Orange County SC returned home for n exciting weekday matchup against the #1 team in the Eastern Conference, Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC. It was a tight battle between the defense, but by the time the final whistle blew, Orange County showed they could stand with the best, earning their fifth win in a row.
Orange County SC are about to embark on their toughest three-game stretch of the entire season. This will see them play not only the top two teams in the Eastern Conference but also sees a trip to Sacramento to face the first place Republic one week from Saturday. With just how tight the playoff picture is for the Western Conference, there is not much room to falter. This comes even as OC have arguably been the best team in the league for the last month or so. The Black and Orange have done enough to make up for their poor start to the season and are facing the best teams at the right time.
The first of three feats of strength is that of Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC. The current USL league leaders, the Riverhounds are on a modest three-game win streak. They will however make the cross-country trip on a short weekend to Orange County, a place they have not been to since the 2013 season.
As for OC, who are themselves undefeated in their last four, they are coming back from a much deserved one week break. It will be 10 days since Orange County last played a match which was the 3-1 victory down in San Diego.
It’s official: the boys are back in town.
OCSC defied all expectations in July, earning 12 points across 5 games, good for a 2.4 PPG pace. To illustrate just how good the team has been, consider this: in the month of April, OCSC was playing at a 0.75 PPG pace, which shakes out to 26 points over a full season. Someone must’ve forgotten to tell the team that they’re supposed to be in the dog days of summer.
Game 1 Recap: OCSC 3-1 win v. Monterey Bay FC
Game 2 Recap: OCSC 0-2 loss @ Rio Grande Valley FC
Game 3 Recap: OCSC 3-1 win @ Loudon United FC
Game 4 Recap: OCSC 4-3 win @ 901 Memphis FC
Game 5 Recap: OCSC 1-0 win v. New Mexico United
After May, the team had dug themselves into a hole that was borderline too deep to crawl out of. As the calendar flipped to June, OCSC had amassed 7 losses. 10 losses would be a caution, and 15 losses would be almost a death knell in the team’s playoff hopes. So what did they do? Over the next 9 games, they went 7-0-2 and head into the month of August still having not hit the 10-loss mark. To say the team has turned things around would be an understatement. OCSC has completely changed their identity and are unrecognizable from the team that started the season.
If fans still needed a reason to hop back on the Orange County bandwagon, Saturday’s match against San Diego Loyal should’ve been all the reason folks needed. Unrecognizable from the team that took the pitch for the first two months of the season, OCSC stormed into hostile territory at Torero Stadium and came away with 3 points after a decisive 3-1 victory. This brought the season point total to 34, which was good enough to leapfrog San Diego on the table and into fourth place in the West. If the playoffs began after this game, OCSC would be hosting their opponent in the first round of the playoffs. What seemed like a distant dream two months earlier has now became a distinct reality.
Orange County Soccer Club is ready for another magical run.
A rivalry, or derby in soccer, is best described as an intense competition between athletic teams or athletes. It is very safe to say that there is no love lost whenever Orange County plays San Diego.
This will be the twelfth meeting all time between the two clubs dating back to the 2020 season and is a rivalry that has really seen everything: wins on the road, last-minute goals, sending offs, fisticuffs, the works. Both teams for the most part have remained competitive in many of their matchups and this meeting does not change. As it currently stands, San Diego are fourth in the Western Conference with 33 points while Orange County sit two points behind them in 6th.
Both teams have had good months of June and both are going into Saturday’s game on three game win streaks. Likewise both teams are currently in the playoff mix.
Orange County SC was back on their home turf this weekend as they continued their winning streak with the defeat of New Mexico United. Since the summer began, OCSC has won seven of their last nine matches, putting them in 6th in the Western Conference.
FIRST HALF:
Back home after three weeks of away games, Orange County SC had the momentum to come out of the gate strong this Saturday. With a sold-out stadium of thousands of fans cheering on the boys in orange, it’s no surprise that they completely dominated the first half of the match.
The critical element to this came from the midfield's ability to keep an aggressive push forward by Kyle Scott and Seth Casiple, eventually leading to the first strike on goal of the game. The squad built up possession in the middle, pulling the attention away from the wings, and opened Owen Lambe on the right side. Lambe took the ball and sent a beautiful cross where Ryan Doghman found the header. Goalkeeper Alexandros Tambakis blocked it, but the setup was lovely to see so early.
Orange County SC are playing their best soccer since the 2021 title-winning season. That is the best way to describe what has been an outstanding Summer spent mostly away from Irvine, CA. The Boys in Orange will finally be able to play a home game which will be their first in nearly a month.
With Orange County having a good run of form it must be noted that the majority of those good results have come against teams from the Eastern Conference. While this is a positive statistic, ultimately it boils down to how well Orange County fare against their opponents from the West as ultimately that is who they are competing with for valuable playoff spots.
Orange County’s Summer away from home will continue once again as they are going to play their third straight away game and seventh of their last nine games. This three game stretch took them down to Texas and to the East Coast so it only makes sense that their final stop takes them to the South of the United States where they will make their first ever visit to Memphis.
In the city of Memphis is that of Memphis 901 FC a team that currently sits 4th in the Eastern Conference standings but have had a rollercoaster of a season. Memphis, like most of the Eastern Conference, do not have statistics that they can boast about (only a +4 goal differential). However they are still one of the better teams in the USL this year with a top-five offense.
For Orange County, the win on Saturday in Virginia bumped them up to a tie for eighth in the West with Phoenix and New Mexico. Saturday the 22nd is shaping up to be a massive day for all of the playoff bubble teams like Orange County with both Phoenix and New Mexico facing fellow playoff-bound teams. But for the moment, Orange County’s focus must be on Memphis.
FIRST HALF
Loudoun United welcomed Orange County to their home field with some quick and robust pressure immediately after the first whistle blew. In only the 2nd minute of the match, a fantastic pass right into the middle of the box to Jackson Hopkins led to the first shot on goal for the game. He sent it to the bottom left post, but Colin Shutler made a diving save to keep the home team from an early lead.
The boys in orange and black also had a lot of aggressive energy on the pitch, but overcommitting on their tackles and a few poor passes allowed Loudon to completely dominate an attacking possession for the first fifteen minutes of the match. Dillon Powers may have saved the whole pace of the game early with a crucial tackle in the box after Jake Morris set himself up for a dangerous opportunity.
Thankfully that was all the time it took for the tides to change, and in the fifteenth minute, OCSC made their first critical attack. During a vital counterplay, Ryan Doghman sent a long ball over the heads of the Loudon back line right to the feet of Marc "Sparky" McNulty. Sparky controlled the ball, made a genius touch to get around the keeper, and scored with his shot into an open net giving Orange County SC an important lead.
