Orange County’s Summer away from home will continue once again as they are going to play their third straight away game and seventh of their last nine games. This three game stretch took them down to Texas and to the East Coast so it only makes sense that their final stop takes them to the South of the United States where they will make their first ever visit to Memphis. 

In the city of Memphis is that of Memphis 901 FC a team that currently sits 4th in the Eastern Conference standings but have had a rollercoaster of a season. Memphis, like most of the Eastern Conference, do not have statistics that they can boast about (only a +4 goal differential). However they are still one of the better teams in the USL this year with a top-five offense. 

For Orange County, the win on Saturday in Virginia bumped them up to a tie for eighth in the West with Phoenix and New Mexico. Saturday the 22nd is shaping up to be a massive day for all of the playoff bubble teams like Orange County with both Phoenix and New Mexico facing fellow playoff-bound teams. But for the moment, Orange County’s focus must be on Memphis. 

FIRST HALF

Loudoun United welcomed Orange County to their home field with some quick and robust pressure immediately after the first whistle blew. In only the 2nd minute of the match, a fantastic pass right into the middle of the box to Jackson Hopkins led to the first shot on goal for the game. He sent it to the bottom left post, but Colin Shutler made a diving save to keep the home team from an early lead.

The boys in orange and black also had a lot of aggressive energy on the pitch, but overcommitting on their tackles and a few poor passes allowed Loudon to completely dominate an attacking possession for the first fifteen minutes of the match. Dillon Powers may have saved the whole pace of the game early with a crucial tackle in the box after Jake Morris set himself up for a dangerous opportunity.

Thankfully that was all the time it took for the tides to change, and in the fifteenth minute, OCSC made their first critical attack. During a vital counterplay, Ryan Doghman sent a long ball over the heads of the Loudon back line right to the feet of Marc "Sparky" McNulty. Sparky controlled the ball, made a genius touch to get around the keeper, and scored with his shot into an open net giving Orange County SC an important lead.

An amazing celebration of Pride Night at Championship Stadium saw Orange County SC welcome Rio Grande Valley FC Toros to their only home game of June.

FIRST HALF

Under the leadership of Morten Karlsen, Orange County SC has gradually performed stronger each week, and they looked to continue that trend against the Toros. The defensive form of the orange & black squad has been excellent in the past few games; however, they have unfortunately not had the same success with the offense. As a result, fans have been worried about this team's ability to find a solid finishing touch and were cautiously optimistic that everything would finally come together in this match.

In the 4th minute, Kyle Scott and Milan Iloski gave fans exactly what they had hoped for. After capitalizing on a mistake, Scott took a turnover at the half line and broke through the Toros' defensive line with Milan beside him for support. Scott pushed the ball forward to Milan for a 1v1 with RGV keeper Carlos Merancio where he easily found the back corner of the net, giving OCSC an incredibly early lead.

Orange County SC returned from their cross-country trip to Hartford with 1 point, leaving them with just 3 points in 4 matches. That’s not quite the start the team (and most of the fans) were hoping for when the season kicked off a little under a month ago. Anyway, in honor of OC’s trip to Hartford, the “Insurance Capital of the World”, here are their player rankings

This past Friday was St. Patrick’s Day, and to celebrate, Orange County SC hosted their first of four Beer fests at Championship Soccer Stadium on Saturday night. Oh, and the team also hosted Tampa Bay Rowdies (a year too late). The result: a lot of fans out of the stands, and a 1-1 draw. Orange County looked the more dominant team on the pitch, but too many missed opportunities to put the game away allowed Tampa Bay the opportunity to steal a point, which they did in the 82nd minute.

Orange County SC opened the season with a 1-3 loss to Louisville City FC this past Saturday. Although there were some highlight moments and a few players looked good, most of the team looked like a team playing their first game of the regular season, while one looked a little shaky at times. Let’s look at the player ratings for this match.

Orange County Soccer Club has agreed a long-term partnership with Dutch Eredivisie giants Feyenoord, which lays out a collaborative and mutually beneficial approach to player loans, development and talent identification—adding value and impacting growth for both teams.