Two hundred seven days ago, Orange County Soccer Club, lived the dream. On a balmy night in Tampa Bay, they lifted the USL Championship Champions Trophy. It was all smiles, cocktails, cigars, and celebrations.
Today, the boys in Orange and Black, sit in 12th place, next to last in the Western Conference, just two points in front of expansion side Monterrey Bay who hold a game in hand.
How did it come to this?
Do we lay the blame at the feet of Richard Chaplow? How about President of Soccer Operations & General Manager, Oliver Wyss? Owner James Keston? Captain Michael Orozco? How about we blame the County Line Coalition? They are not as loud or excited this year! Right?
I say, EMPHATICALLY, no. What good has the blame game ever done anyone?
So, how DID it come to this?
Primarily, injuries.
Injuries to key players before the season even kicked off in Colorado. If anyone attended a pre-season friendly and paid attention, Brent Richards was the best player on the pitch every fixture. However, a late pre-season injury kept him sidelined for our first five matches. Think Brent bombs do not matter? Hopefully, we see him back on the pitch soon after the injury he sustained against Las Vegas Lights (possible orbital socket fracture, but no official report), but if I had to guess, I’d say it’ll be a while before we see him back on the pitch.
Brian Iloski has yet to play a single competitive minute this season. Can you imagine a game with him and younger brother Milan on the pitch at the same time? Opposing defenders would be scratching their heads in wonderment, trying to figure out which of the two it was that just blew passed them.
Newcomers Danny Acosta (out for the season) and Tony Rocha have missed significant time. Captain Michael Orozco missed 3 ½ games after only missing five minutes ALL of last season.
The biggest heartbreak is losing Rob Kiernan. Big Rob only saw action against Oakland in Week 9 of the season. It’s a blow our backline can’t seem to recover from.
Most recently, fan favorite Mikko Kuningas was sidelined for 4 of the last 5 matches, only seeing limited minutes in last Saturday's 3-1 defeat at Louisville. How important is the rocker from Finland? No wins, four loses, one draw! One point. He’s THAT important to this club.
At the end of the day, how much a team spends on players doesn’t make a bit of difference if the players aren’t healthy.
So, what does this mean for the team moving forward as we approach the mid-way point of the season? How does the team recover from this? What needs to be done to make this season, at minimum, a respectable one?
I’ll address these questions next week.
In the meantime, to loosely quote a long time County Line Coalition member, ‘My scarf says, Until the day I die, so I’ll stand and sing until I can’t stand and sing. Then I’ll sit in the bleachers and sing until I can’t sit and sing anymore. Then I’ll watch from home on the TV, until the day I die.
For County!