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Items 1, 2 and 3: Tighten up the defense.

City SC was down two goals less than 10 minutes into its game, was down three goals before the first half was halfway done. City SC did better after that to present a more attractive final score line, but it was still a 4-2 loss to Orlando City on a sweltering Wednesday night at Energizer Park. Until City SC can bring the number of goals it allows down to a more reasonable number, say, zero or one, any sort of a winning streak is going to be hard to come by, and a lot of wins in a row is what this team needs if it's going to make the playoffs.

“The first 10 minutes, 15 minutes all I can do is probably apologize to the fans,� Critchley said. “It wasn't good enough from us. It wasn't good enough from an individual basis on the field. I felt as though we were prepared for the game but when we let quality teams get into a game quickly with no pressure on the ball and a lack of maybe adjusting to them, they beat our pressure, it's something that we have to improve on. So a pretty disappointing opening 15, 20 minutes.

“I wouldn't say it was a step back. For us, it wasn't a step in the right direction.�

“We're constantly conceding too many goals,� goalkeeper Roman Burki said, “and that's something I'm looking at, obviously, as a goalkeeper, and I try to improve as well.�

And despite the fact that City SC now is winless in its past three games and has allowed 10 goals over its past four games, Burki looks at this team and sees progress, which may speak to the size of the reclamation project that lies ahead.

“There are things inside of a team that only we players and the staff knows,� Burki said, “and so we know exactly what we put in every day, on the field, in the training, also off the field, the relationships we build and that's what is positive and that's why I also believe that we are improving, and we make a next step. Even today, we had some good things on the field. Not everything was bad, but we were really struggling at the beginning of the season, and to recover from that, not only quality wise, also mentally, is not easy and but I think we are in a good way, even though the result was obviously not good.�

If you’re looking for good things from the game, Simon Becher scored his first goal since March 8, and you’d could see in his face after the ball went in how much it meant to him. Klauss scored again, giving him four goals in the past two games and five in the four games since Critchley took over. There were some big saves by Burki that kept the game from totally disintegrating in the first half.

But after gamely fighting back in the closing minutes of the first half and making it a one-goal game at halftime, City SC didn’t have a shot in the first half hour of the second half, didn’t have a shot from inside the box until the 89th minute by which time the score was 4-2.

“A lot of our service in the box was from way too much of wide areas,� Critchley said, “which we talked about as it's very difficult to score from moments when the ball is being played in a box when your numbers are down and it's from a big distance. Trying to find the extra pass there I think is important, and then when we found the extra pass today, sometimes we had to just take a little more focus. … We just have to find ways to find the extra pass inside the box and try to create better chances for ourselves.�

“If we have a little bit of luck, maybe we equalize the game,� Burki said, “but luck is not on our side at the moment.�

These are certainly tough times health-wise for City SC, which was without midfielders Eduard Lowen and Chris Durkin, which led to Critchley using Marcel Hartel and Akil Watts there, and are without defender Henry Kessler, depriving it of three of its top players down the center of the field. Center back Timo Baumgartl collided with an Orlando player breaking up a dangerous chance and was down on the field getting treatment on his left leg for a long time, but remained in the game, finally being subbed out in the 83rd minute. Critchley didn’t have an update postgame but there isn't much time before its game Saturday at Houston.

And while progress is something City SC will need this season, what it really needs is progress and wins. City SC remains stuck on 15 points, and is looking at having to win eight of its final 15 games to even be involved in the playoff race and 11 of 15 if its to be a legitimate hopeful. If things don’t change soon, City SC may have gotten out of traffic and started speeding up on the road to the airport, but by the time it gets there, the plane will have long since left.

It was a somber start to the evening for City SC. Orlando passed its way through City SC’s defense for the first goal, and City SC gave Marco Pasilic way too space, enabling him to score from outside the box to make it 2-0. The in the 22nd minute, Baumgartl and Akil Watts were passing the ball back and forth to each other in tight quarters near their own net. Watts couldn’t control a pass, lost the ball to a challenge and Pasalic was in alone on Burki to make it 3-0.

“That goal is interesting,� Critchley said, “because that is a moment that's going to create a lot more than hurt us as the season goes on. It's something I've asked these guys to do is be brave and play in these types of moments with composure. The fact that we are 2-0 down and still trying to live out the game plan we had early in the week, I was glad for that moment. Unfortunately, we conceded a goal today.�

Tomas Totland sprung Becher for his second goal of the season, and then just before halftime, Totland crossed a ball into the box that an Orlando defender failed to clear and it fell to Klauss, who put it in.

But the optimism at halftime was no match for the reality and City SC couldn’t keep the attack going.