Photo by Kim Klement / USA Today Sports Images

By MIKE GRAMAJO

ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando City may be on the outside looking in when it comes to clinching a playoff berth, but that isn’t stopping Adrian Heath from believing his squad can make the postseason.

The Lions (28 points, 7-10-7) are currently in seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings, just outside playoff contention. After a scoreless tie against the Philadelphia Union on Saturday, Heath’s men dropped two pivotal points that could placed them in the coveted final playoff spot.

“I still believe that we can,” Heath told reporters. “If we would have gotten the three points today, is there anybody in here that doesn’t think we would of been in the mix? Sometimes you take something from the game, take the clean sheet. Every game is going to be important now. We’re leaving ourselves with not a lot of room for error.”

OCSC have enjoyed much of their inaugural season, dominating the possession statistic. They’ve also been able to get rookie Cyle Larin to produce double-digit scoring.

However, after a winless month of July to end the first half of the MLS season, Orlando is now focused on taking each game at a time, not necessarily the playoffs, according to Aurelien Collin.

“Right now, we’re not thinking about tomorrow, we’re thinking about today,” said Collin. “Every game is a final, we have to get as much points as we can, and I know in the end, we’ll make it to the playoffs because we showed a lot of times we have the level to play in the playoffs, just right now we have to get the points.”

Despite the departures of defender Sean St. Ledger (Waived) and forward Martin Paterson (Contract terminated), Orlando City were able to acquire Spanish center back David Mateos and Swiss midfielder Adrian Winters during the MLS summer transfer window.

A last-minute trade with the Columbus Crew, which saw the Lions acquire forward Adam Bedell, was the final lock in Orlando’s search for depth. However, after three wins in their last 10 games, even the team’s captain is certain Orlando will join Seattle and Chicago in expansion teams to make the playoffs in their respective inaugural seasons.

“I think at this moment, we have to think about one game at a time,” Kaka spoke on the team accomplishing their playoff hopes. “We should have won this game tonight, we couldn’t. Now we have to go away to get some points at Seattle and Toronto. It’s time to win every, home and away and that’s the opportunity to arrive to the playoffs.”