Orange County Soccer Club (OCSC) (1-2-2) drew with Sacramento Republic Football Club (3-1-1), 1-1, at Championship Soccer Stadium in Irvine on April 16.
The game was tense from the starting whistle. Both teams came out aggressive, bodying their opponents for position as they tried to manufacture passing lanes or cut off the ball.
Aggression comes with risk, and this risk reared its head early.
In the second minute, Sacramento took the ball in their own midfield. Through two wide-open passing lanes, they put the ball past their forward Luther Archimède. He won the sprint to the ball with no defenders in front of him. OCSC keeper Patrick Rakovsky charged him to no avail as Archimède dribbled around the German to set up the easy goal.
Orange County’s players fumed as they explained to the referees that the lanes were only open because of a series of shoves from Republic players.
With intense mutual physicality, the officials were handed an almost impossible problem. When a particularly egregious call was missed, a makeup call,or noncall, was given soon after, leading to an uncertain landscape for the players.
Despite this, the game continued with both sides getting their opportunities. Although the Republic maintained possession more often, one fateful shove gained OCSC a golden chance to equalize.
In the 26th minute, OCSC forward Erick “El Cubo” Torres was caught in the Sacramento keeper’s box when a low blow from a Republic defender sent him to the ground. A whistle blew, and he was granted a penalty kick.
El Cubo took a massive running start and shot the ball past Sacmrento’s keeper for the goal, bringing the score to 1-1.
Orange County and the Republic both had excellent opportunities at goals cut short by overzealous or non-existent officiating. The frustration boiled over many times into dangerous play and nine total yellow cards were given in the game.
Orange County will have an opportunity to test out new strategies in a special U.S. Open Cup game against the Los Angeles FC in Irvine’s Championship Soccer stadium on Wednesday, April 20 at 7:30 pm.
Benjamin Hendricks is a 2021-2022 Sports Staff Writer. He can be reached at bahendr1@uci.edu.