Oakland Soul host Olympic Club for Soul’s home opener and home debut at CSU East Bay in Hayward California at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 13, the first match of a double-header with the Roots-OCSC match. The match will be on KTVU Plus. Soul got their season off to a hot start, and are looking to continue their winning ways.
Olympic Club
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. I feel like there’s an age of an institution where you’ve moved out of “wow you have stood the test of time” and into “wow I bet you didn’t let women or people of color in.” Anyway, a lawsuit agrees with that assumption. 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 because there is no roster, no twitter account, and no online presence. The USL W website list of clubs hyperlinks to the Olympic Club website main page. This is also Olympic Club’s first match, so we don’t have a last match to tell you about. I have nothing.
Soul Form
Perfect!
| Date | Opponent | Result | GF | GA |
| 5/6 | at Stockton | W | 3 | 2 |
| 5/13 | vs. Olympic Club | |||
| 5/28 | vs. Academica | |||
| 6/1 | vs. Stockton Cargo | |||
| 6/4 | vs. California Storm | |||
| 6/8 | at California Storm | |||
| 6/11 | at SF Glens | |||
| 6/14 | at Academica | |||
| 6/18 | vs. Pleasanton RAGE | |||
| 6/21 | at Olympic Club | |||
| 6/25 | at Marin FC Sirens | |||
| 7/2 | vs. SF Glens |
I was thinking about making the drive down to Stockton for this game, but decided I’d rather spend the weekend with family up in Auburn since the game would be on tv anyway. What a buffoon. An absolute dupe.
So I can’t tell you much about what happened in this game. Jon Comeaux wrote the game up here.
Soul announced their lineup in this formation:
This tweet has video to Nayeli Diaz scoring the Soul’s first goal.
Soul picked up two more on a brace by Cecilia Gee.
Match Predictions
Wayne
“I think a reasonable guess is Soul 4, Olympic Club 2?”
Tal
“I wish I watched them last weekend! I had a tattoo appointment and couldn’t go to the match.”
Jesse
“Coach wasn’t lying when she talked about attacking style! Expect the same this week, and I’m calling a brace for Nayeli Diaz. There will probably be a few defensive miscues as players get settled, so no clean sheet. 4-1 Soul”
Súper Ensalada
“5-0 Soul blow out! Ceci brace part 2!!”
Jon
I think this match could potentially show the disparity at the top of the USL W League. I’m curious to see the level of talent on Olympic Club’s roster, the age-range of its players, and whether they have current or former Division 1 talent. They have an amazing coach in JT Hanley, who is an 8-time Central Coast Section champion at Archbishop Mitty, so I’m sure they’ll at least be well-coached. I think Oakland will be too much for them, I’m going with something like a 6-1 Soul victory.
Aaron
5-3 Soul.