Coming off their USL Academy League quarterfinals appearance in 2025, the Orange County SC academy team returned from the offseason with a bit of a new group of individuals. The USL Academy regular season runs from early summer to about October and like last year will be mainly played against other Southern California academy teams. OC 2 would open up their campaign on the short road trip to Westminster, California to face off against AMSG FC who have been a bit of a thorn in the side of OC in recent years.
The OC 2 team is composed mainly of youth players who are not yet professionals. This means that the results are not what is most important. What is more of a priority is getting in minutes on the pitch in a high intensity environment. What I am saying is that there will not be much harsh criticism or expectations to win each and every game like there is with the senior team. In saying that, there are still some expectations to be had specifically with Orange County’s academy who have made the postseason in 2 of the previous 3 seasons and have gone on deep runs in both of those attempts.
With the disclaimer out of the way, we now look more in depth about the match that occurred on Wednesday night. OC2 would ultimately see defeat at the hands of AMSG FC via a 0-1 scoreline. Orange County held a lot more of the possession as well as had the advantage in scoring chances created but it would not be their night.
FIRST HALF
The first thing that stuck out regarding the lineup fielded by OC staff was the number of new individuals. Of the starting XI, only 3 players were carry overs from the 2025 team to the best of our knowledge. They would face off against an AMSG side who fielded a hybrid team of sorts taking from both their academy and senior side who compete in the USL League Two. The first half would be fairly mundane with both teams not easily breaking down the other. Much of the match was fought in the midfield and thus not many scoring chances were had by either side. AMSG would get the first and best of the half with a shot that skipped off the crossbar in the 17th minute. This was really the only chance for AMSG as from this point on it would be OC that would dictate the play.
We would see the midfield and striker high press the AMSG backline to pretty good results as they were able to force turnovers. However all of these turnovers and subsequent counter attacks would get snuffed out either by AMSG or OC failing to keep onsides. This match was played in the midfield for long stretches of time and this is shown by the fact the first corner for either side did not occur until the 38th minute of the first half. Both sides would go into the break deadlocked at 0-0.
SECOND HALF
The second half saw OC really push the effort as we would begin to see a lot more chances created. The theme of this match that would especially come to a head in the latter half would be the chippiness of the fixture. Both sides would argue for the other to see more cautions and I think that both sides had a valid argument as well. What Orange County does specifically with their rosters in these games is they will have a number of players who feature for both the senior teams and the academy teams. Tyson Espy and other younger players are good examples of this but the easiest way to determine who these types of players is they will be the only OC2 players to wear last names on their kits.
This match would see Oliver Kurnik as the lone position player of this standard. It would be Kurnik that would get OC’s first big chance of the evening. In the 61st minute a simple switch across the field lead to a weighted ball played in to Kurnik down the left hand side that would carry him to within the 6 yard box. Kurnik would stare down the keeper but his shot would be put right onto him whose rebound was was not put into a dangerous position. This would be the first shot on goal for either team all night. One would hope that the miss would not come back to haunt OC and it really should not as they would get plenty more opportunities later in the match. But I do give credit to the AMSG keeper who was subbed on at halftime that made 3 very quality saves to keep OC at bay.
In the 75th minute, AMSG would get the breakthrough and it would happen off one of those crosses that really turns into a shot. Whether or not the winger meant to put the ball on net, the ball would be just out of the reach of the OC keeper and would dip right into the side netting at the back post. This would be the only shot on target all night for AMSG to make things a little more annoying. OC 2 now found themselves down 1 with just about 15 minutes left to play. OC’s best chance of the night would come just about 4 minutes later but the hard low shot would be saved once again by the AMSG keeper who I do not even think saw it hit him. This would be the last great chance for OC who would run out of race track and would fall 0-1.
OVERVIEW
Despite the loss, there were a lot of things to build on and some standout performances. What I really did like from OC were two different things. The first was when OC did decide to press they really did force AMSG to be perfect with their buildup and it did falter a few times leading to rushes. The second thing that hopefully does not get overlooked was the play of the backline. AMSG only had one shot on goal all night and this was thanks in part to the centerbacks of OC being able to dispel each and every ball played to them. There were even spells of the centerbacks being able to dribble out of pressure. The stats will not show it as a good game but it was a good game for the entire backline. The best player in my opinion from the match would be midfielder Logan Kos. Kos served as the defensive midfielder and he was able to be a difference maker on both sides of the ball. Offensively his distribution was very good and when OC needed defense he was the best outlet. It was a very good performance with not many negatives.
The OC 2 team will continue the road trip with their furthest of the season next Wednesday when they will travel up to Ventura and face the Fusion.