It has officially been 10 games for Orange County in league play and in all honesty it has been an abysmal 10 games. After getting shutout 0-3 in Oakland on Saturday, the Oranges return back to Irvine for a midweek matchup. With the setup of USL, the top eight teams of each conference qualify for the playoffs out of a total 12. In 10 games, OCSC have played only 3 teams who are currently out of a playoff spot. Does that mean OC will play an opponent that is level in quality this time? No.
With the third round of the US Open Cup comes the appearance for a number of MLS teams, and Orange County gets to face one.
As part of the “Pacific” group, OC was placed in the same pool as Portland Timbers, Seattle Sounders FC, and San Diego Loyal SC and ultimately drew with the Timbers as the visiting team. While not the hardest possible draw, it will still take a complete team effort in order to pull off the upset.
Orange County will look to continue on last week’s first win of the 2023 USL Championship season.
It took OC six games to earn their first victory, and the team now set their sights on another visiting Eastern Conference club, Birmingham Legion FC. This game will be the first ever meeting between Orange County and Birmingham, with the visitors coming in currently sitting third in the Eastern Conference. Meanwhile OC sit in 9th just one point back of the playoff line.
