The Swope Park Rangers (9-7-6, 6th place) will face Orange County SC (11-6-5, 2nd place) at 9 p.m. CT on Saturday inside Champions Soccer Stadium at OC Great Park in Irvine, California.
The USL Week 21 match-up sees two Western Conference playoff contenders back in action after mid-week draws and produces a highly-anticipated rematch of SPR’s home loss to Orange County SC last month. Danish World Cup veteran Thomas Enevoldsen scored one of his league-leading 12 goals on the season in that meeting to go along with strikes from Michael Seaton, Giovanni Ramos Godoy and Aodhan Quinn in an emphatic 4-0 victory for the visitors.
Orange County SC continues to boast the best goal difference (+21) in all of the USL as the Western Conference leaders with the most goals scored (40) and fewest goals conceded (19). Honduran national team goalkeeper Luis Lopez is unbeaten in four starts since being acquired on loan from MLS affiliate LAFC as Orange County also bolstered their backline with the additions of former MLS All-Star Kevin Alston and English Premier League veteran Jos Hooiveld.
The Orange County roster also includes a pair of Sporting KC Academy products and former SPR teammates in Joe Amico and Christian Duke. The 27-year-old Duke captained SPR to back-to-back USL Cup appearances and now leads an Orange County SC squad under head coach Braeden Cloutier, a fellow Kansas native.
The Rangers are coming off a 1-1 draw against LA Galaxy II on Wednesday highlighted by Hadji Barry’s eighth goal of the season and Adrian Zendejas’ second-half penalty save to preserve the road result. However, Barry and head coach Paulo Nagamura were sent off in the waning minutes of the match and both will now miss Saturday’s showdown with Orange County SC while serving mandatory one-game suspensions.
SPR will look to snap a five-game winless stretch on Saturday and in doing so gain the upper hand in an all-time series that stands at 2-2-1 in five previous meetings with Orange County SC. Saturday’s match will be streamed live on ESPN+ and in-game updates will also be available via the USLsoccer.com Match Center.
Game 23 of 34
Date: Saturday, August 4, 2018
Kickoff: 9:00 p.m. CT
Location: Champions Soccer Stadium (Irvine, Calif.)
Swope Park Rangers: 9-7-6 (33 points, 6th place in Western Conference)
MLS Affiliate: Sporting Kansas City
Orange County SC: 11-6-5 (38 points, 2nd place in Western Conference)
MLS Affiliate: Los Angeles FC
Game Notes: Click here
BROADCAST INFORMATION
Live Stream: ESPN+
SOCIAL TAGS
Game-specific hashtag: #OCvSPR
Swope Park Rangers
Twitter: @SwopeRangers
Instagram: @SwopeParkRangers
Orange County SC
Twitter: @OrangeCountySC
Instagram: @OrangeCountySoccer
