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American soccer team From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Orange County Soccer Club is an American soccer team based in the Orange County, California city of Irvine. Founded in 2010 as the Los Angeles Blues, the team currently plays in the Western Conference of the USL Championship, the second tier of the American soccer system.
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| Full name | Orange County Soccer Club | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1998 (as Los Angeles Blues) | |||
| Stadium | Championship Soccer Stadium Irvine, California | |||
| Capacity | 5,000 | |||
| Owners | James Keston Community Ownership | |||
| Coach | Danny Stone | |||
| League | USL Championship | |||
| Website | http://www.orangecountysoccer.com/ | |||
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The team plays its home games at Championship Soccer Stadium, located inside Great Park in Irvine.
The then Los Angeles Blues were founded by Iranian-American businessman Ali Mansouri in 1998 and announced as a USL Pro expansion franchise on December 7, 2010.[1][2][3][4][5] The team was associated with the United Soccer Leagues W-League team LA Blues, and is part of the larger Orange County Blues organization, which has competed in Los Angeles-area amateur leagues since 1998. They introduced their first three players—goalkeeper Oscar Dautt and midfielders Cesar Rivera and Josh Tudela—at a formal launch event on December 14, 2010.[6]
After an extensive pre-season, the Blues played their first games in the Caribbean over the weekend of April 15–17, 2011, a 3–0 victory over Sevilla Puerto Rico, and a 2–1 victory over Antigua Barracuda. The first goal in franchise history was scored by Cesar Rivera.[7]
In January 2012, the Blues announced the hiring of Steve Donner (formerly CEO of Orlando City) as vice president of business operations to focus on improving marketing for the club and to bring professionalism to the front-office.[8] The first game of the 2012 season reflected these efforts with a 2,432 attendance compared to 696 for the first home game in 2011 (the Blues averaged 382 during the 2011 season).
In 2016, the team was purchased by American businessman James Keston, rebranded to Orange County SC.[2] Prior to the 2017 season, Orange County became the USL affiliate of Los Angeles FC in a multi-year deal, which was ended after 2018.[9][10] The team won the Western Conference Regular Season Title in 2018 with 20 Wins, 8 losses and 6 ties. They defeated Saint Louis FC and Reno 1868 FC before losing 2–1 to Phoenix Rising FC in the Western Conference Final.[11] Thomas Enevoldsen scored 20 goals and was named to the All-League First Team along with Aodhan Quinn.[12]
In the 2021 season, Head Coach Braden Cloutier was dismissed mid-season and replaced by Assistant Coach Richard Chaplow.[13] OCSC went on to finish second in the Pacific Division, and advance to the USL Championship Final, defeating Tampa Bay Rowdies away at St. Petersburg, Florida, 3–1 in regulation.[14]
The 2022 season saw Richard Chaplow earn a last place Western Conference finish, despite Milan Iloski earning the USL Championship Golden Boot award.[15] Orange County SC finished the 2022 season 7-14-13 with 34 points, last in the Western Conference.[16]
The 2023 season also did not start strong for Orange County, with just one win in eight games, with a 1-4-3 record before the team relieved Chaplow of duties and promoted newly hired assistant coach Morten Karlsen to interim head coach on May 1, 2023.[17] Karlsen led the team to a season-end 2nd place Western Conference placement at 17-11-6, earning two consecutive USL Championship Coach of the Month awards for July and August.[18] Coach Karlsen was appointed as Head Coach on a multi-year contract, announced November 2023.[19]
Orange County lost star forward Milan Iloski during the 2024 January transfer window to Danish Superliga club FC Nordsjælland.[20][21] The loss of the former Golden Boot winner resulted in Orange County having a mediocre start to their 2024 season, with a record of 6-3-6 by late June.[22] This start contributed to Coach Karlsen making a transfer in the middle of the season to another club in the Danish Superliga, Lyngby BK.[23] He was replaced by the assistant coach, Paul Hardyman,[24] who after being labelled as an interim coach, was promoted to lead as the official coach,[25] before he himself was sacked by the team and replaced by another assistant coach Danny Stone after a six-game winless streak.[26] Under Danny Stone, Orange County was able to rescue their season and clinch a visit to the playoffs, where they were eliminated in the Western conference semi-finals against the Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC.[27]
In October 2023, it was announced the City of Irvine and Orange County SC had drafted a 5-year agreement for the team to operate Championship Soccer Stadium.[28] On October 23, City Council voted unanimously to approve the deal, striking a stadium naming right clause in the agreement for separate negotiation and later City Council approval.[29] The 5-year agreement includes one 5-year renewal.
