The story of Orange County SC and really sports as a whole in the region is one defined by loyalty and passion if not immediately recognized. For the first since 2016, Orange County SC will be playing a competitive home game outside of Irvine. Due to the incoming World Cup this summer, Championship Soccer Stadium was selected as the base camp for the US National team. What this really means for OCSC is that they will not have their normal home venue for a couple months, and this odyssey has already started with OC having played 3 consecutive road games.
But Orange County SC will get one “home” game still and it will come this Saturday when OCSC will host Oakland Roots SC at Santa Ana Stadium. Much fanfare and anticipation has led up to the match and there is legitimate reason to why it should be given the attention. This is still just a regular season match up against a fellow Western Conference opponent, but the context behind this match, particularly what it means for OCSC as a whole, will be the biggest headline of the evening.
A MATCH FORGOTTEN TO TIME
Santa Ana Stadium was built in 1963 at the height of the suburban boom of Orange County, which saw the population increase 102% during the 1960s. Disneyland had opened up in 1955 and the Angels would move to Anaheim a decade later. It was actually 1963 that saw Orange County first grew to be the home of over one million residents. It was a very prosperous time, but one of the forgotten caveats from this era in a sports term is the story of the original Orange County Soccer Club. No, the current OCSC is not the first team to hold the moniker, nor do they have any connection with the team of the 1960s.
There was originally an amateur sided team called Orange County SC who played in the defunct Continental League and had a couple of deep US Open Cup runs. Not much else is known about this club but the reason why I bring them up is because of one particular match.
On June 10th, 1966 Orange County SC played in a friendly match against German giants Bayern Munich at Santa Ana Stadium. Bayern Munich were not yet the German giants that they are now, but the Bavarian side were still champions in both the league and cup. The match finished 3-3. Bayern later played another friendly, in 1989, against Club America. Santa Ana Stadium would host a number of higher leverage soccer matches both friendly and competitive but this 1966 match was the first big one.
Soccer teams to be based in Orange County and use the name have been mostly reserved to lower level sides with the aforementioned Orange County Soccer Club joining teams like Orange County Blue Star and OC Crew SC. The Orange County SC that we know today are the highest level team of the bunch but they are not the first to represent the county as a whole. Orange County is a hodgepodge of different cities (34 to be precise), different cultures, and some different topographies as well. But Santa Ana remains the county seat.
A CITY MADE FOR SOCCER
Santa Ana has a storied history. Established in 1869, it would then become the county seat in 1889 when OC was created. It has seen everything from railroad destinations to Army air bases all the while being a cultural hotspot for the Latino community, who make up four fifths of the over 300,000 residents. Santa Ana is the third largest city in OC, behind Anaheim and Irvine. But where Santa Ana does shine is its intertwining connection with soccer. In a team sense, Santa Ana Junior College are seven time state champions in California along with two national titles. Santa Ana has churned out a good number of professional athletes across multiple different sports. There are multiple MLS players both currently and in the past that hail from Santa Ana. Until Los Angeles FC was formed, Santa Ana was a consistent expansion candidate for MLS, with Santa Ana Stadium the focal point of those talks.
There have been multiple attempts to bring professional soccer to Santa Ana and there are a number of semi professional teams who call Santa Ana home. As mentioned before, MLS made two serious inquiries into Santa Ana as an expansion team, but the NPSL has also shown interest. While the region is there with a 10,000 seat stadium, the stadium was also the reason why most bids fell through.
While Santa Ana Stadium does not have capacity issues, it is a dual use field with football lines being permanent. It also suffers from an overall lack of amenities you will see at most modern venues. If Santa Ana Stadium were to have gotten renovations for MLS then it would be Santa Ana that footed the bill. So while the relationship never made it out the negotiation room, there is still a legitimate history in Santa Ana with sports. This however has not stopped teams like Santa Ana Winds FC and other UPSL teams who occasionally use the venue.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A CLUB AND ITS HOME
Orange County SC through thick and thin have had a storied relationship with its venues. They began their early years playing across a number of different venues. The club has called eight different venues “home” to be exact, across five cities, with not all of those cities actually being in Orange County. The main stadiums before the move to Championship Soccer Stadium were Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine. Of course, the majority of OC fans will know about Championship Soccer Stadium and how in the 2022 season, just one year off from winning the USL title, came one vote shy of losing the leasing rights to play in said stadium. It was through those negotiations that OC would eventually score a 10-year deal to play in the Great Park.
Since the first game at Championship Soccer Stadium back on August 15, 2017, Orange County SC have played 155 games there across all competitions compiling an all-time record of 76-37-42. This is a pretty good record, and OCSC have been a very good home team in recent memory.
In a time where we are seeing a number of MLS teams throw away team legacies by purposely playing in larger stadiums against certain teams often not even in the same area (ahem Columbus), it is important to establish a venue and keep it that way. There are of course some exceptions to this. Sacramento Republic FC celebrated their 10-year anniversary by returning for one game at Hughes Stadium, their original home. Oakland Roots SC after venue hopping throughout the Bay Area finally decided to make the recently vacant and famous Oakland Coliseum their new home.
What many fans might not know though is that this will technically not be the first time that current OCSC have played at Santa Ana Stadium. The then Orange County Blues FC actually played an after-season friendly against Atletico Marte of El Salvador on November 15, 2015. That ended in a 4-2 victory for Orange County. But unlike the match in 2015, when Orange County SC does face Oakland Roots on May 23rd it will be the first time that Santa Ana Stadium hosts a competitive match up in the USL Championship and the first time in nearly 13 years that OCSC plays a home game not in Irvine. The club is making it a very big milestone as well.
WHY THIS GAME IS IMPORTANT
Orange County SC has dubbed this match as “the most important match in club history.” As far as important OCSC fixtures go, you may be inclined to say that the 2021 USL Cup Final is the most important game in history. Or go back a bit further and point to the first game at Championship Soccer Stadium. What about Orange County’s first playoff win in club history over the top-seeded Sacramento Republic in 2017? Where does the September 10 home game against LA Galaxy II during the 2022 stadium skirmish rank? There will be different opinions about it, but I am inclined to agree that this match should be up there for consideration.
Orange County proper has 3.14 million residents. It is the third most populous county in California and the sixth largest in all of the United States. Playing in a stadium with more than double the capacity of Championship Soccer Stadium should make for a very large and raucous crowd on Saturday. The goal will be to get the biggest attendance in club history for a game. Anything less than that will be a massive failure.
Orange County SC have made an effort to appeal to all of Orange County, which has been something I have criticized the lack of in the past. We have seen advertisements on television and they are making more of an effort to tap into the larger markets of North OC. Saturday will be the indicator of just how successful their reach is into communities beyond Irvine. What might also get lost in the context is the fact that this is a very important game for OC in the league. They are in desperate need of a win to keep pace with the rest of the top teams in the West.
It will be just two weeks shy of the 60th anniversary of that inaugural game back in 1966 between OCSC and Bayern Munich. In that time we have seen a club formed and become an integral part in a sports paradise with a passionate fanbase that will get to show the USL and the rest of Southern California just how far they have come.