Orange County Soccer Club is an American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

team based in the Orange County, California city of

Irvine Irvine may refer to: Places On Earth Antarctica *Irvine Glacier *Mount Irvine (Antarctica) Australia *Irvine Island *Mount Irvine, New South Wales Canada *Irvine, Alberta * Irvine Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom *Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotla ...

. Founded in 2010 as the Los Angeles Blues, the team currently plays in the second tier USL Championship. The team plays its home games at Championship Soccer Stadium, located inside Great Park in Irvine.

History

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. 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 Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology) ...

and midfielders Cesar Rivera and

Josh Tudela Joshua Tudela (born March 13, 1984) is a former professional soccer player and manager. He is also the founder and owner of Comfort by the Cross-Eyed Cricket located in downtown Evansville, Indiana. Life and career Early life and youth care ...

—at a formal launch event on December 14, 2010. 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 Antigua Barracuda were an Antiguan professional football team based in St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda. Founded in 2010, the team played in USL Pro, the third tier of the United States soccer league system from 2011 to 2013. The team played its ...

. The first goal in franchise history was scored by Cesar Rivera. 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. 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. Prior to the 2017 season, Orange County became the USL affiliate of

Los Angeles FC Los Angeles Football Club, commonly referred to as LAFC, is an American professional Association football team based in Los Angeles. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The club ...

in a multi-year deal, which was ended after 2018. 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.

Thomas Enevoldsen Thomas Enevoldsen (born 27 July 1987) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a forward. He made eleven appearances for the Denmark national team scoring one goal. Club career AaB Enevoldsen was born in Frejlev, a suburb to ...

scored 20 goals and was named to the All-League First Team along with

Aodhan Quinn Aodhan Quinn (born March 22, 1992) is an American professional soccer player who currently plays for Phoenix Rising FC in the USL Championship. Career Early career Quinn played college soccer at Bradley University in 2010 and at the University ...

. In the 2021 season, Head Coach Braden Cloutier was dismissed mid-season and replaced by Assistant Coach

Richard Chaplow Richard David Chaplow (born 2 February 1985) is an English retired professional footballer who is currently the head coach of USL Championship side Orange County SC. He is a former England under-21 international. Club career Burnley Chaplow j ...

. OCSC went on to finish second in the Pacific Division, and advance to the USL Championship Final defeating Tampa Bay Rowdies at home, 3–1 in regulation.

Stadium

* Titan Stadium;

Fullerton, California Fullerton ( ) is a city located in northern Orange County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 143,617. Fullerton was founded in 1887. It secured the land on behalf of the Atchison, Topeka and Sa ...

(2011–2013) *

Anteater Stadium Anteater Stadium is a 2,500-seat multi-purpose stadium with a bermuda grass field on the campus of University of California, Irvine in Irvine, California, United States. It is used by the UC Irvine Anteaters men's & women's soccer and track and fi ...

; Irvine, California (2014–2016) * Championship Soccer Stadium; Irvine, California (2017–present)

Club culture

Rivalries

Orange County competes in the 405 Derby against rivals LA Galaxy II. The clubs are, as of late 2022, in a dispute over who will play at Championship Soccer Stadium, Orange County SC's current home stadium, after leaked documents showed the Galaxy organization is attempting to seize full-time usage of the venue.

Players and staff

Current roster

Front office

* James Keston – Owner & CEO * Oliver Wyss – President of Soccer Operations & General Manager * Peter Nugent – Sports Director * Dan Rutstein - Interim President of Business Operations

Technical staff

– Head Coach *

Robert Earnshaw Robert Earnshaw (born 6 April 1981) is a Welsh former international footballer who played as a forward. He is the only player to have scored a hat-trick in the Premier League, all three divisions of the English Football League, the League Cup, ...

– Assistant Coach *

Paul Hardyman Paul George Hardyman (born 11 May 1964 in Portsmouth) is an English former footballer and coach. He was a left-back for Portsmouth, Sunderland, Bristol Rovers, Barnet, Wycombe and Slough Town. He is currently Academy manager and assistant coach ...

– Assistant Coach * Didier Crettenand – Assistant Coach * Victor Nogueira – Goalkeeping Coach * Mitch Deyhle – Director of Sports Medicine & Head Athletic Trainer

Head coaches

Charlie Naimo Charlie Naimo is currently the technical director of the Western New York Flash in the National Women's Soccer League. Naimo started his USL coaching career in 1998 with the Central Jersey Splash of the W-League. He coached the Splash for two se ...

(2011–2012) * Jesus Rico-Sanz (2012–2013) * Dariush Yazdani (2013–2014) * Oliver Wyss (2014–2016) * Barry Venison (2016) *

Logan Pause Logan Pause (born August 22, 1981) is an American former soccer player and coach who spent his entire twelve-year professional career with the Chicago Fire in Major League Soccer. Playing career College and amateur After attending Jordan ...

(2017) * Braeden Cloutier (2018–2021) *

(2021–present)

Record

Year-by-year

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. 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 The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in men's Soccer in the United States, soccer in the United States of America. It is the oldest ongoing nati ...

, and other competitive matches.

Honors

USL Championship * Winners:

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

USL Championship Western Conference (playoffs) * Winners:

USL Championship Western Conference (regular season) * Winners (2):

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , titlestyle = background:black; color:white; border:2px solid #EF4937; , list1 = {{Orange County SC squad {{Orange County SC managers {{Los Angeles FC {{United Soccer Leagues {{Soccer in Los Angeles {{Orange County Sports {{Greater Los Angeles Area Sports {{California sports Association football clubs established in 2010 USL Championship teams Soccer clubs in Greater Los Angeles Iranian soccer clubs in the United States 2010 establishments in California Soccer clubs in California