out of the penalty area.
“We’re not going to change our approach, we’re not going to change our attitude regarding Larin – we know how good he is inside the box but when you look at how Kaka performed in the last few games and with Rivas up front – it’s a dangerous team,” Vieira said.
“They’ve got individual talent – we just have to be better defending as a team. When the ball is inside the box we have to mark better than we did in the last games against them but what I think is important to us is to be disciplined and respect the game.
“It’s a tough one for us when you look at the results at the end but when you analyze properly the performances we had against Orlando in the two games this season, I think we outplayed them in both games.
“We were the better team in both games and now what we have to do is to keep playing well and try to get the result at the end.”
NYCFC have one point through two games of this three-game road streak and, for that reason, Vieira is frustrated and hoping to clinch three to take home to New York on Sunday.
“Not getting at least a point was a disappointing result for us [at RSL] and it will be important for us to win one game at least.
“Orlando will be the last game of the week and today was all about recovering from the travelling and that’s why we had a light session today. We’re going to start to get the focus on Orlando tomorrow.”
