Even though they are separated by over 1,300 miles, the players and staff of Minnesota United and Orlando City are a lot closer than you think. 

• Adrian Heath coached Orlando from 2010 to 2016. Heath led the club to two USL titles and three Commissioner’s Cups.
  
• Minnesota assistants Ian Fuller and Mark Watson were on Heath's coaching staff in Orlando. Fuller was there from 2011 to 2015 as a player and a coach before joining the Loons. Watson joined Orlando in 2014 ahead of the MLS transition, and remained with the club through 2016.
  
• Kevin Molino played for Orlando from 2011 to 2016. He won two USL MVP awards with the Lions.
  
• Patrick McLain was selected by Orlando in the 2016 MLS Re-Entry Draft.
  
• Joe Bendik and Collen Warner played for Toronto FC from 2014 to 2015.
  
• Donny Toia and Johan Venegas were teammates from 2015 to 2016 with Montreal Impact.
  
• Warner, Luis Gil and Will Johnson were teammates on RSL in 2010 and 2011. Toia joined the group in 2011.
  
• Gil and Christian Ramirez are both natives of Garden Grove, California.
  
• Servando Carrasco and Marc Burch were teammates on the Seattles Sounders in 2012 and 2013. Carrasco then joined Jermaine Taylor in Houston for the 2014 season. He then played with Bernardo Anor on Sporting Kansas City in 2015.
  
• Taylor and Giles Barnes played together on the Houston Dynamo from 2012 to 2015.
  
• Kevin Alston was a long-time teammate of Bobby Shuttleworth’s on New England Revolution from 2009 through 2015.
  
• Matias Perez Garcia and Sam Cronin played for the San Jose Earthquakes in 2014.