I spent a good half of the day wondering about how I was going to address this game. I wondered about if I were to really put the belt to behind of the team and see just how negative I could get. I thought about what I could even say if I was going to positively uplift the spirits and talk about long seasons and other harmonious sports philosophies. It is not like I have not written some of these postgame recaps before after truly heartless defeats. This is my second full season writing these post game recaps and some other stinkers of games that I can remember about last year include when OC drew with Birmingham Legion at home, scoring four goals in the process, and which came a week before OC got destroyed on the road by Detroit, losing 4-1.
But perhaps more concerning is that OC have had some of these games within the last couple of years. The most obvious example of this is when OC got their lunch and dinner handed to them by Charleston Battery in 2024, which officially ended the Paul Hardyman experiment. Remember last season, when OC gave a terrible Monterey Bay FC side a 3-0 win early in the season? Those aforementioned games against Birmingham and Detroit did not sit easy with me after either.
But I definitely know that the 5-1 loss at home to Tulsa is not only the worst loss under Danny Stone, but easily the worst loss at home in the modern OC era.
Saturday’s loss was only the second time that OC had given up five goals since 2018. Funnily enough, it was also Tulsa that put five past OC in the other game as well. If you are looking for the worst home loss ever, then you have to go all the way back to 2014 when the Orange County Blues lost to Sacramento 6-1 at UCI.
Nothing is going right for Orange County at the moment with the team defense being about as useful as a boat with holes in it.
This is not to say that the offense has been that much better. But if I were to only point the finger at one side of the field, then the defense needs to get better.
You are not going to be successful when you concede 12 goals in three games, regardless of whether you are home or not. This is a defensive team by trait, if you can believe it at this point. The worst part is there is no injuries to really blame.
This is the team that OC has to play which has to figure out on the fly how to win games again. There is no more secondary competitions for breaks and to really compound matters the rest of the West smells the blood in the water. Oh how the mood can change in a month's time.
FIRST HALF
There were a couple of regular starters who were on the bench in a bit of an unforeseen move. Chris Hegardt was the biggest name, but others included Lyam MacKinnon and Doghman. So with those guys on the bench, there were a couple of players making rare starts. Tyson Espy who is a center back by trait got the start at right back, pushing Nico Benalcazar to the left side. In the midfield, it was Brandon Cambridge on the right wing in a move that I am fine with since Cambridge has provided sparks in the past. Up top, alongside the usual Yaniv Bazini, was Ethan Zubak.
Tulsa on the other hand played with a back three. This was very similar to what Louisville did and OC certainly had a hard time defending against it. Louisville City scored quite early in last week's game and OC would one up that by conceding the first goal of the night in just the fourth minute of play. It was simple pass between Tubbs and Benalcazar that spurred the Tulsa forward to get behind. Alex Rando would save the initial shot but the rebound was slotted home quite easily.
If Tulsa’s goal scorer Arquimedes Ordonez thought this goal was easy, then his second of the game would be laughable. With the entire back line playing up, Tom Brewitt played a lazy pass back to Rando that Ordonez pounced upon and finished past Rando. There were five orange shirts around the ball (I counted) and not a single person took control of it until Brewitt came in and assisted the Tulsa striker.
I did not even talk about Tulsa’s other two chances that book happened right in the middle of the box.. This game could have easily been 4-0 at halftime. Orange County generated some offense, but it would only come from set pieces and weak headers. The hosts went into the break trailing 2-0 again and with a desperate need for change.
SECOND HALF
Chris Hegardt provided OC’s only real positive on the night when he scored just after coming on as a substitute. Photo courtesy of Orange County SC.
Changes were definitely made after the break with Hegardt and Doghman coming on. As to why Chris Hegardt did not start the match is above me, but he made an immediate impact scoring early into the second half. The goal that OC scored was stupidly simple too with four passes up the pitch and not one Tulsa defender even coming close to stopping the attack. Tyson Espy had space at the corner of the box and passed to Hegardt in the middle, whose shot eluded the keeper at the back post. This proved be the only positive thing that OC did all night.
To this point Arquimedes Ordonez has had perhaps the easiest first half brace of his career. He got a goal off a rebound to the middle of the box and a goal from a weak pass back. But OC felt like giving, as Saturday night was certainly Ordonez’s easiest hat trick. With a lofted ball over the top, Alex Rando found himself in no man's land and tried to head the ball away.
He missed, and Ordonez tapped home for Tulsa’s third of the match.
Alex Rando has really had a rough go of it in August, and it would only get worse later as he would get beat off a free kick on a low shot at the post that he was standing on. There were two Tulsa players in front of him that had to be in his line of sight.
With OC hemorrhaging goals left and right, only four minutes later would they really put salt in the wound. Two Tulsa forwards were kept onside on a through ball and wound up with a two-on-one against Rando that, respectfully, any professional team would score.
Orange County have conceded five goals in a little over an hour of game time and only one came from a set piece. Nothing else worth mentioning happened for the rest of the match and OC would get humbled, embarrassed and flat out out-played. The match would end 5-1.
OVERVIEW
The more I write about this game the more annoyed I become. The players that went out there tonight do not need me to tell them they played awful. They know that was an unacceptable performance. I will admit that I have yet to pump the brakes on Orange County to this point. This was a first place team in the West who had played very well against postseason teams. But this is a hard pill that has to be swallowed. Orange County are a seriously inconsistent side. The one thing they had going for them was that they were able to keep their awful performances to external competitions like the Open Cup and the USL Leagues Cup. Yes they were still on an unbeaten run in the regular season but even then there was really yet any true benchmark games. I can maybe point to the San Antonio win as one. But there was no game where the outcome was never in doubt. Even against subpar teams like Monterey Bay and Colorado Springs they have let teams into games with leaky defense at inopportune times. Name me one game this season where you knew Orange County was going to win in the 60th minute. Is it really just the Open Cup game against semi-pro Laguna United?
This is the team that Orange County has to field from this point on. The injuries are nowhere near as bad as they once were, the rest of the Western Conference is equally if not more middling than they normally are and still OC have either let themselves fall into old habits or the other teams know how to play them. You know that things are not ideal when after the game the team owner AND team president both personally apologize to you.
But now this is where I must remind everyone of just where Orange County stands. This is a team who have historically always had a multi-game skid around the summer time. Just last season in August and September, OC went on a 9 game winless run. 2024 saw them lose 5 of 6 games in August. The 2022 season the less said the better. Heck even in the vaunted 2021 season they lost 3 of 4 in late September to October. Does 3 losses in a row suck? Yes. But to some degree perhaps the team and coaching staff needed a punch or 5 in the mouth to know that something has to change. Orange County have 9 games remaining in their regular season. They are currently second in the Western Conference. I would much rather them play like crap in August and not October. If Orange County can turn it up a notch late in the season as they have done multiple times before then more power to them but now more than ever they need the entire OCSC community to rally around them. I expect an energized team to come out next Saturday in Oakland.