With the USMNT moving into Championship Soccer Stadium at Great Park to begin preparation for the FIFA World Cup, the Orange County Soccer Club moved Saturday’s home game to Santa Ana Stadium.
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OCSC made it a memorable night for the nearly 8,000 fans in attendance, defeating Oakland Roots 3-2. Ousmane Sylla scored the winning goal in the 87th minute.
“I would imagine that was an incredible game to watch from an excitement point of view,” OCSC coach Danny Stone said. “I’m hugely proud of the team tonight to come through and to get what was a massively important win for us and to keep us in a good spot in the table, but I think more than anything to give the crowd that came to watch us tonight the result that they deserved.
The win moved OCSC (5-2-4, 19 points) into second place in the USL Championship’s Western Conference.
OCSC took a 2-1 lead just after halftime on Stephen Kelly’s goal in the 52nd minute. Oakland tied it in the 58th minute on Peter Wilson’s goal.
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OCSC will play the next seven games on the road. The club will return to Great Park, Aug. 1.
“It’s so important when we play at home, wherever that is, it’s such an important factor in the team’s ability to try to give something back to a stadium and to a crowd and that energy is reciprocal for sure,” Stone said. “We felt that energy tonight, we felt the crowd tonight, and it was a great atmosphere.”
In the past, Santa Ana Stadium once hosted Bayern Munich in a friendly in 1966 against Orange County Soccer Club and against Club America in 1989 in front of a crowd of nearly 12,000, plus a friendly between USMNT and Chivas.
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