Orange County SC forward Michael Seaton battles with an Austin Bold FC defender in there 2-2 draw. | Photo courtesy of Orange County SC/Liza Rosales
Orange County Soccer Club welcomed expansion side Austin Bold FC to Championship Soccer Stadium for the first time hoping to extend their home winning streak to four games. OC started well, putting pressure on The Bold and keeping their chances to a minimum.
Orange County came close several times in the twentieth minute, but nothing challenged Austin goalkeeper Diego Restrepo as the ball was cleared away each time to end the OC attack.
In the 35th minute, Austin thought that they had scored on a free kick just outside of Orange County’s 18 yard box, but as they were celebrating, the linesman raised his flag, because Calum Mallace was in an offside position.
Austin continued to put pressure on Orange County. On the next free kick OC keeper Aaron Cervantes made the initial save, but was unable to parry the ball away from danger and it fell directly to Jorge Troncoso who put in it to put The Bold up 1-0.
Cervantes came up big in the 40th minute, which kept OC only one goal away from equalizing, and Darwin Jones did just that. In the 43rd minute, on a great ball in from Jerry van Wolfgang, DJ put a touch on the ball to deflect it by Restrepo to bring OC level.
Only a few seconds later, The Bold put the ball into the Orange County box and it took an unfortunate bounce and Andre Lima was able to get his foot on it and touch it by Cervantes to put Austin back up by a goal right before half.
The second half started with a much more improved attack from Orange County, after a brief scare in front of their net, they turned it on in the 50th minute. The 52nd minute saw a beautiful ball in from Jerry van Wolfgang to Aodhan Quinn, whose nice touch brought the game level at 2. The 56th minute saw OC come close to scoring, but the ball just missed both Michael Seaton and van Wolfgang.
The game settled down for the next twenty minutes, but in the 78th minute a ball into Seaton was headed tantalizingly close to the Austin goal, but skipped just wide of the net. In the 88th minute a ball found its way into Quinn, who chested it down, but it skipped away from him and out of bounds to end the OC threat.
Orange County’s Aodhan Quinn mentioned that “the second half we started to play more like ourselves, the first half the team looked a little leggy, after half time we came out a little sharper and got that goal.”
Coach Braeden Cloutier spoke highly of van Wolfgang after he assisted on both goals. “The big thing with Jerry is he is working really well behind the ball defensively. He is doing everything I am asking of him.”
Cloutier also echoed what Quinn saw on the pitch. “It was a very difficult game, a lot of heavy legs, and mentally fatigued after Wednesday night’s game. The first half we were just not sharp, but if we can put it together for 90 minutes like the second half we will start getting wins instead of draws.”
Orange County has an opportunity to do just that as they travel up the freeway to Los Angeles for their next game on May 25th where they face L.A. Galaxy II. Kick off will be at 7:00 pm.
Scoring:
39’: Jorge Troncoso
43’: Darwin Jones (Jerry van Wolfgang)
43’: André Lima (Valeri Saramutin)
52’: Aodhan Quinn (Jerry van Wolfgang)
Discipline:
37’: Leonardo (Yellow)
38’: André Lima (Yellow)
90’+3’: Michael Seaton (Yellow)