After an uncertain 2022, it appears that the city of Irvine and Orange County Soccer Club are set to be long term partners.
This Tuesday (October 10), the Great Park Board and the City Council will vote on a proposal that will keep OCSC in Championship Stadium for five years with the potential for an additional five year extension.
The September slide has come to an end as the Orange & Black open the month of October with a convincing 3-1 win. The win did a lot for OC in the grand scheme of things as it leapfrogged the club into a tie for third in the West as well as leaving Orange County with their own destiny to clinch a postseason game at home.
After last week, each team in the USL have completed 32 matches meaning each club will only have this weekend and the next to go up or down. Likewise only two remaining playoff spots remain in both the Eastern and Western Conference and only 3 teams in the entire USL are mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.
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.
In the span of about a week or so, the mood of the 2023 season has quickly changed tones.
In a league that is often as chaotic as the USL can be, Orange County SC now find themselves struggling to score goals and gain points. There is consolation in the fact that a majority of the top teams in the West, like OC, are also playing sub-par as well. However this means that there is now a 4-team tie in the middle of the table all vying for home-field advantage in the playoffs. While Sacramento and San Antonio still reside at the top there are three teams tied for third with 47 points each. These three are Orange County, San Diego, and Phoenix; with an extra Colorado Springs also having 46 points. Orange County now finds itself right in the middle of what is shaping up to be an absolutely brutal last two weeks of the season.
Orange County need to find their form again if they are not to waste what has been a good bounce-back season. After the lengthy winning streak had come to an end, OC are now beginning a winless streak and at a bad time. While it should not be panic time yet, Orange County must be able to capitalize on what remaining regular season games they have left. And what better way to start winning again than at the expense of Phoenix Rising FC.
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.
Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC ended Orange County SC’s historic unbeaten streak this last weekend. Despite looking like the better team, Orange County couldn’t find the back of the net.
As the boys in orange took to the pitch, one element stood out: in the goalkeeper position was the newest signing of SoCal native Eric Lopez.
Orange County started things off quickly as they pressed forward with three dangerous strikers. Thomas Amang quickly dribbled up the middle and looked to Kevin Lankford on the right side, who used his high speed to break past Colorado's backline. Milan Iloski then came up on the left. He asked for the switch, and Lankford kept the pass on the ground and set Iloski up for a perfect opportunity. Still, unfortunately, he could not get over the ball, and the shot skyrocketed away without any serious challenge on goal.
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.
Back in their gold kits in support of Childhood Cancer Awareness month, Orange County SC took to the field with the hope of getting an early lead. In the first couple of minutes, Brian Iloski earned a corner kick and sent the ball toward the box, but El Paso cleared it away quickly.
Kevin Partida showed some impressive aggression early on. He held onto his mark after getting beat once on the line and never let up. His push eventually led to a foul just outside the 18-yard line, but Thomas Amang cleared the free kick away and gave possession back to OCSC.
El Paso had the second offensive chance by passing it up the center after another free kick. They took a shot, but Orange County's central defense cleared it out, keeping young keeper Juan Santana from being challenged. One element that has kept the team in such strong form has been the center defenders, Dillon Powers and Markus Nakkim, who are a constant wall in preventing any danger from reaching their keeper.
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.
