Michael Orozco Fiscal (born February 7, 1986) is a retired American professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who played as a center-back.

Early life

Orozco grew up in

Anaheim, California Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States, part of the Greater Los Angeles area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orang ...

. His parents are originally from

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, and Michael joined the youth program of Mexican Primera A team San Luis in 2002.

Career

Professional

Michael Orozco made his professional debut for San Luis during the Apertura 2006 tournament, when he entered as a second-half substitute against

Tigres UANL Club Tigres de la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, abbreviated as Tigres UANL and simply known as Tigres or internationally as Tigres de México, is a Mexican professional Association football, football club based in the Monterrey metropo ...

, but was sent off after just two minutes. He played in 106 league matches for the club until its move to Chiapas. In January 2010, Orozco left San Luis to join MLS side

Philadelphia Union The Philadelphia Union are an American professional soccer club based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. Founded on February 28, 2008, the Union began ...

on loan. After one season, Philadelphia decided not to exercise its purchase option on Orozco and he returned to San Luis. Orozco was loaned to

Puebla Puebla, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Puebla, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its capital is Puebla City. Part of east-centr ...

for the 2013 Clausura. The move was extended the following summer. Orozco scored the first goal of his

career in a 2–1 loss to

Cruz Azul Club de Futbol Cruz Azul S.A. de C.V., commonly referred to as Cruz Azul, is a professional association football, football club based in Mexico City, Mexico. It competes in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football league system, Mexican footba ...

International

Orozco was called into numerous United States under-23 camps in preparation for the

2008 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying The 2008 CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying was the twelfth edition of the CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Championship, CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying, the quadrennial, international, age-restricted association football, football tournament or ...

Tournament. He helped the team qualify for the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

with stellar performances on defense. He was included in the Best XI of the 2008 CONCACAF Men's U23 Championship All-Tournament Team. On July 17, 2008, Orozco was named to the United States team for the 2008 Olympics in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. Orozco started all three matches for the United States. On August 13, 2008, Orozco received a

red card A red card is a type of penalty card that is shown in many sports after a rules infraction. Red card may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''Red Card'' (album), 1976 release by Streetwalkers * Red card, suit (cards) of hearts or di ...

in the third minute of the United States's 2–1 loss to

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

in the final group stage match of the 2008 Olympics for throwing an intentional elbow to the chest of Solomon Okoronkwo. The loss subsequently caused the United States to fail to advance from the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

. On August 28, 2008, Orozco was called up to his first full national team camp in preparation for 2010 World Cup qualifying matches against

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

and

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...

. On October 15, 2008, he debuted in the latter match, playing the full 90 minutes in a 2–1 loss. On August 10, 2011, he returned to the starting lineup in a friendly against

, a 1–1 draw. The match was the United States's first under newly appointed head coach

Jürgen Klinsmann Jürgen Klinsmann (; born 30 July 1964) is a German professional Association football, football manager and former player. He played for several prominent clubs in Europe including VfB Stuttgart, Inter Milan, AS Monaco FC, Monaco, Tottenham Hot ...

. On August 15, 2012, Orozco featured again against Mexico, scoring the lone goal in a 1–0 win for the United States, its first-ever away win over Mexico. The United States's all-time record in Mexico improved to 1–1–23, and Mexico suffered only its ninth loss in 120 matches at

Estadio Azteca Estadio Azteca () (officially known as Estadio Banorte for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium located in Coyoacán, Mexico City. It is the official home of football team Club América, as well as the Mexico national team. The stadium ...

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

:''Scores and results list United States goal tally first.''

Honors

Puebla *

Copa MX Copa MX, also known as Copa Corona MX for sponsorship reasons, was an association football competition in Mexico and the domestic cup tournament for clubs at the highest and second levels of Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Copa ...

: Clausura 2015 Orange County SC *

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a men's professional association football, soccer league in the second tier of the United States soccer league system#Men's leagues, United States league system. It is organized by the United Soccer League (USL) a ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

United States *

CONCACAF Gold Cup The CONCACAF Gold Cup () is an association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for men's senior national teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The tournament is held every two ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

References

External links

* *
U.S. Soccer player profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orozco, Michael 1986 births Living people American men's soccer players American sportspeople of Mexican descent Men's association football defenders Liga MX players Major League Soccer players San Luis F.C. players Philadelphia Union players Club Puebla players Club Tijuana footballers Orange County SC players Sportspeople from Orange, California Soccer players from Orange County, California Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic soccer players for the United States United States men's under-23 international soccer players United States men's international soccer players 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Copa América Centenario players CONCACAF Gold Cup–winning players American expatriate sportspeople in Mexico 21st-century American sportsmen