Orange County currently sits in 4th place in the Group B standings, but are just two points behind 2nd-place San Diego with two games in hand.
OC has just three games left to play, including tonight. They’ll also face LA Galaxy II and Las Vegas Lights. The team’s closest rival for the remaining playoff spot, Los Dos, faces an identical list of opponents over the final stretch.
This will be the 23rd competitive meeting between the two sides (including matches between Arizona United and the OC Blues). Rising has won nine of those matches, with Orange County taking seven victories. Since both sides rebranded in 2017, neither has managed to win twice against the other during regular season play.
PAST MEETINGS
This is the third meeting between Rising and Orange County this season, with the last two coming at Championship Soccer Stadium.
In the first, Rising took a second half lead from Junior Flemmings, but saw that cancelled out by Kevin Coleman just ten minutes later. Into stoppage time, Owusu-Ansah Kontoh was given his marching orders for denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity, but that foul might well have rescued the point for Phoenix.
“I thought that we played a little bit tense to start,” Rising coach Rick Schantz told press the week after that game. “We weren’t good on the ball. Our possession, we struggled a little bit. All in all, defensively, we were good. We made a couple of mistakes that cost us the goal. It was a very similar mistake two or three times. The biggest adjustment for us right now is make sure that we’re sharp defensively and we don’t give up the easy opportunities.”
Just over a week later, Rising returned to SoCal for a rematch. This time, Orange County took the lead in the first half through Sean Okoli. Yet again, Rising saw red, with Santi Moar being dismissed for a second yellow card after shoving Orange County’s manager as the first half came to a close. Rising put up a spirited second half performance, and had a bit of luck as Aodhan Quinn missed a penalty. However, they were unable to find an equaliser, and left California with a 1-0 loss.
“I think our problem was not defending,” Schantz remarked after the second match. “Our problem was how negative the attack was. Too many square passes, too many back passes; and when you’re playing negative, it’s pretty hard to press.”
One of the biggest headlines – and something that will not be an issue tonight – was the state of the pitch. Between those two matches, Schantz criticized the challenging playing surface that his side faced.
“It was actually in pretty decent shape, but they decided to fertilise it, and when they fertilised it, they burned a lot of the field,” he said. “So much of it was brown and very hard. So their solution, because this was an ESPN game, was to paint it green, and when you paint fields, it makes it extremely sticky, and the ball doesn’t roll very well, and it also makes the field very hard. We had requested for them to wet the field before the match, and they said they couldn’t because the paint would run off, and it would end up everywhere.”
WHAT RISING WILL FACE
Schantz told press earlier this week that he expects to see Orange County start in a 4-4-2 formation tonight, with the midfield set up in a diamond shape. This would be consistent with most of the team’s matches this season, with two up top appearing to be Cloutier’s go-to gameplan.
“I think the big challenge for us with the way that they play, where it’s such a condensed midfield and they try to hit you on the break, is how quickly can we switch it from side,” Schantz told the press this week. “Can we be a little bit more conservative in our defending and at the right times? It’s ok to press at dead balls. It’s ok to press in negative passes, but when the press is broken, our recovery has to be better.”
Expect to see Darwin Jones and Sean Okoli leading the line. Jones hasn’t had the best of seasons so far, scoring just one goal in 2020. That’ll be a big disappointment for the forward, who scored 12 last season with the same club. This is Jones’ third year with the Californian side, who he joined after a short spell with Swedish club IFK Värnamo.
Okoli, meanwhile, leads the team with six goals so far this year. It’s an impressive haul, and brings back flashes of the talent that he displayed during his 16-goal season with FC Cincinnati in 2016. Like his striking partner, the 27-year-old joined Orange County after time in Scandinavia, playing for Sweden’s Landskrona BoIS and Norway’s FK Jerv.
Schantz put the focus for tonight’s match on one OC midfielder. “Everything on their team is always run through Aodhan Quinn,” the coach said. Quinn has been a vital cog in the Orange County team since joining in 2018. He’ll be a little disappointed in his performance so far this year – his three goals and single assist look weak against the eight goals and seven assists he recorded last year, and even weaker against the 11 goals and 14 assists in 2018. One tally of his that isn’t low? His yellow card accumulation. Quinn has picked up five this season, including one in each of his last four games. If it wasn’t for the five-game gap between the first two, which reduced his accumulation by one under the USL Good Behavior Incentive, Quinn would miss tonight’s match through suspension.
Brian Iloski could also prove a major threat, with Schantz noting that he’s taken up a more important role within the squad in recent weeks. The midfielder may have just one assist to his name this season, but he’s created double the number of chances (34) than second-place Okoli (17). Eventually, you have to imagine, those will pay off. The 25-year-old has yet to score in 2020, but has recorded ten shots on target over 12 starts. Iloski is local to SoCal, and joined Orange County after a spell with LA Galaxy II. Prior to that, he became the first American to play for Polish club Legia Warsaw.
Overall, Rising is expecting to face a tough Orange County side desperate for points to keep themselves in the playoff chase.
“At the end of the day, playoff lives are on the line for a lot of clubs that we’ll face in the next week […] so for us it’s making sure that we bring that attitude, that we obviously have the tactics right, and that we’re ready to go because there’s quality here,” Rising midfielder Jordan Schweitzer said yesterday.
THE NEWS FROM CASINO ARIZONA FIELD
Rising’s players were disappointed after the team’s loss on the weekend, and that feeling carried on into training this week.
“Usually our Monday sessions are lively,” Schantz said. “The guys are good to get back on the field after a good couple of days off, but [Monday] night you could sense that something was off. I think they were still very angry and upset about it. [Tuesday] morning, we did some film on Orange County before, like we do on all Tuesdays, and we got into training, and by the end of training … I can hear the music now, and the energy is back. We’ve moved on.”
So what helped pick the team up after a slow start to the week?
“I think, for us, it was recognising that we had another five, six days, to go back to work at the training pitch,” Schweitzer said.
“The nice thing is that games come quick, and you get the chance to right those wrongs.”
The team’s struggles against Orange County in the previous matches could help spur them on, but in Schantz’s mind, there’s a more important motivator than that.
“They definitely know that, at a bare minimum, getting four points against an opponent is important,” he said. “Splitting the season with Orange County is important, but that is secondary to ‘we want to win the division’, and three points will go a long way to helping us win the division.”
ONE TOP TALKING POINT
Santi Moar, Jack Barmby, Jordan Schweitzer… all of these players would be in with a fighting chance of making the lineup at other USL clubs, but with a fully fit Rising side, could easily find themselves on the bench at Casino Arizona Field tonight. Here’s what Rick Schantz said about managing those situations, and Jordan Schweitzer’s view on battling for a spot in the XI.
From the Ashes Prediction: After a poor match last weekend, and two weak showings against Orange County earlier this season, the hosts will come out with a comfortable victory.