Western Conference Top 3 Open Up Mid-Season Tournament
Both Orange County and El Paso have gotten off to amazing starts in their 2026 regular seasons. Orange County are tied with San Antonio FC on points for first in the West but El Paso have two games in hand on both teams and only sit 2 points back. But the first meeting of the season between the two clubs will not affect the regular standings one bit but will be the opening match of the group stage portion of the USL Cup.
The USL Cup is a mid-season tournament in its third year of competition and second with teams from the USL Championship. It begins with a group stage portion with group winners plus one wild card team that moves on to a single elimination tournament. Hartford Athletic were champions last year but this is a still fairly new territory for all the USL teams. Orange County and El Paso were slotted in group 2 which geographically is teams from the American Southwest and Colorado Springs. The other teams in the group are AV Alta FC, New Mexico and Phoenix for a total of 6 teams. Last year OC was a part of the West Coast group with mixed results.
The tournament begins with each team playing 4 group stage games, two at home and two on the road. Only the group stage winners move on to the knockout portion so realistically one loss in the group stage is catastrophic. The tournament has garnered some criticism for this process (quality of wins, size of groups, etc.) but this is what we are left with.
THE OPPONENT - EL PASO LOCOMOTIVE FC
El Paso Locomotive have gotten off to a good start in 2026 having picked up 4 wins in their 6 league games played. The offense has scored a league best 16 goals too which is insane considering they have games in hand as well. This is fairly the same roster from last season that did finish 4th in the West. However the biggest change is that behind the bench. After Wilmer Cabrera’s departure comes in Junior Gonzalez who replaces Cabrera at a Texas based USL club for the second time in a fun bit of USL trivia. El Paso will beat you with the offense which has registered 3 or more goals in their last four games against USL opponents. The defense has not been a weakness either so OC will definitely have their fair share of challenges to deal with. El Paso were knocked out in the USL postseason after just the first round in 2025 so this is still a club that is looking for a bit more success but nothing so far says they cannot be a competitive team in 2026. They are on a bit of a road bump with a loss to San Antonio last week but the offense is still explosive.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
When Eric Calvillo left OCSC for El Paso, at the time it was seen as a bittersweet ending for the USL Championship winner with El Paso being one last stop. However that narrative has shifted with Calvillo becoming one of El Paso’s main players for the last couple of years now. The midfielder will now spend his 5th season with El Paso with well over 100 appearances for Los Locos. With OCSC he only made 29 appearances, which is his second highest. Calvillo has started five of the six games for El Paso and already registered one goal and one assist. This will be the first of three games played against El Paso this season so this will be someone we will be seeing for awhile.
On the orange side of things, the one loan in this season has been a starter on the backline since joining on with Garrison Tubbs getting a lot of minutes. Orange County does not often bring in loans but Tubbs comes in to help shore up the defensive line and has made an appearance or start in each possible game with OC. Tubbs is only 24 years of age and with D.C. United has been loaned out a couple of times now to USL Championship teams. It was previously Loudoun United but now it is Orange County. Tubbs has served as a nice foil to Tom Brewitt and that has shown with OC racking up the clean sheets. Tubbs has really only had one bad game against Phoenix but has quietly been serviceable since then.
PREDICTED STARTING XI
While last week against Lexington could be seen as a step back it was still another defensive gem. The offense in my opinion can score goals more often than it cannot but will need to score on Saturday. The defense will not be perfect forever. So I expect the same lineup.
This will be the first true test of the defense and Rando. El Paso can put up goals at a heightened rate and that is just the offense. Defensively OC will need to be very good to win and a draw in this tournament means that the game will end in a shootout. Orange County did not get a good start last year in this same competition which punishes teams for losing an early game.
THE MATCHUP
A very even matchup between OC and El Paso will see the two teams meet in the USL Cup for the very first time. These two teams have met before in the postseason in the 2023 Quarterfinals with OC coming away with the victory. Last season OC was one of the few teams that got the better of El Paso when they defeated El Paso in Texas 3-0 and tied in the return leg 0-0. In the USL Cup Orange County will face El Paso, AV Alta, Phoenix and Colorado Springs and will likely need wins in all those games to advance to the next phase.
WHAT TO KNOW
Game - vs El Paso Locomotive FC (USL Prinx Tires Cup)
When - April 25th, 7:00 PM PST
Where - Championship Soccer Stadium
OCSC Form - DWWLW
ELP Form - LWWWW
All-Time Series - 4-5-4 (13 Games)
TV - ESPN+ and KCAL+ 9.6