AntSol Travel

When I saw that I had the day off when Orange County Soccer Club was playing against San Diego Loyal Soccer Club on Saturday, May 6, 2023, my roommate was out of town for the weekend, I started a bit later at work the next day, I knew I wanted to attend the soccer match! I attended two OCSC matches last season, the first was the first row of the reserved seats, and in the second match, I sat on the field level at a match vs Loudon United, and lived out my sports photographer’s dream of getting close shots with my DSLR non zoomable lens, see picture below. One day, I will get DSLR with a high-powered zoom lens and a press pass, as zoomable lenses are only allowable for the press. One area I did not sit at yet was the general admission section, only $11! It is on the north goal of the field and has unreserved bleachers where fans can rattle the five-year-old bleachers at a value for the whole family or just one person to enjoy the pro soccer experience, like me.

Please note I am a casual sports consumer, so I don’t go too in-depth with the soccer match, I write about the general information & history, not play-by-play. Also, since both teams use soccer in their team names, I use the American term soccer, not the international term, football.

For those who don’t know that Orange County had a pro-level soccer team, like many of my coworkers, Orange County Soccer Club (OCSC) is part of the United Soccer League (USL), a step below the soccer pro pyramid of the Major League Soccer (MLS), in Southern California has Los Angeles Galaxy & Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC). There are several tiers in the soccer pyramid, for professional development, with a recently new league of the MLS development teams in 2022, MLS Pro Next, as MLS development teams were taking up space for independent USL teams like OCSC, and new expansion teams like that night’s competition, San Diego Loyal Soccer Club, founded in 2019. All USL matches are broadcasted on ESPN+, and OCSC matches are rebroadcasted from Bally’s SoCal, so if you try to watch the match on ESPN+ in the SoCal region, you will be blacked out.

Orange County Soccer Club was founded in 2010 as the Los Angeles Blues, which played at Cal State Fullerton from 2011 to 2013 and then played at UC Irvine from 2014 to 2016. They were bought by James Keston & rebranded to OCSC in 2016, and moved to Championship Stadium at the city of Irvine’s Orange County Great Park in 2017, with a capacity of 5,000 fans. Their team’s colors are similar to the Anaheim Ducks’ Orange & Black in tribute to the Orange groves of the past & the county’s name, and blue is an alternate color as a throwback to the Blues days. They won their first USL Championship in 2021. However, they are not faring as well in the seasons thereafter, in 2022 were 7 of 34 wins, and currently in 2023 with 1 of 9 wins, with the recent firing of their head coach, Richard Chaplow.

For this match they are playing their geographical rivals to the south, San Diego Loyal SC. SDLSC was founded in 2019, by former MLS player, Michael Donovan, and Warren Smith, who help founded Sacramento Republic Football Club in USL in 2012. Their colors are Torry green for the Torry Pine tree and orange for the sunset. They play at Torero Stadium at the University of San Diego, with a capacity of 6,000 fans. Since the stadiums are 80 miles from each other, Loyal fans came in droves and sold out the visitor’s side of the Championship stadium for the match, more on that later.

The OCSC vs SDLSC match kicked off at 7 pm, since I had an early work day, that ended at 2:30 pm, I had plenty of time to get changed and do a couple of chores at the apartment before heading out. Leaving Anaheim at 4:40 pm, I drove on Interstate 5 south, fourteen miles to Irvine, exited Sand Canyon Road, turn left to the road from the ramp, right on Marine Way, and parked for free at the many parking areas of the Great Park. 

The family of James Irvine, the original ranchers of the land, used the land for farming and ranching. In the beginning days of World War II, the US Armed Forces looked for a west coast base and picked this location, as the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. After the 20th-century wars were done, the base was decommissioned and cleaned up in 1999. The 4,000 acres of land were given back to the now city of Irvine put to vote the potential land use of either converted to an international airport as John Wayne Santa Ana Airport only has one landing strip & not suitable for international flights, or to convert the former base to housing & park area. The majority of the votes were the latter due to the noise that the residential neighbors dealt with during the air base days, but they did know what they were signing up for when they moved in. Over time, housing developers bought land, built townhomes & single-family homes, like Five Point Builders & Lennar, and the city of Irvine built up the Great Park with funds from land sales. Five Point in turn sponsored facilities & attractions, such as the ice rink, amphitheater, and helium balloon rides. At this point in 2023, the majority of the 4,000+ acres of land has been developed, except for the core of the former base for future development. Below are pictures taken from one of the hangers that was reused as a museum.

To make use of their huge investment, the city of Irvine uses the park to get sports teams of all ages to play at The Great Park. The park currently has outdoor sports fields for soccer & baseball, an ice rink, gardens, art & history galleries, a helium balloon which visitors can go on for free thanks to Five Points sponsorship, and the crown jewel of the development of the sports, Championship Stadium, home of the Orange County Soccer Club. One of the landing strips was reused as a really wide walkway, and painted a timeline of history from the first humans migrated to the Americas until now. 

Opened in 2022 was Wild River water park, it was relocated from its original location on the western side of Irvine back in 2011 when it lost its land lease from the Irvine Company. There are parking fees for the water park, but free for the sports complex, there are signs saying it is against the ordinance to do so. 

Another venue that lost its lease from the Irvine Company and relocated to the Great Park was Irvine Meadows Amphitheater in 2016, which relocated and reopened the following year as the Five Point Ampathiter with a capacity of 12,280. It is owned by FivePoint real estate developer and operated by concert promoter LiveNation.

Before the game I walked around the Great Park in Irvine & was really windy, the helium balloon was not flying at the time but did later when the match started. The park hosts numerous sports fields for all levels of competition, yesterday, especially soccer. 

At the Championship Stadium, they have a strict bag policy since they use X-ray detectors as they do at Angel Stadium. The stadium opened in 2017 for OCSC, with a capacity of 5,000, there was an attendance of the match was 4,616 fans according to ESPN. Orange County SC’s mascot is Gnarly, an Orange surf-themed monster, as a tribute to the OC surf culture. Taqueria Hoy had a Cinco De Mayo deal of chicken tacos for a dollar each! It was delicious!

The OCSC supporters were in the general admission section where I sat, off to the right, who also shot off celebratory smoke flares at the beginning, mid, and goals of the matches. The away stands were packed with San Diego fans who continually had their soccer supporter chants for most of the match, and they were on the opposite side of the field from the bleachers where the OCSC supports were trying to counter-chant. It seemed to work for San Diego got two goals by the end of the first half. I got great photos from my seats and going around the stadium, including the balloon as well, and it even looks like the moon during the lunar eclipse. 

I left five minutes before the end of regulation since I had work at 7 am the next morning. When I got to the car, I heard the announcer in the distance that there were 15 minutes of stoppage time, which is additional clock time due to a fight during that match that took up time. When I was just about to drive out of the parking lot, OC got a goal! However, it was not enough and they lost 1-2 to San Diego when I got back to Anaheim. At the same time frame as the soccer match, the Los Angeles Angels lost to the Texas Rangers, 1-10. Not a good night for Orange County sports, oh well.  

It was a fun experience to go to since the feeling of matches is different from baseball & hockey games here in Anaheim and is a more intimate setting where you don’t need binoculars to see where the soccer ball is. Unfortunately, Orange County SC currently only has one win out of nine matches so far this season, hopefully, things will improve with the new coach.