USL Feature
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
ORLANDO, Fla. – Jamie Watson, Orlando City’s affable midfielder, whose face adorns a billboard for Orlando Health as you approach the Florida Citrus Bowl, is the first player to arrive.
It’s a little more than two hours before kickoff against the Wilmington Hammerheads, the Lions’ home opener. Watson is wearing a red team-logo polo shirt, indigo jeans and a pair of gray sneakers. He walks through the gate, accompanied by his mother Janet and her friend Sue McComb, here to run a charity auction to benefit the Seniors Pet Assistance Network and Rescuing Animals in Need.
He’s in a typically cheerful mood as he strolls. Seeing a familiar face, he walks over to shake hands and says how excited he is to get the season started. There’s a spring in his step as he meanders through the belly of the stadium, all iron and steel as though there should be subway tracks above.
It’s going to be a good day.
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As Watson arrives, work is already underway in the locker room. Assistant coach Ian Fuller leads the backroom staff as they prepare for the players.
“Does Chinny need two?” asks one.
“No, he’s not starting tonight,” Fuller replies.
In 10 lockers, there are two jerseys apiece, one for each half for each starter. It’s a testament to the Florida heat that the field players will usually switch to a fresh jersey at halftime.
Today, unlike last week, Chin’s locker just gets one.
Watson enters, and quickly slaps hands with all in attendance, from Fuller down to the volunteers. The greetings continue as other players drift in, defender Luke Boden slipping in quietly, then defender Rob Valentino and goalkeeper Miguel Gallardo.
Watson’s phone vibrates. He moves towards the locker-room door, but answers too quickly.
“That’s a fine!” Boden shouts as he walks away. “Double on game days!”
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Matt Luzunaris is wearing ¾-length training pants. This is a problem.
“It was fine when I wore these last season,” he protests. After being signed by the San Jose Earthquakes after returning from Europe a year ago, he was briefly loaned to Orlando last summer before signing permanently this offseason.
“Yeah, but this is 2012,” Boden answers, levying a dress-code fine on the 23-year-old. “Don’t worry, if anyone else comes in with those on, they’re getting fined too.”
The dress code is designed to instill confidence. The jeans, in particular, signify that the team is going to be heading out after the game to celebrate a victory. It’s a reasonable assumption, since the Lions lost just once at home last season.
Until now, the soundtrack in the locker room has been chatter. Luzunaris changes that, getting out his iPod and firing up the stereo. Swedish House Mafia’s “One (Your Name)” reverberates around the room as the players start to change for warm-ups.
In addition to the jerseys hung in their lockers, each player has a warm-up top, shorts, socks and a pair of sliders laid out on the chair in front of their locker. Almost the entire team is there, chatting quietly, getting focused for the game 100 minutes away.
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Dennis Chin is rushing. Bursting through the door that leads out to the field, he comes around the corner looking at his mobile phone.
“Show me the time,” Luzunaris says, reaching for the device.
Chin smiles. He made it, just, with two minutes to spare. No fine today, at least not for lateness.
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The players are dressed, and the chat continues. In the training room, there’s a line of players waiting for their ankles to be taped. The talk is of the day’s F.A. Cup semifinal between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, and David Beckham’s goal the night before in Los Angeles.
A trash can has been set in one corner of the spacious locker room, with players taking turns trying to lob a ball into its mouth. Designed for a football team, and with many more lockers than the Lions could ever use, one quarter of the room is turned over to the game of skill. Winger Charlie Campbell lollipops in two straight as Chin, Gallardo and Jerome Mechek look on.
In the opposite corner, Coach Adrian Heath has arrived. After first setting up the tickets destined for will call, he goes about his business quietly, hanging his jacket in a locker well away from his players. He takes out a portfolio, unzips it and removes a pencil, a marker, and some notes. He looks at the other end of the room.
“Sean, can you come down here please,” Heath shouts, getting the attention of Lions goalkeeper Sean Kelley.
Kelley was excellent while filling in for the suspended Gallardo a week ago against Charlotte. He saved a penalty kick and earned a 2-0 victory.
Today, Heath tells him the news he likely already knew. He’ll be back on the bench as the team captain reclaims his place in the lineup.
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There are two whiteboards at the end of the locker room, one on the wall, one on an easel, with 19 chairs assembled in four rows before them, soon to be filled by that evening’s squad. Heath takes his marker and starts writing. First is the lineup for the night. Next, he writes defensive assignments for corners and set pieces. A four-man list that will make up any defensive wall that’s needed.
Then on the main board he writes the mantra for the game: Nothing Great Was Ever Achieved Without Enthusiasm. Below Enthusiasm, more words.
Desire.
Determination.
Application.
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There’s little more than an hour to kickoff as Heath emerges onto the field for the first time. Waiting for him is his friend David Irving, the opposing coach tonight. Career soccer men, the two catch up, as they always do when their teams meet. Both played for Everton at different times, and now both have proven themselves as quality coaches.
As they talk, Fuller lays out pylons on the field, preparing for the imminent warmup. Three Hammerheads run laps around the field, as does Orlando’s Wes Allen, getting their legs ready for the battle to come.
