I will just rattle off some stats about the lineup that was fielded by Orange County SC in their game last Saturday against Colorado Springs Switchbacks:
Of the 14 players that made an appearance, for 5 of them it was their professional debut.
The average age of the starting lineup was 20 years of age, not old enough to drink yet.
The entire defensive backline were all making their very first starts for Orange County SC.
Orange County’s Apolo Marinch, while already somewhat of a player with professional experience, is only 16 years old.
Apolo Marinch
We knew Orange County would be fielding a very young lineup which also just so happened to be the youngest lineup in club history. If you were to look up this lineup on any soccer app, you will only be able to see pictures for 4 of the 11 players. They would go up against a Colorado Springs side who also had nothing to play for but questionably played their starting XI. Even funnier is the fact that Colorado Springs were not able to score until the 53rd minute.
Orange County were fortunate enough to get a meaningless game at a time where the club desperately needed a break. This was a team who were only playing 13 players on a regular basis with 9 first team players unavailable due to injuries. That is almost an entire team itself. Again it was not really a surprise that Orange County was going to do this and it was all but confirmed we were going to see this when in just the week prior Orange County would sign Josh Martinez to a 25-day deal and sign on 3 more academy players to professional contracts. I am not the slightest bit upset that Orange County lost 0-3 and went winless in the USL Cup. This was Orange County’s first home game after 77 consecutive days and I do not care who was on the field playing.
FIRST HALF
There were not too many surprises when the lineup for Saturday’s matchup was announced. The handful of surprises that did occur would be that Chris Hegardt still got the start at left midfielder. Other notable players included Ethan Zubak getting his first start in awhile at the striker position and Jamir Johnson also getting one. Efren Solis, Apolo Marinch and Tetsuya Kadono also got the nods just as they have every other league cup game in 2026. Now comes the fun part. Joining this group would be the professional debuts of Liam Zubak (the younger brother of Ethan Zubak), Finn O’Brien, Matthew Miranda and Joaquin Castro. Each and everyone of those players are members of the Orange County SC Academy team and are all either 18 years of age or younger. 25-day man Josh Martinez (Previously at Univ San Diego) would make his first start, second appearance for Orange County as another center back next to O’Brien and it was this merry band that would get to face Khori Bennett and Juan Tejada for Colorado Springs.
But the first half was a respectable effort that saw Orange County able to hold Colorado Springs scoreless. Colorado Springs played their regular starters in a match that they did not really need to. It would become a bit more pressing when play had to be stopped a couple of times for Switchbacks players to get medical attention. Other than that this was a very pedestrian first half by both teams. Orange County did not exactly generate a lot of dangerous chances with Ethan Zubak on top. But to their credit they were not getting shelled either. The match would enter the break 0-0.
SECOND HALF
The second half would see another professional debut for Orange County with Jerome Carter Jr. coming on. This would be the 5th prospect making his debut. This was about the only positive from the latter half because Colorado Springs finally woke up. It was the visitors that opened the scoring in the 53rd minute and it would do some in a comedic way. The goal would be credited to Aidan Rocha but it would be a shot from outside the 18 that would take a deflection off a defender and would wrong foot Kadono. In two games at home in this competition to this point, Tetsuya had conceded 3 goals up to this point. Every single goal was a long distance shot that got deflected by a defender in front of the net. It would be funnier if that would be the only goal conceded but Colorado Springs would strike for two more after that as well. Both other goals would come during the run of play and were very precise. Orange County would unfortunately fail to score so their club record goal scoring streak would come to an end and the match would end 0-3.
OVERVIEW
This was not a match I expected Orange County to win when both lineups were announced. But I do not think OCSC will cry too much from it. They needed time off after their long road trip and this cup game came at a near perfect time. Orange County made a name for itself in the USL as one of the premier prospect development clubs in the league and country. I felt that the youth players did very well in Hartford and they definitely did not look out of place on Saturday either. Moving forward when Orange County does return to the pitch it will be in Monterey Bay with the regular season the only competition left to play for. I am very much hoping that we are able to see the team as intended because it was that team that got to the top of the West and has a legitimate chance at the USL Championship as well.