The USL Championship season does not wait for anyone. It will chug along whether a team is firing on all cylinders or they are gasping for fresh air. Orange County will be playing in their eighth game in a span of six weeks, with another at the weekend against the defending Western Conference champions.
It has been a grueling start to the season helped only by the fact that OC have played a majority of those games at home and they have genuinely done fine despite some issues. The biggest point of emphasis will be the offense and how much of it can be generated. Orange County, through seven games this season, have only scored eight goals, with five of those coming against professional sides. This scoring pace is the second lowest across that span in team history. They are tied with the 2020 COVID team. Only the 2016 team scored less, only tallying five before a late season surge into the playoffs.
Orange County should be a playoff contender come October. But OC has yet to score more than one goal a game in the league.
Now, OC being a “defense first” team is nothing new. The defense was a bit of an issue last season with a lack of clean sheets, but 2026 has already been an improvement on that end of the field. Rando is tied for second in the league with two clean sheets and the defense overall is tied for third in goals conceded with just three allowed. Just how dire has the offense been? They have taken the second lowest amount of shots on target. So how funny would it be if Orange County’s offense woke up against the best defensive team in the league?
THE OPPONENT - SAN ANTONIO FC
San Antonio FC are Western Conference leaders because they have only conceded one goal all season. Even more insane is that one goal only came from a penalty kick in the first game of the season. San Antonio have registered four straight clean sheets in the league to put them top of the West. However for all the defensive prowess shown, their offense leaves a lot to be desired. While the defense has four clean sheets to their record, the offense has been on the receiving end of a clean sheet twice already including their last game against a dreadful Monterey Bay team.
If there was any team that kept things mostly the same from last season it was San Antonio. This is a team who had nine different players with over 1,000 minutes played last season return. It is still the same usual suspects for San Antonio and they are at a near-perfect rate. The visitors bowed out to FC Tulsa in their US Open Cup second round match up. San Antonio will also be going into their matchup against OC on short rest after playing against Monterey Bay over the weekend.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
San Antonio’s Christian Parano is now on his third stint with the club and has picked up where he left off by being the main distributor of assists for his club. He is the early season league leader in assists, with three assists in five matches. Parano has scored 24 goals to go along with his 24 assists and has done so over 172 career games. The 26-year old was a member of San Antonio’s championship winning team in 2022 and is one of a few notable names for San Antonio including Jorge Hernandez, Mitchell Taintor and Alex Crognale.
On the orange side of things, Mouhamadou War has been able to become another versatile weapon at Stone’s usage. War has been able to start in each and every league game this season, but has done so on defense. War notably is not a defender by trade and joined onto Orange County last season as a winger. Last season, War was able to make 29 appearances and even notched threegoals. Not bad for a player that was initially an open tryout signee. Orange County has now seen War on the pitch for 41 competitive games and he has done so at nearly every position except goalkeeper. Now that Grayson Doody is returning from injury, War has the ability to move up as a winger and challenge teams with his pace.
PREDICTED STARTING XI
This could very well be a watershed game for Orange County who will hopefully have answers to their goal-scoring questions. It does look as if the forward depth will be tested this season.
Something has to work and we are going to see a lot of new players get their chance. Ryan Doghman has not been available for the past couple of matches so Benalcazar will fill the gap at left back. The rest of the back line and goalkeeper should remain the same. Both Palomino and Bazini are figures who have earned starts.
Jamir Johnson is a younger player who is still looking to ignite and has a wonderful chance to do so on Wednesday.
THE MATCH UP
This is an early season top of the table match up and will be Orange County’s sixth game of the regular season; and already the fourth at home. Last Saturday was the first time that OC had been held scoreless in 2026 but the fact of the matter is that they have been quite fortunate for it to go that long. For all the success that San Antonio has seen, OC have been a team who can and have taken points from them. This has been especially true for home games where Orange County have won their last three home games against San Antonio even in the down seasons. It is a bit of a different story when playing at Toyota Field in Texas but tomorrow OCSC will have an opportunity to prove why Championship Soccer Stadium is a tough place to play for a good number of teams.
WHAT TO KNOW
Game - vs San Antonio FC (USL Championship)
When - April 8th, 7:00 PM PST
Where - Championship Soccer Stadium (Irvine, CA)
OCSC Form - LLWWW
SAFC Form - DLWWW
All-Time Series - 7-5-5 (17 Games)
TV - ESPN+