John Rooney emerges from the locker room, leaning against one side of the arch that sits below the stand. A younger brother trying to find his place in the soccer world, he takes in what is now his new home before drifting back inside to help Boden reduce the heft of his socks with a lighter.
“Come on fellas, let’s go over,” Fuller says, pointing toward the whiteboards.
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Heath points at the mantra.
“I put this on because it’s my favorite quote, that top one,” he says. “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. At the end there, you can put whatever you want, you can put desire, determination, application, a million of them, but whichever adjective you want to use, the bottom line is that without any of that, you aren’t certain of doing anything. Because without all that, that’s what makes a football team, or any team, all of those combined.
“For us, that word is so important,” Heath says, forcefully tapping the word "application" on the board. “That one there, 'application.' Because that’s the only time that we look like we’re going to get beat. When we don’t do this. When we take the opposition too lightly. Disrespect them, disrespect each other because we don’t all put it in.
“I’ll repeat what I said last weekend. I will take whatever result comes if we do that.”
Heath taps the board again, emphasizing the point.
“Because that’s the most important thing for us. When we don’t do that, that’s when we look like everybody else in the league. But when we do, when we play on the front foot, when we get after the opposition, and let our talent through, the better players that we have all come to the fore, we’ve got a really good team."
“So that one,” he taps again, “in terms of what’s in this room, everybody else should demand it out of each other. And if somebody’s not doing it, don’t wait for me to come in at halftime, going barmy, get onto people out there. We try and make sure every time we play that everyone’s aware of the job, their roles and their responsibilities. There’s nobody in here that doesn’t understand the way we play. So go and do it. Go and do what we ask of you. And if you do, we’ll take whatever result comes.
“I have the confidence in the players that we have in this room to beat anyone in our league, week-in and week-out like we did last year. You think back, last year, when we lost games.”
He taps the board again.
“Every time. We started sloppy, from the kickoff. Don’t go back to the full back, put it in the corner, like we do, we’ll go back, and we’ll go back, and before we know where we are in our own half, we’ve turned the ball over and it sets a tone. Kick off, we put it down the side here, Jerome puts it in this hole, we go and squeeze in there, and we go and play from there. Goalkeeper has the ball, Kevin Molino, and it goes out to the full back, you’d better be all over him, son. Do not think about anything else. That is your responsibility. Max, get yourself across, John, get yourself across, you and James, [in there] tight. Get down the side of the ball, you and Kyle. Lock down on the side of the ball and then we’ll go and get the ball back off them, because they’re not good enough. Don’t give them an out by giving them time and space, because like I’ve said to you, I could still play. Give me time and space, I can still play. As soon as you start to rush people and get them out of their comfort zone, that’s when people turn the ball over, so let’s go and get the ball in their half. Push them hard and make them kick the ball.
“Concentration for you two is vital,” Heath continues, pointing at holding midfielders Anthony Pulis and James O’Connor. “When we’re pushing them, you and James are supporting. Keep it there, keep it tip-top. Can we recognize when we’ve got numbers up out wide? Play the one up, push the two full backs on, keep those sticks in there, and play it quickly.
“It might take time, fellas. Sometimes it does. Early on, it’s their first game of the season, they’re going to be full of effort, full of running. Keep them moving. Eventually, people get tired, and when people get tired, they start to cheat and don’t do their job, and that’s when we’re off and running, yeah? So like I said, let’s get after it, first whistle to the 90th, yeah? Come on lads.”
A roar goes up from the squad and the staff surrounding them, and Kelley leads the side onto the field for warm-ups.
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“Sharp. Stay sharp,” Heath says as the players rejoin him in the locker room.
There are 20 minutes before kickoff, and the noise from above the locker room from the supporter’s section is growing. Inside the room, there’s a different type of intensity, as players and coaches and staff alike exchange handshakes, some simple, some complex.
“Move the ball quickly,” Heath says. “Nobody can live with you when you move the ball quickly, guys. Don’t stand on it, don’t look clever, that’s when it all falls down, when the holes start to fill up."
He looks down the row of lockers to his forwards.
“Where’s Chinny? Where’s Max? Hey, if Kevin comes in off the line and there’s nothing on, you’ve got to put somebody down the side. And once you get down there, we don’t need to be doing all this and losing it. You turn out, you play with your people, and then you get back in the box, OK?”
Valentino is pacing the room like a lion, ready to break out of its cage.
“Let’s get things started now, huh?” he says. “Take the whole field now, no one’s going to beat us here all year.”
“Tempo of the game from the first minute, yeah?” Heath adds. “Don’t let the tempo drop and let people out. We get on top of them from the very first whistle.”
The players, coaches and support staff form a circle, arm in arm. Heath calls on Gallardo to give the final message. He talks about the crowd, about the expectations, and about the work they’ve done this week.
And then he reminds them who they are.
“If we do what we know how to do, that nobody else in the league is better than us, then we’re going to win," Gallardo says. "Let’s enjoy it, and have each other’s backs. Let’s go get three points, boys.”
A roar goes up. The group huddles together.
“Win on three, 1-2-3…”
“WIN!”
The door opens. The line forms. Orlando City’s home opener is moments away.