Orlando City B midfielder Jordan Schweitzer made history for the USL club this past weekend. The 23-year-old was called up for the Canadian National Team for a friendly against El Salvador. Along with Orlando’s MLS striker Cyle Larin, Schweitzer spent a number of days training with Canada up until their match on Sunday. He made the bench for the match, but did not manage to get into the game.
“Any opportunity to represent your national team and, for me, the place where my parents were born, obviously it’s a proud moment,” Schweitzer said of being called up. “But, it’s one that you want to make the most of and take in everything in from being around the guys, the staff and just try to take in as much of the experience and that’s what I tried to do. I think I want to continue to test myself as a player and improve. Obviously you do that each and every day with your club team and that’s great and then to continue that and get the opportunity to continue that while representing your country, that’s a bonus, but it was great and it was something that I tried to enjoy every day and learn and make the most of it.”
Schweitzer has had a solid year in the midfield for OCB this season, having played in 23 matches so far this season, starting in 17 of them. He has played the 7th most minutes out of any player on the team, playing mostly as a defensive midfielder pulling the strings in the middle of the pitch. He scored his only goal this season in a 1-1 draw over FC Cincinnati back in July.
“Great for Jordan. Really, really pleased for him,” OCB Head Coach Anthony Pulis said of his midfielder. “He’s performed really well for us this year. Fantastic achievement. Everybody involved with OCB was delighted for him. I think that was the first OCB player that’s been called up for a full national team. Great team of him, good for the group is well because it’s not just Jordan, the rest of guys mostly helped him through it. So, real massive positive and we're looking forward to having him back available for Thursday night.”
The Canadian re-joins OCB as they head into their final match of the season having picked up quite a bit from many of the national team members that he trained with, as he hopes to bring those lessons into his game for the future.
“Most of the guys, even some of the younger guys that were there, they’ve been capped multiple times for Canada. So I just tried to pick little things off them and just train and being around them. I felt like that was something that was priority number one, especially for it being my first cap. It’s something that, from those experiences, I can take that through the rest of my career. It was an enjoyable learning experience.”
Schweitzer and OCB will look to close out their regular season with a win over the Tampa Bay Rowdies at home on Thursday. Kickoff is set for 7:30.
