OC Blues end five-match winless streak
IRVINE — The formula for success for the OC Blues FC always seems to involve Didier Crettenand in some way or another.
It had been a while since the OC Blues last won and it had been a while since Crettenand last scored a goal. The midfielder got back into the action on Saturday, scoring twice, including the game-winning goal to lift the OC Blues past the Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2, 3-2, earning the club’s first win in a little more than six weeks.
The result was a much-needed one for the OC Blues, which had four losses and a tie in the previous five matches. The past two contests the OC Blues failed to find the back of the net.
Crettenand ended the OC Blues’ scoreless and winless streaks, notching his fourth game-winner. The goal came on a penalty kick in the 42nd minute, capping a high-scoring first half for the 778 fans at UC Irvine.
The first half featured all five goals. The first two goals belonged to the OC Blues (6-6-1, 19 points), which moved from ninth to sixth place in the Western Conference of the United Soccer League, a third-division professional league in North America.
Six minutes in, Christofer Ramirez sent the ball toward the goal, where goalkeeper Spencer Richey was protecting the near post. Richey deflected the ball toward his right and it found Crettenand near the far post, and he drilled it with his left foot.
Shortly afterward, Ramirez produced the goal, the striker’s sixth of the year, from the top of the box. Christopher Santana had the assist off a cross, and the hosts appeared in control with a 2-0 lead. The last time the OC Blues scored the first two goals in a match was on May 3, when they prevailed at the Portland Timbers 2.
The two-goal advantage wouldn’t hold up. The Whitecaps 2 evened things up.
Striker Caleb Clarke, on loan from Major League Soccer’s Vancouver Whitecaps FC, found the back of the net in the 32nd minute. His sixth goal came on a one-on-one situation against keeper Pepe Miranda, who was in a tough spot after Brett Levis fed a nice ball to Clarke inside the box. Clarke attacked from the left side and used his right foot to hit the ball toward the far post, cutting the deficit in half.
Three minutes later, Levis tied it at 2-2. The midfielder took a pass in stride from Marco Bustos, who was near midfield. Levis dribbled from the left side, before taking on a defender while cutting across the top of the box, where he unleashed a shot that Miranda only could get a glove on, seeing it deflect in for the equalizer.
Just like that the momentum shifted toward Vancouver (4-8-4), which was looking for its second straight win and ruin the first of two straight home matches for the OC Blues. The OC Blues play host to OKC Energy FC (7-4-3) on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
The only mistake before the end of the first half came when Vancouver’s Ian Christianson took down Ryan Felix in the box after an OC Blues corner. Feliz drew the OC Blues’ first penalty kick of the season, and Crettenand put it away in the 42nd minute, striking it to his left to put the OC Blues back on top.
Crettenand, who last recorded a goal on May 30, in a 1-1 tie against the Seattle Sounders 2, finished the night with his first two-goal performance of the season. The effort helped the OC Blues get back into the playoff hunt, as well as get a win for the first time since May 13.