Soca Warriors striker Devorn Jorsling came in for high praise from Orlando City Lions coaches Adrian Heath and player/coach Ian Fuller.
This followed Jorsling’s decisive penalty in a 3-2 shoot-out win after both clubs had battled to a 2-2 draw in the USL PRO Championship, at the Florida Citrus Bowl on September 3.
The 27-year-old Jorsling who has netted 13 goals in 25 matches for T&T joined the Lions at the start of the 2011 season after he led Defence Force to its first Digicel Pro League crown and first national title in over 12 years.
Jorsling, who endured a lean campaign in front of goal for the Lions with three goals from 16 matches came on as a substitute in the second half of the 30-minute extra-time.
He was denied a penalty before he turned hero in the shoot-out, scoring his team’s final attempt after team-mate and second choice goalkeeper Sean Kelley had made two saves.
Kelly came on a few minutes into the second half after starting goalkeeper, Miguel Gallardo-Aparacio was red carded. Reflecting on the match, Heath said, “I thought we should have had a penalty there on Devorn, and then we did get one with Dennis Chin, and the kid (Gallardo-Aparacio) got sent off.”
With regards to the penalty kicks, Heat said to go 2-0 up, was great. “I thought we had it easy but it turned out it wasn’t and we had to fight.
It was kind of an emotional ringer. “When you win, you think it’s great, but it would have been an absolute nightmare if we lost under those circumstances. With the crowd that we had, the way the game unfolded was a fitting end to the first season.”
In terms of his selection of players to take penalties, Heath said the team has players who step up and say they want to take one, however they changed the order a little bit as he felt Jorsling would be better going last. It turned out to be right.
He added “I was so pleased for Devorn as well. He’s had to sit by watching. I said when the season began that I thought he’d score a lot of goals, but it hasn’t really worked out for him.
Despite not enjoying as productive a season as he would have hoped for, Jorsling’s qualities as a mentor to fellow T&T player, Kevin Molino did not go un-noticed by the team’s technical staff.
“Only us, who have been in the group and with him every day, know what Devorn’s been like this season. He’s been a great mentor to his fellow T&T international Kevin Molino—he’s been like his father this season.
Never complained, came in every day and was a top drawer professional. It was nice for him to get a bit of glory after a frustrating season for him.”