It’s a west coast trip for the boys in amber and blue as RIFC travel to sunny Irvine, California to take on Orange County SC on Saturday night. It’ll be a late one for us with a 10pm kickoff. RIFC are coming off a 2-0 loss in Pittsburgh while Orange County lost 3-2 to Las Vegas Lights last time out. Here’s what to watch out for from both sides heading into the game:

To paraphrase the great lyricist Robert Plant, RIFC are taking a big jet plane and going to California with an aching in their heart (yeah sorry, I had to make a music reference on one of these blogs eventually)

In this case, the ache comes from the 2-0 loss last time out at Pittsburgh. We’ve been over that game plenty with our postmatch pod, player ratings, and my blog. So it’s about time we move on, both for us supporters and for the team. I’ve already forgotten that game happened and look, so has Khano:

Speaking of Khano, I’m going to get right to the point with our starting 11. I want to see Frank Nodarse back in defense, likely replacing Grant Stoneman. The rest depends on if Jojea Kwizera is back and ready to go from international duty. If he’s ready to go, I’d like us to go back to Jack P and Fuson as number 10s with Albert Dikwa up front. If not, the best option is probably putting Fuson out wide again and starting JJ Williams next to Dikwa.

This shuffling around highlights a depth issue that we haven’t been able to address. We don’t have a like-for-like replacement for either of our wingbacks. This hasn’t been a huge deal so far, as we have pushed Fuson and Clay Holstad into those positions when need be. But we didn’t look great without Kwizera last game. And we’re likely to miss him again next month for another international call up. It’s just a hard thing to manage when you’re in the business end of the season.

It’s been a roller coaster of a season so far for Orange County. They are now on their 3rd coach this season with Danny Stone currently in charge. I’m going to attempt to get the timeline right here. Manager Morten Karlsen left the club in June to take a position back in his home country of Denmark. Paul Hardyman would then take over as coach. Hardyman was an internal hire, as he had worked with the Orange County academy. Stone then came in as an assistant on August 8th after having been fired by Phoenix Rising earlier this season. Just a few weeks later, Stone was announced as the new head coach for the remainder of the season. Saturday night’s game will be only his 2nd in charge with Orange County. We can count ourselves lucky that we haven’t had to go through a coaching carousel like this and that RIFC stuck with Khano Smith through some early struggles.

Through all of this, Orange County currently find themselves only 3 points out of the 8th and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. And they are in that position despite going winless over their last 6 games. Orange County only have 1 point from that stretch, drawing once and losing the other 5 games. They also went 5 straight games without scoring before getting 2 in their 3-2 loss to Las Vegas last time out. Needless to say, it’s been a dismal run of form. Orange County are hoping that Danny Stone can turn this around and help them make a playoff push.

As for players to look out for, as usual I went to check out who is getting the goals for our opposition. In Orange County’s case, it’s Ethan Zubak, who leads the team with 6. Zubak had a brace in his last game, so the addition of Stone as full time coach seems to be paying dividends. I would also keep an eye out for forward Thomas Amang. Orange County have been plagued by injuries this season and Amang is one of the many players who has missed significant time. He returned to play about 15 minutes in their last game and is the 2nd leading goal scorer for Orange County with 5. If Amang isn’t ready to start then he might be used as an impact sub, especially if his team needs a late goal.

Well, we’re going to try

RIFC are currently sitting 7th in the Eastern Conference after Birmingham Legion won their midweek game against Tampa Bay Rowdies 2-0. It’s still a very congested table with 6 points separating 4th and 10th. Given that we’re not in a great position when it comes to tiebreakers, all I have to say is this:

I feel like we’re going to be really sweating it out over the next month and a half or so. Teams are going to be changing spots every week and we’ll just have to see how it all shakes out. If you want a deeper look at the playoff picture, Timmy put together a fantastic look in his aptly titled “USL Eastern Conference Playoff Picture“.

I’ll cut right to the chase: 3-1 RIFC. You might say this is a little too optimistic given our previous game. And to that I say, “What previous game?” Our 2-0 win against Birmingham Legion? Because as far as I’m concerned right now, that was the last game we played. Did you even read the blog up until this point?

Anyway, I think we get the win here for a couple of reasons. Orange County has struggled lately and are now adjusting to a new coach. They also have some players coming back from injury. This is of course a good thing for them, but it does take a little bit of time to reintegrate the players into the squad.

As for us, we all know how well we can play. We’ve shown it at points this season. And if we’re serious about making a run here and being a tough out in the playoffs, we need to start to win games like this. I’m looking for a big game here from Jack Panayotou. I think he can get a goal and an assist. We’ve raved about how important he can be for this team and it’s about time now that he shows it and helps lead us to a decisive win. I can’t wait for Saturday night where we can hopefully celebrate a big win. UP THE TIDE!