California Clash ends in disappointment for the Loyal

On July 27th, the Loyal played against the Champions League regulars Borussia Dortmund. The test of playing against some the top players in the world came at the cost of a 6-0 defeat. But the Loyal seemed to benefit from the experience putting together a 2-0 win against the Colorado Springs Switchbacks where the Loyal put together a 88% pass completion display. The performance maintained the teams 3 game winning streak in league play. The were also confident headed into Saturday’s match against Orange County SC having not lost to OCSC since October 2021.

The game started with the Loyal on the front foot dominating the first five minutes in possession making OCSC drop into their own half. In the 8th minute, SD Loyal goalie Koke Vegas displayed his excellent distribution sending a pass to the head of Adrien Perez who was able to flick it forward into the path of Evan Conway. Conway chopped back onto his left foot and curled a wonderful strike into the left side of Orange County’s goal.

As game continued, the Loyal sat back slightly forcing a couple of mistakes from the Orange County’s Center Backs as they tried to play out. The only OC players that seemed to have any intention about their play was midfielder Kyle Scott and ex SD Loyal striker Thomas Amang. Both were able to push play out of their half but ended up not causing any real problems as the game went to halftime.

As the teams returned from half, the Loyal made one swap by taking out right midfielder Adrien Perez who had played well in the first 45 minutes aside from giving up possession in the Loyals 18 yard box.

Orange County looked a lot more decisive on the ball to start the second half and were able to spring a ball over the top to their #10 Brian Iloski chopped it back, just like Conway had done for the loyal, and laid a nicely weighted ball into the path of Thomas Amang. Amang placed a shot perfectly of the right post to even the score. Amang refrained from celebrating putting his hands up showing respect to his old club.

Amang continued to stand out the rest of the game with excellent hold up play as he was able to draw multiple fouls and retain possession for his side. Then in the 78th minute Amang was able to pounce on a loose ball in the box and fired a shot pass Vegas to put OCSC up 2-1.

As the Loyal began to take more chances to tie up the game in the closing minutes, they threw more players into the box causing a lot of chaos. Following a question for a penalty Orange County gained back possession with both Loyal centre backs over the halfway line giving Korede Osundina a clear path to seal the game in stoppage time.

A disappointing loss for the Loyal as they drop behind Orange County by one point with 2 games in hand. With a little over a third of the season to play the Loyal will look to bounce back against Loudoun United a team that has struggled this season.