The County Roads Reach a Crossroads
It has not been the most compelling of starts to a season.
Nearing two months into competitive play and Orange County find themselves 7th in the Western Conference, knocked out of the Open Cup and have been dealt massive blows with regards to injuries. It was really a long two month stretch for OC who have a number of questions to ask themselves.
But the USL’s newest competition does provide one more opportunity for OC to find success in the USL Jägermeister Cup. The USL cup is in its second iteration but will include teams from the USL Championship for the first time in 2025. The competition begins with a group stage with each team playing four games against regional rivals. For Orange County they are placed into Group 1 with AV Alta FC, Las Vegas Lights FC, Monterey Bay FC, Oakland Roots SC, Sacramento Republic FC and Spokane Velocity FC. However you may notice that there are six other opponents even though teams only play in four games. Orange County will not be facing either AV Alta nor Spokane. There is also a specific points system that will be discussed later.
The leader of each group progresses onto the next round along with the next two teams who finish with the highest number of points that do not win their group. After that it is the standard knockout rounds. Orange County SC will open up their USL Cup run at home against a rising competitor who has gotten the better of them in recent memory; Las Vegas Lights FC.
THE OPPONENT - LAS VEGAS LIGHTS FC
At the beginning of the season Las Vegas was set to experience life with expectations. Since then they are still waiting to really lift off. Las Vegas is only sixth in the West and just one point above OC in that regard. For an offense that was seen as a bit of a strength it has only been able to score just five goals during league play. That would put them last in the Western Conference. To make matters a bit more worse for Las Vegas they had their fair share of US Open Cup silliness when they were bounced at home in a shootout against Chattanooga Red Wolves SC.
Even though this is not technically a USL league game in that the stats from these games do not count towards the regular season we are still using the regular season as the gauge for what to expect. But this is a very interesting fact when taking this into consideration. Las Vegas have only had two competitive away games and both of those games ended in 0-0 draws. The defense has actually been up to par only conceding seven. Like OC, Las Vegas will be making their USL cup debut.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
The first time that these two teams met came exactly three weeks ago and in that match OC did quite well considering it was an away game at a playoff contender. Then Nighte Pickering got on the end of a through ball and scored the game winning goal in the third minute of second half stoppage time. Pickering is with Las Vegas after Memphis 901 folded and has not been as potent for his new club at the moment. At only 20 years of age, Pickering has been a USL stalwart having scored 13 career goals in less than 75 appearances. Although it is a bit unique that Pickering has only made two appearances to this point for Las Vegas and that goal against OC has been his only tally for the season. If he does see the field on Saturday he will be one to watch out for.
On the orange side of things, Ryan Doghman was the one starter who did not get to play against Las Vegas the first time. Besides that game, Ryan has been one of the few OC starters to make an appearance in every other game. He even has a goal and two assists to his credit. Doghman is already in his third season with the club making him one of the leaders of the team and the team will need him in the lineup if they are to turn things around.
PREDICTED STARTING XI
Dylan’s starting 11
New competition for Orange County SC but do not expect that much of a new lineup. We unfortunately will not be seeing Grayson Doody for the remainder of the season as he suffered a torn ACL. What we however might be able to see is the newest mid-year addition in that of defender Koa Santos whose signing was announced by the club the day before the game. Dylan gets us underway with his lineup.
Dylan slots in Pedro Guimaraes at the right back position which is exactly what we saw last week in Oakland. Not much else is really out of the ordinary when it comes to the rest of the defensive line and midfield. Chris Hegardt will make his return to the starting lineup at right mid as well as Dunbar at left mid and Colin Shutler continues his streak of consecutive games started to begin the year.
Nathan’s starting 11
I do not want to quite write off Lyam MacKinnon just yet and believe that he will need a home game or two to find his scoring touch which he has proven to have. I also believe that we will get to see the debut of Koa Santos who will figure to be the answer at right back going forward.
THE MATCHUP
It is the second repeat matchup of 2025 for Orange County SC. Orange County will be looking to get back to winning ways by any means necessary. They have been winless in four of their last five games across all competitions and have had trouble on both sides of the ball. Really no one player has been a standout. Orange County will have to find a way to a goal by any means necessary. Another USL cup rule is each and every game that ends in a draw will head directly to a shootout. The aforementioned points system that the league cup will follow is as follows: 3 points for a regulation time win, 2 points for a win in a shootout, 1 point for a loss in a shootout, no points for a regulation loss. Orange County has four games against fellow USL Championship teams to determine if they move on to the knockout round or not.
WHAT TO KNOW
Game - vs Las Vegas Lights FC (USL Jägermeister Cup Group Stage)
When - April 26th, 7:00 PM PST
Where - Championship Soccer Stadium (Irvine, CA)
OCSC Form - LLWLL
LVL Form - LLDWD
All-Time Series - 10-4-5 (19 Matchups)
TV - ESPN+, FanDuel Sports SoCal, KCAL+