Back to the regular season for OC and back to a lineup that is very much the norm.<\/p>\n
This is the first defensive struggle that Orange County will see. They actually did bring in a new loan-in winger that was announced this week. Brandon Cambridge is a 24 year old winger which OC could use more of. Funny enough he does have both USL and MLS experience with his previous team that he saw minutes for being Sacramento Republic FC. The only injuries that we are aware of at the moment are Bunbury and Ciotta. Expect Nico Benalcazar to factor into the game as well.<\/p>\n
THE MATCHUP<\/p>\n
Fireworks always seem to follow this matchup wherever it goes. Ultimately both teams have championship pedigree and have seen nearly everything happen. Continuing the trend of big matchups is another important game for both teams who have some things to prove. Keeping the ball out of the net for OC will be the main priority and they have proven to do so especially in away games. Coincidentally, both teams are coming off draws to lackluster opposition in the regular season. After 8 matches played, OC still have the best defense in the league and that is something that could still be improved. <\/p>\n
Putting the ball into the net is where OC will need to get more consistent. It is nowhere near being the worst mark in the league, but 7 goals in that same span is about middle of the pack for the West. There will not be many chances on goal so whatever they can get will have to do. Against Vitiello especially who has not been as much of a brick wall that he normally is either. Lyam MacKinnon has been the leading goal scorer for OC and can score with limited touches. Using his big frame as an aerial threat along with Zubak has been the missing piece. <\/p>\n
League news off the field has the ratification of a new CBA between the league and the players which is appreciated. The schedule for OC will get very difficult from this point out thanks to the USMNT team occupying Irvine for the World Cup. Reasonably speaking if OC are able to take away 16 points from the next 10 games then that would go a long way. A home playoff game come October could hinge on it. Sacramento will look to exorcise some demons and OC will try to keep their good league form.<\/p>\n
Did you catch Tuesday\u2019s live show with defender Grayson Doody? If you missed it live, you can always watch the recording on our YouTube channel<\/a>, or audio-only on Spotify<\/a>. Please subscribe on YouTube and Spotify!<\/p>\n WHAT TO KNOW<\/p>\n Game – @ Sacramento Republic FC (USL Championship)<\/p>\n When – May 2nd, 7:00 PM PST<\/p>\n Where – Heart Health Park (Sacramento, CA)<\/p>\n OCSC Form – LDWWL<\/p>\n SAC Form – WDLDW<\/p>\n All-Time Series – 14-6-12 (32 Games)<\/p>\n TV – Paramount+, CBS Sports Golazo! Network<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to the regular season for OC and back to a lineup that is very much the norm.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-296851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}