Orlando City SC "has made a surprising hire," bringing in former Portuguese club Benfica General Dir Armando Carneiro as its Chief Soccer Officer "to oversee all of soccer operations," according to Paul Tenorio of the ORLANDO SENTINEL. Carneiro had "extensive success" at SL Benfica, where he "oversaw everything from the Benfica B team to the club’s academy and its scouting network." Carneiro will "now serve as essentially" Orlando City's Sporting Dir. Current GM Paul McDonough "will now report to Carneiro," who will "oversee all staff for Orlando City's three professional clubs -- Orlando City, Orlando City B and Orlando Pride -- as well as the youth academy." Orlando City is "currently structured" with Owner Flávio Augusto da Silva; Founder & President Phil Rawlins; CEO Alex Leitão; a chief soccer officer in Carneiro; a GM in McDonough; and coach Adrian Heath. Rawlins said that he "was not concerned about too many cooks in the kitchen." Tenorio notes despite Carneiro’s international success, the hiring "carries inherent risk." He has "no experience in MLS, a league that brings many complicated challenges that are totally unique in the world of soccer" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 11/4).
LEARNING YEAR: The SENTINEL's Tenorio wrote for a franchise that "declared playoffs the ultimate goal, some might call the year a failure." However, to many who are familiar with the expansion history of MLS, a 12-win, 44-point season "is a relative success." da Silva said, "Of course we would like to be in the playoffs, but we were very competitive. We are always (trying) to be in the best place in the league and we will continue to fight for that, but it was a fantastic first year, not only in terms of attendance, but we learned a lot. It was our first year to learn to manage it. Now we understand much better MLS, we understand much better the games, how this (all) works. We know 2016 is going to be fantastic" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 11/1).
