In three weeks, Orange County Soccer Club will lace up their boots and take to the pitch once again at the Championship Stadium March 11th against Louisville City.
We can all agree last season was not the team’s best showing, finishing the year with 7 wins, 13 draws, and 14 losses. The team went from league champions to last place in the Western Conference. This season, the team retooled with eight new signings so far. Daniel Pedersen takes over as captain, replacing Michael Orozco in the role. The team returns promising youth, and new signings reveal an emphasis on our defensive line. With these offseason moves, 2023 is sparking a lot of excitement from fans to see if we can come back stronger than ever!
WHAT FANS ARE LOOKING FOR IN 2023
After reaching out to OCSC’s biggest supporters, the question on everyone’s minds is if their beloved club has finally recovered from the harsh championship hangover that summed up the 2022 season.
Carlos Reyes, long time fan and County Line Coalition member, is eager to find out what kind of effect some of our new signings will have, “Very interested in seeing how the new players from Europe, like Marc McNulty, adjust to playing in the USL and what kind of unique experience they can bring to the rest of the team”.
As of February 14th, the team has signed four new players from Europe: Marc McNulty a forward from Scotland, Emil Nielsen a forward from Denmark, and two Norway native defenders in Ryan Doghman and Markus Nakkim. These players have tons of experience playing in their respective 1st and 2nd division leagues, and although it is unknown how they will do in the USL. That hasn’t stopped many fans from being excited to see the potential strengths they will offer to OCSC.
Blaine Jenks, the founder of the County Line Coalition, shows how the passion of OCSC fans will never falter in his comments about the excitement a new season brings. “I’m excited for the new relationships we as fans get to make with the players. New and familiar personalities to get behind and celebrate with. I’m excited to see that ball hitting the back of the net on the northside of Championship Stadium while orange smoke rises with the voices of my friends and family singing for the County”
The common thread among everyone I spoke with about what they want to see on the pitch this season is defense. Co-Host of the Orange & Black Soccercast, Dylan Allen, had this to say about what he would like from the team “I’d love to see us play a more aggressive, dominant game this year, but I’ll happily settle for an efficient, quiet defense”.
A DEFENSIVE FOCUS
Over half of the club’s new signings have been defensive players. The club seems to have put their main goal this off-season into building a stronger backline, which we can only imagine is in response to only three total clean sheets last season (two of which were draws) and twenty-three dropped points from a winning position.
As we proved last season, a strong offense is nothing without a solid defense to keep the games in our favor. One of the main reasons we won the title in 2021 was due to our incredibly strong backline, largely thanks to Rob Kiernan, who will begin his third season with OCSC this year. Kiernan, alongside some of these strong new signings, like Owen Lambe and Andrew Fox, we may be able to get back to what we once did best… stopping goals.
Fans will also continue to monitor the performance of goalkeeper, Colin Shutler. Barring the team signing a veteran goaltender prior to the start of the season, it looks like the team is confident with Colin moving forward. Shutler (24), who is going into his second season with the team has had a few appearances from last year filling in for Patrick Rakovsky. In those games, Colin showed promise, including making a PK save during his first game against Loudon United. After 7 appearances, he ended up with a 53.8 save success percentage to go along with a 2W 2D 3L record.
CAN MILAN DO IT AGAIN?
Milan Iloski is also returning this season to the relief of everyone except our opponents. Having one of the best first years with the club in its history, Milan was one of the lone bright spots of OCSC, earning the league’s 2022 Golden Boot with 22 goals. The only real question now is, can he keep the momentum going?
With the club's focus on building a new backline, it seems our offense will be put back on the shoulders of Milan. Yet, even if he doesn’t score over 20 goals again this time around, a decent fraction of that total will still be impressive, with new offensive signings, Marc McNulty and Emil Nielsen, there to help pick up the slack.
Not to be outshone by his brother, the team also returns Brian Iloski. When Milan and Brian share the field, production follows. Unfortunately, for most of last season, Brian was out on injury, only getting playing time in 14 matches. Still, he managed to get 4 goals and 1 assist, proving that when the Iloski bros get the chance to play side-by-side, they are a dangerous pair.
THE NEXT WAVE
OCSC has made a name for itself in this league as a club that focuses on giving opportunities to younger players and paving a pathway for their professional careers to reach an even higher level of play, with names like Kobi Henry and Ronaldo Damus signing deals abroad. This year seems to be no different and fans should keep an eye out for players, Korede Osundina, Alex Villanueva, Joey Buckley and Bryce Jameson featuring as the next group set to break out with Orange County. The team is keen on their reputation of providing younger players new opportunities, dubbing their youth program “The Next Wave”, in reference to Orange County’s surf culture.
Returning youth, Alex Villanueva (20 yrs. old), quickly became a fan favorite, playing in 34 matches with 32 starts and 2,765 minutes played, more than any other player on the squad last year. He stepped up and showed how versatile a player he can be by assisting in defense, despite his past as an attacking winger.
Dylan Allen hopes that the younger players get the opportunity to prove themselves this year, “I’m really excited to see how the club integrates some of the youth players. It was a bright spot last year and I think there are a few players who could earn the next step in their careers with a strong start to the season”
Let’s hope the club continues to provide enough minutes for the younger generation to prove themselves.
LOOKING AHEAD
After a rough 2022 season, fans seem hopeful that the club’s return to a more defensive strategy, strong goal scorers, and our promising youth will be exactly what we need to bounce back. We are all eager with anticipation to see how the end of 2023 will lead to a second star on our beloved Orange County Soccer Club crest.
