Orange County SC head back on the road in week two, looking to pick up more points on the road against another title-contender. Bob Lilley. Kenardo Forbes. Pittsburgh. Highmark Stadium. It has plenty of USL history… now what’s to come? After last week’s heroics, the Orange and Black will look to secure things earlier on and stake an early claim as title-contenders.
Expectations and excitement levels are always high at the beginning of new seasons. But this season might just take that to a whole other level. For Orange County SC, the pieces are there to compete for another USL title. It is the first full season for now full-time head coach Morten Karlsen. The first with certainty around calling Championship Soccer Stadium “home" for the next few years. It is also the first…
For the first time in 691 days, Orange County Soccer Club will play in a postseason game.
It is one of the most impressive single-season turnarounds that the USL has seen in recent memory. After only winning one of their first ten league games of the year, the Orange and Black have stormed through the league to clinch the number two seed in the Western Conference as well as number four overall in the USL. It truly is a testament to the work of Morten Karlsen and his technical staff for the turnaround that OCSC experienced. More often than not, the bounces on and off the field have gone in favor of Orange County and the 2023 USL playoffs are the perfect chance for OC to win another title.
Of course there are 15 other teams who have a chance at the title as well. Thus in the first round of the playoffs, Orange County will host a team that they have yet to beat this year: El Paso Locomotive FC.
Orange County SC are returning back to the playoffs after a one year hiatus for a chance at a league-tying second title. It was a jolt by Morten Karlsen that led the club on an absolute tear since the month of June that has shot the club up into the top 4 of the West. Since Summer began, Orange County has gone 14-4-2 in 20 games. It has been an Orange Summer that has rewarded the club handsomely with the transfer of Korede to Europe, multiple coach of the month honors for Karlsen, and the announcement that OC will get to play in OC for at least five more years.
With all this going on, the playoffs are just around the corner and OC are one of the contenders. But before all that they must play one more game and it will be another California derby against the newest club in the state, Monterey Bay FC. All the pressure will be on MBFC who are in desperation mode if they are to clinch a postseason spot. They are not in control of their own destiny and will ultimately have to hope both New Mexico AND Oakland lose their games. Oh and Monterey Bay must beat Orange County.
If there were ever a must-win game that did not result in elimination, this would be the game.
This game has the dubious honor of not just being a much needed win for playoff positioning but OC, in simple terms, needs to win a game. This season has had the highest of highs and lowest of lows all before a playoff game has even started. What a coincidence it is then that the game in question can propel Orange County SC back into the playoffs after a one-year hiatus. Last week OC were able to tough out a point in the desert with a 1-1 effort against Phoenix Rising FC. That matchup actually gave Phoenix a postseason spot but not OC even though they are even on points.
There are only three games remaining in the 2023 regular season and they will all take place in the Golden State. Orange County officially sit 5th in the Western Conference but are even on points with 4th-place Phoenix with 48 and two points behind 3rd-place San Diego. The top four teams in each conference will play the first round of playoffs at home. OC are hungry for a win but the team they are facing might be a bit more desperate.
Including this weekend’s game, there are only five games left. Orange County is in no danger of missing the playoffs. They do however need to keep picking up points if they are to guarantee a playoff game is played in Irvine.
San Antonio is in a bit of a more extreme run of form to what OC is experiencing at the moment. For the entirety of the season, San Antonio and Sacramento have been the two top teams in the West. However, San Antonio are winless in their last 6 USL games. It has been a bit of a trend this month of September for a lot of championship contenders to drop a number of points. Orange County can now be included in this category with their winning streak and undefeated streak both snapped in their last two games.
It is a scheduling quirk that OC and San Antonio will play for the first time this season this late into the season. This first matchup will be followed up with the home leg in Irvine only two weeks later. It will be a top 3 matchup this Saturday, something that OC have been very strong in.
No, Orange County cannot clinch a playoff spot just yet.
Orange County can however make the race to clinch the best record in the West much more interesting than it already is with a win on Friday. There really is a lot to unpack in this game preview so before discussing the upcoming game, we will first talk about possibly the biggest news of the season. Orange County’s all-time leading scorer Milan Iloski has agreed to a permanent transfer to Danish side FC Nordsjælland. It is a five year deal that will begin in January of 2024; which means that Milan will remain with Orange County for this regular season and subsequent postseason. It is a tough pill to swallow to see one of the best players in club history move on from Southern California but ultimately it should be a positive move as it is just another of the many profitable transfers of OC players to top-flight European clubs.
There is a bit of a saying in sports where teams wish to get the opportunity to play meaningful home games late in the season. This is definitely a game that fits that criteria. As part of the surge up the standings that OC has found themselves comes the chance to beef up the numbers by playing teams who may be floundering and trying to find their footing before the final stretch. El Paso can also fit that criteria as a team.
While we all know about the turn of form that Orange County were able to pull off, the Locomotive have found themselves on the other end of it. In their last 12 games, El Paso have won once. Now one might think that they could be drawing a lot of games but that is not the case either as they have drawn 3 of them. Between the last game they drew and their only win in that span,
which came two weeks ago, they had lost five consecutive games. This is a team that has completely fallen off the tracks but will be hungry to get points.
