Hello and welcome to the blog’s live coverage of Oakland Soul hosting Olympic Club at Cal State University East Bay’s Pioneer Stadium to the first of today’s double-header. Oakland Roots and Soul front office expects a big attendance for Soul’s home debut and a big holdover to Roots’ match against Orange County later on.
In order to set USL W League’s regular-season attendance record, they’d have to surpass Minnesota Aurora FC’s 6,016 in June of last year. Aurora FC also hit 6,200 twice during its playoff run in 2022.
Oakland’s enter after a strong 3-2 debut win over Stockton Cargo and should be the heavy favorite against Olympic Club. As Bloom mentions in today’s preview, there’s no much we can decipher about the visiting private club from San Francisco. It’s not clear if Olympic Club’s roster is made of college athletes, children from multi-millionaires who pay the $20,000 membership, or former college athletes finding some competitive atmosphere away from their careers.
All I could after scouring Olympic Club’s LinkedIn is their head coach, JT Hanley, is among the most successful high school coaches in the Bay Area and an educator of nearly 40 years. Hanley’s been at Archbishop Mitty in San Jose for 16 years, winning eight Central Coast Section titles including 2018-2021 as Open Division champions–which is reserved for the best teams in the CCS region. He also won a North Coast Section title with Bishop O’Dowd in 2005 and taught at the Oakland school for 11 years.
Here’s an excerpt from Bloom’s preview:
Oh boy, it is not easy to find anything out about this team. Olympic Club are an actual athletic club, which gives them some European authenticity, but it also means they are extremely more interested in marketing their memberships than marketing their competitive teams. They advertise that they have existed for 160 years, which is one of those suspiciously long-term institutions that are obviously durable, but you assume that they excluded non-white folks. Google tells me membership is rumored to be $20,000 per year, which I guess buys you one hell of a natatorium. I assume that the USL W team is recruited from tryouts rather than membership, but it is frankly, extremely unclear.
Postgame Presser
Player of the Match
We named Kaytlin Brinkman our RootsBlog Player of the Match for scoring the game winner and being a frequent presence on the ball. She had 4 or 5 shots, clearly loves to shoot.
Key Events
- SOUL GOAL – 63′
Brinkman finally breaks through. Ball falls to her, lines up a shot to the right post.
- Oakland Soul Starting 11
Gee back up top with Tran to the left and Jones on the right. Diaz back in the 10 and Nild at left back. Excited to see what this team looks like now that they’ve had more time together.
- Olympic Club Starting 11
If we receive one….
Timeline
Game 1 of the double-header starts! Let’s see what Oakland Soul can do against the unknown private club of San Francisco elite.
Soul corner – early
Cleared out.
Ceci touch wide – 10′
Pass from Tran, shot on volley.
Olympic Club shot trrails wide – 14′
Olympic Club shot high – 16′
From distance, never a challenge.
Olympic Club corner – 20′
cleared.
Tran near shot on volley. Tough attempt, ball just loops up – 23′
Brinkman shot on target from 35 yards – 26′
Forces a corner, but cant do anything with it.
Tran shot from distance. Not a challenge – 31′
Olympic club longshot – 33′
Not a challenge.
Layla leaping save – 36′
Olympic corner. They keep the ball in zone, eventually sends a pass out the back.
Miranda nice pass to Jones, cant make square contact on shot – 42′
First half notes:
Olympic showing good form and able to limit shooting lanes. Soul’s shit by Brinkman is their best chance of the match thus far. Feels like they are on the brink, but need to show a bit better quality in the final third.
Tran shot high – 50′
Brinkman shot sails – 58′
Brinkman shot on target from distance – 59′
Soul corner – 60′
leads to nothing.
SOUL GOAL – 63′
Brinkman finally breaks through. Ball falls to her, lines up a shot to the right post.
Soul corner – 73′
leads to nothing.
Olympic Club free kick good area – 77′
Cleared out.
Jordan Geis sends a ball toward center, GK pounced on it – 79′
Layla diving save, easily handled. Shot to bottom left – 82′
Geis hits the post! Terrific bending shotb- 84′
Geis gets second chance, shoots and it gets pushed out by a corner on diving save.