Rangers loanees powerless as Gers partner fall to opening day defeat

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Rangers loanees Rhys Breen and Jack Thomson were powerless to stop the Gers’ American partner club Orange County SC falling to defeat on the opening day of the 2021 USL Championship season as the Ibrox youngsters wait for the chance to make their debuts Stateside.

After their move to the US was confirmed the pair weren’t named in the squad as their new side lost 1-0 to Tacoma Defiance at Cheney Stadium yesterday thanks to a goal from Alfonso Ocampo-Chavez in the first half.

There were six new faces in the OCSC side from the end of last season as Patrick Rakovsky, Brent Richards, Tommy McCabe, Chris Wehan, Ronaldo Damus and Adam Jahn made their first competitive appearance for Braeden Cloutier’s side, while ex-Ger Rob Kiernan played the full 90 minutes for Orange County.

Cammy Palmer and Danny Finlayson both spent time with OCSC last year but saw their time in California disrupted by the Covid pandemic forcing the 2020 season to be halted early.

The American side are next in action this weekend, when they will host Sacramento Republic in their first home game of the season hosting a Republic have won their first two games of the season.

Both of these teams will fancy themselves as title contenders so it will be interesting to see whether Breen or Thomson are involved for the first time.

After spending time out on loan already this season, they could be given a short break before getting properly involved with their new team-mates and looking to impress in the second tier of the American system.

In other news, the scenes in Glasgow on Saturday night were shameful but ‘othering’ of Rangers fans equally troubling