Orlando City SC captain Kaká talked about his club’s recent decision to replace former head coach Adrian Heath with Jason Kreis on Tuesday, telling MLSsoccer.com that he thinks Orlando can still make the Eastern Conference playoffs and that Kreis is the right man to lead the second-year club to the postseason.
Orlando and Heath, who had been the only head coach in club history, agreed to part ways on July 6, then brought in Kreis last Tuesday. The former Real Salt Lake and New York City FC manager didn’t coach the team in their 2-2 draw at Columbus on Saturday, officially beginning his duties on Monday ahead of Wednesday night’s friendly against English Premier League club Stoke City and Sunday’s league match against the New England Revolution (7:30 pm ET; MLS LIVE).
Kaká, who traveled to San Jose following the draw at Columbus and will captain the MLS All-Stars in Thursday’s AT&T All-Star Game against Arsenal (7:30 pm ET; ESPN, UniMas in the US, TSN, RDS in Canada), made a point to express his gratitude for Heath’s work in Orlando while also hitting an optimistic note about the club’s 2016 prospects.
“This is the first time that it happened in Orlando. Adrian was there for eight years and we are so thankful for everything he’d done for the club and he’s part of the history of the club,” he said. “But soccer is all about results. In that moment the team didn’t have the results that we deserved and the club decided to change the coach, so I wish very good luck to Adrian to the rest of his career.
“For us, the rest of the season is so important. I think this group, I think Orlando City this year, we can make the playoffs and Jason I think is the right guy to lead us to do that.”
Kaká said that he and Kreis, who had a lengthy meeting with Orlando’s players about tactics on Tuesday, only had the chance for a brief talk after his hiring. He said that the two didn’t go too in-depth in their discussion, but that he expects to sit down with the new Lions manager about his specific plans in the coming days.
The Brazilian Designated Player also expressed his hope that Orlando, who are currently in seventh in the East with a 4-5-11 record, would be able to improve the little things under Kreis that have cost them results this season.
“It’s always hard to say what is the problem, what’s missing, but most of the time it’s little details during the games that we miss at some important point,” he said. “It’s soccer, it’s all about results and when you tie and you lose because of little details it changes everything. This is the problem that we have to figure out.”
