Orange County Look To Make It 8 Straight in Sin City
Juan Santana earned a shutout last week against Republic in his first professional start.
Orange County have proven to the rest of the USL that they are able to compete with the best of them. Now Orange County will have to take care of business against the least of them.
The first these two teams met this season came in only the third matchup of the year for the Oranges and resulted in a 2-2 draw. Likewise while Orange County have essentially become a brand new team since that game, the same cannot be said for Las Vegas. Las Vegas, while sitting dead last in USL standings, are a team that OC should not take lightly. There have also been a couple of roster moves for Orange County with the biggest of them being the transfer of Korede Osundina. Osundina after two years of service is heading to the Netherlands and that of Dutch giants Feyenoord Rotterdam on a permanent transfer. Osundina likewise becomes the fifth transfer from OC to move to a professional European side. In a lateral move, OC also signed youngster Ben Barjolo from Atlanta United FC. The 16-year old forward had already spent time with the OC II team as a trialist and comes from the same program as Bryce Jamison.
With the shakeup in the forward core that will now have to deal with the absence of Jamison due to international duties, OC will look to explode offensively on Saturday.
THE OPPONENT - LAS VEGAS LIGHTS FC
The Lights are about one of the strangest teams in the USL Championship. Yes they are last in the entire USL in the standings, but when looking at their results this season you will find a lot of close games. Through 26 games played this season, Las Vegas have won two. Those two wins came against Phoenix in Arizona and at home against Rio Grande Valley. Those two wins came as a part of 9 draws and 15 losses. However this is not a team that gets dominated during games. Their worst result up to this point has been a 0-3 loss which came against Loudoun. Orange County's worst defeat was a 0-4 loss against Colorado Springs.
Las Vegas ranks last in the Western Conference in both goals scored and goals let in. However they are coming off a midweek tilt at New Mexico that saw them score 3 and earning a well-fought draw. The first time these two teams played came all the way back in March and saw these two sides play out to a 2-2 draw. That match requied OC come back from behind to level; twice. Alex Villanueva would score his first professional goal that game and Milan would add another for the boys in Orange while former OCSC forward Erick “Cubo” Torres would score against his former side. That game had Richard Chaplow in charge.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
The Lights do have a number of offensive pieces that can and have scored in recent memory. The most notable of these is attacking midfielder Daniel Rios. Rios has netted three goals in the previous two games and has accounted for more than half of his team’s goals in the past four games. Rios is a 20-year old El Salvadorian international who came up through the Houston Dynamo academy and is currently on loan from them. Another notable name for the Lights is that of Andrew Carleton who for a 23-year old has played for a number of different teams with some of the more notable ones being Atlanta United, Charleston Battery, San Diego Loyal and a Costa Rican side. This season however has been very quiet with Andrew only scoring 3 goals in 25 appearances.
On the orange side of things there has been a lot of turnover in the offensive third with much more depth coming into the picture. The defense has quietly been doing the same thing and one of those key depth pieces is that of Andrew Fox. The English center-back is a seasoned veteran who has found his place coming off of the bench and closing games out. The 30-year old has played for a number of teams across England, Sweden, and the United States. Fox began the season on the backline before an injury sidelined him for a bit but has worked his way back onto the 18. Another quality depth piece which becomes all the more important as the season progresses.
THE MATCHUP
This will be the 16th all-time matchup between these two clubs and second time this season. Dating back to the 2018 season, Orange County have dominated the all-time series going an impressive 9-3-3 against their neighbors one state over. However Orange County are winless in their last three meetings against the Lights. Last season was the first time ever that OC failed to defeat Las Vegas in a season and they look to break that trend on Saturday in Sin City. Orange County have won 7 consecutive league games which is already a club record but only good enough for sixth-best in league history.
WHAT TO KNOW
Game - @ Las Vegas Lights FC (USL Championship)
When - September 2, 7:30 PM PST
Where - Cashman Field (Las Vegas, NV)
OCSC Form - WWWWW
LVL Form - DLLLW
All-Time Matchup - 9-3-3
TV - ESPN+