Orange County competes in the 405 Derby against rivals Ventura County FC, formerly known as LA Galaxy II, nicknamed after Interstate-405, an interstate highway that links between Orange County and Los Angeles County.[30] The clubs were in a dispute over who would play at Championship Soccer Stadium in late 2022, after leaked documents showed the Galaxy organization attempted to seize full-time usage of the venue.[31] The rivalry has slowed down as of late, as after LA Galaxy II moved to MLS Next, the third tier of the American soccer system, both teams have only met in pre-season friendlies.[32][33]
Orange County has one main supporter group, named the County Line Coalition.[34] A zero-fee supporter group that was founded in 2014 in correspondence with the rebrand from the Los Angeles Blues to the Orange County Blues SC,[35] they mainly sit in the left corner of the general seating bleachers behind the north goalpost, chanting and singing songs adapted to the tune of popular music, like "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by John Denver, amongst others.[36]
On April 9, 2021, Orange County introduced their new mascot, Gnarley.[37] He is an orange, surf-themed monster that can be typically seen on game day and at various Orange County SC activities around the county.[38]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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James Keston – Owner & CEO[40]
Oliver Wyss – President of Soccer Operations & General Manager
Peter Nugent – Sports Director Dan Rutstein - Interim President of Business Operations Danny Stone - Interim Head Coach
Robert Earnshaw – Assistant Coach Didier Crettenand – Assistant Coach Victor Nogueira – Goalkeeping Coach Mitch Deyhle – Director of Sports Medicine & Head Athletic Trainer Charlie Naimo (2011–2012)
Jesus Rico-Sanz (2012–2013)
Dariush Yazdani (2013–2014) Oliver Wyss (2014–2016) Barry Venison (2016) Logan Pause (2017) Braeden Cloutier (2018–2021) Richard Chaplow (2021–2023)
Morten Karlsen (2023–2024) Paul Hardyman (2024) Danny Stone (2024-) (interim)This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the club. For the full season-by-season history, see List of Orange County SC seasons.
| Season | League | Position | Playoffs | USOC | Continental / Other | Average attendance | Top goalscorer(s) | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Div | League | Pld | W | L | D | GF | GA | GD | Pts | PPG | Conf. | Overall | Name | Goals | |||||
| 2020 | 2 | USLC | 16 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 18 | 18 | 0 | 24 | 1.50 | 9th | 17th | DNQ | NH | DNQ | 3,188 | Sean Okoli | 7 |
| 2021 | 32 | 15 | 10 | 7 | 44 | 37 | +7 | 52 | 1.63 | 2nd | 7th | W | NH | 3,302 |  Ronaldo Damus |
16 | |||
| 2022 | 34 | 7 | 14 | 13 | 49 | 59 | -10 | 34 | 1.00 | 13th | 23rd | DNQ | R3 | 4,230 | Milan Iloski |
22 ♦ | |||
| 2023 | 34 | 17 | 11 | 6 | 46 | 39 | +7 | 57 | 1.68 | 2nd | 5th | SF | R3 | 4,411 | Milan Iloski |
17 | |||
| 2024 | 34 | 13 | 14 | 7 | 40 | 47 | -7 | 46 | 1.35 | 6th | 14th | SF | R3 | 4,138 | Ethan Zubak |
11 | |||
^ 1. Avg. attendance include statistics from league matches only.
^ 2. Top goalscorer(s) includes all goals scored in league play, playoffs, U.S. Open Cup, and other competitive matches.
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