When the Leaves Begin to Turn Orange
This is now quite the precarious situation that Orange County SC sees themselves in. With the last game of the month of August coming against a familiar opponent comes a chance to either right the ship or see Orange County’s freefall go to new depths. The defense has catered there is no question about that. But I will not act like the entire team is playing amazing. It has to be a complete team effort on defense to win games and that does include the midfielders and forwards. Orange County can do this too, they did this quite well in the first quarter of the season.
We are still in the point of the season where the most important thing to do is just bank as many points as possible before the month of October. So for Orange County that means they will have to go the Oakland Coliseum for a second time this season and will be striving towards what is hopefully a third win against the Oakland Roots. An uneven amount of teams in the Eastern Conference means that some Western Conference teams get to play each other for a third time in the league and Orange County got matched up with Oakland. OC have won the first two matches already in 2026 with both wins coming in quite different ways. Very early in the season in the Bay Area, OC would need just a Mataeo Bunbury goal to come away with a defensive 1-0 victory. Then in the return leg being played at Santa Ana Stadium the OC offense would bail out the team with a 3-2 victory. However OC can get 3 points on Saturday evening then however it may be.
THE OPPONENT - OAKLAND ROOTS SC
The last time we saw our friends in Oakland, was the Santa Ana game that saw Orange County defeat a then 4th place Oakland side in what was a very entertaining game with plenty of goals and late game drama. This is the perfect example of why the grass is always greener in life. If Orange County fans are going to complain about a 3 game skid against 3 USL Finals contenders then wait until they hear about how Oakland spent their summer. On the field the Roots since that game against Orange County have only won two games across all competitions. Mind you the Santa Ana game was in May. But on the field issues are something that all teams go through and admittedly Oakland have never been the most dominant team in their USL history. But off the field a USL team is not a USL team until they get a taste of stadium uncertainty. Back in late July, the club defaulted on its payments to to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum and it was revealed that the club had 1.4 million dollars in unpaid fees. I am not a financial advisor in any sense but that does not seem ideal. It gets even worse for the Roots who saw their revised plan to the Coliseum Joint Powers Authority denied. So just for the Roots to even host games in the Coliseum for the remainder of the 2026 season means they have to pay upfront game fees of nearly $175,000 per game. Maybe it is a good thing they won't host playoff games. Today’s game will go on as planned but it will be the last time that OC plays a game in the Coliseum.
On the field the offense is serviceable for Oakland but the defense has not been amazing. But even after all of this and likely more due to the Western Conference just eating itself, Oakland only sit 3 points behind the playoff line. But then Oakland goes and beats San Antonio FC last weekend so now this really is not going to be an easy game for Orange County; if there ever was one.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
When Oakland was in the middle of their terrible, horrible, no good, very bad summer they were without their main center back David Garcia. But since Garcia has returned to the field they have somewhat returned back to their very early season form. Garcia is a League One veteran with multiple games at North Carolina FC, Northern Colorado and Spokane before making the jump up to Oakland. In only 9 appearances for Oakland the Roots are a much better team defensively. This was definitely the case last week when Garcia’s efforts lead Oakland to a 1-0 win over San Antonio and USL TOTW honors
On the orange side of things, this is not the ideal August that came to mind for Orange County. But this is definitely something that has been noticed as Orange County brought on a new defender for the season in Jaylin Lindsey. But that is not the topic of this one as I want to take a look at Danny Stone. This is now Stone’s second full season as full time manager and third with the club. In the regular season alone Stone has a record of 24 wins, 19 draws and 17 losses. He has reached the conference semifinals in both of his playoff runs. Stone and OC went through a similar rough patch last season much earlier in the year and against worse competition. This streak has been against very good competition so it will be very interesting to see how Orange County plays this game. The last time OC outright sacked a manager was after Chaplow only won a single game in the first 8 games of the 2023 season. So no, Danny Stone is still safe in his position and I will not hear anything from anyone about why he should be sacked.
PREDICTED STARTING XI
Something has to change. But that is easier said than done because what can you really change with the lineup that would affect it. There are still some players out to injury and your forward depth is shot. Not to add you have been having to play a defensive midfielder on the back line for numerous games. The signing of Lindsey should help out on either side of the backline most likely at right back. What OC really needs is their midfield stars to control the pitch and help out on defense.
Nico Benalcazar, while not doing that bad of a job on defense, is a defensive midfielder at heart. The midfield as a whole has not done a good enough job creating a barrier in front of Brewitt and Tubbs so Nico shifts back to that role. This means we will likely see the club debut of Lindsey at right back who has both MLS and USL experience. I really believe that Chris Hegardt can fix a lot of issues and him scoring the only goal last week did nothing to disprove that. Alex Rando also needs another good performance in a position that will no doubt draw a lot of eyes.
THE MATCHUP
Orange County has always played Oakland very well regardless of what kind of game it is. Across all competitions they are a solid 10-1-5 with wins in their last four competitive games. This needs to be another game where we will likely have to see the offense score two or more goals in order for Orange County to win. If the defense were to concede one goal then it would be a massive improvement over the last couple of games we have seen. Orange County as of Saturday are still a top 4 team in the West with El Paso, Tulsa and San Antonio being the closest competitors. Oakland still have a fighting chance at the playoffs so they will likely look at this game as one where they can continue their streak of wins. This is one of only 3 remaining away games for Orange County so the tools and schedule are their for a strong finish to the season.
WHAT TO KNOW
Game - @ Oakland Roots SC (USL Championship)
When - August 29th, 5:00 PM PST
Where - Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (Oakland, CA)
OCSC Form - LLLWW
OAK Form - WDLDL
All-Time Series - 10-1-5 (16 Games)
TV - ESPN+