Orlando City isn’t joking about its locker room culture this season.
During preseason training, players and coach Jason Kreis frequently spoke about how quickly the group of mostly-new players came together.
When the club was mired in an 0-2-1 start that included back-to-back loses, no one pressed the panic button. Goalkeeper Joe Bendik said the early-season struggles helped the group bond even more.
“This team … I think it started in preseason,” he said. “We all were really happy to get to know each other and start to get things going. The season started and we had a little bit of adversity and just the character in the group, I think, came out.