RootsBlog

It didn’t take long for Oakland Roots to make a decision following the 2-nil loss to Colorado Springs Switchbacks on Saturday, announcing they had officially parted ways with coach Noah Delgado the next day and named Gavin Glinton interim head coach. Delgado finishes his time as Roots’ manager with a 19-11-23 record, including most games in charge and most wins as a manager in the organization’s brief history.

One source described that the move as being deliberated throughout the week and said that a decision was already made prior to Saturday’s loss to Switchbacks. Over time, it had become clearer that Delgado had lost the confidence of the locker room, leading Roots’ board’s final decision.

Fans started becoming more vocal online in the last weeks with their displeasure over how things were being run. At the end of the 2023 season, we covered what Delgado returning to the team would mean. On that point, we thought it made more sense to turn a new way at head coach to build around before its possible move to the Coliseum in 2025, but a departure never came.

Now in 2024, Delgado’s continued a 20-game streak without a clean sheet from last year. As the season dragged on to a 2-1-5 record over the first eight games, including four matches without a goal, Oakland showed signs of regression instead of the progress they made under Noah’s first 25 games.

Delgado established an 11-6-8 record over the first 25 matches and had the squad at its peak in a third-place to start through August of last year. Over the last 26, Delgado compiled a 7-5-14 record with a -14 goal differential. Multiple sources confirm things became increasingly bleak around the locker room over the last two weeks, including visible friction between Delgado and other staff members.

Another sticking point in Roots’ decision, per source, was the amount of player discipline with four red cards over a four-game span. Starting with the fight against Monterey Bay with red cards to Neveal Hackshaw and Baboucarr Njie on April 6, Trayvone Reid was red carded against El Farolito on April 16, followed by Gagi Margvelashvili receiving a red card against Detroit City four days later. Oakland finally gets back Hackshaw and Njie for San Antonio.

It was also peculiar timing to fire a head coach just three days after making arguably the biggest signing in club history, veteran striker Dom Dwyer. However, a club source indicates Dwyer was already aware of the situation at head coach.

Although its unclear if there were necessary standards set for Delgado going into this season, things were not changing for the better in 2024. Without a clean sheet in 20 matches, one example of how things weren’t progressing is Paul Blanchette still being near the top of the league in saves. Right now, Blanchette ranks fourth in saves with 21 while his 14 goals allowed is tied for worst in the league.

As for Glinton, it’s unconfirmed if Roots will maintain him as interim head coach for the entire year, but that appears to be the expectation. As for whether Oakland will turn towards an outside option in the offseason, one source doesn’t expect Roots to make another internal hire for the lead job.

Should Roots hire an outside candidate, as anticipated, it will mark the organization’s seventh head coach in its history. The club becomes six-years-old in July.

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Most of Roots’ success up to this point has been off of the field, building a brand on social media as a community based organization. They far-and-away have the best apparel in the entire USL, are looking to build a permanent home in Oakland, provide new life to the Coliseum, and have made progress in the entire Bay Area as a community pillar.

But with sports, winning matters, and the on-field prosperity is still catching up after six years of effort.

Roots’ coaching position has been a spot of turmoil since the organization’s inception with six different coaches in as many years of activity. It’s a carousel of inconsistency that perfectly reflects the club’s inability to build a contending professional program.

In 2019, Paul Bravo was the team’s first manager in NISA and finished winless at 0-3-3. Technical director Jordan Ferrell then took over in the spring of 2020 prior to the pandemic, remaining head coach until entering his current position when joining the USL Championship in 2021.

Dario Pot, now an assistant coach at San Antonio, was hired as head coach in 2021 but fired just two weeks before the season started. Roots paid out the remainder of Pot’s contract and thrust Ferrell into the interim role. Roots finished 2021 with an 11-8-13 record and snuck into Pacific Division’s playoff spot, upsetting El Paso in the first round and taking eventual-champs Orange County to penalty kicks.

The following offseason, Roots landed on Juan Guerra as its head coach, announcing his arrival on December 30, 2021. But multiple sources have previously confirmed Guerra was the second-choice that offseason. Oakland originally offered Pah-Modou Kah when he won the Canadian Premier League Final with Pacific FC and was named the league’s Coach of the Year. Kah opted to join North Texas SC in 2022 and has been an assistant coach at Charlotte FC for the past two years.

Guerra then spurned the organization with nine games left in the 2022 season for Phoenix Rising’s vacant head coaching job. Delgado took over as interim head coach and went 5-1-3 to attain the final seventh seed, upsetting San Diego 3-nil in the first round on his way to landing the fulltime gig. Roots are now on the hook for the remainder of Delgado’s deal.

Roots’ personnel choices have been questionable as well. Former players have gone on to have success on other teams; Kai Greene (2021) is Monterey’s captain, Akeem Ward (2021-2022) has been at Memphis for two years, same with Matthias Fissore (2021-2022) at Atlético de Rafaela in Argentina’s second division. Jeremy Bokila (2021) is second on Willem II in goals and on the verge of winning the Eerste Divisie championship to earn a promotion the Eredivisie in Holland. What made 2022’s success has been gutted, including starters Edgardo Rito, Charlie Dennis, Jose Hernandez, Juan Carlos Azocar, Darek Formella, Alejandro Fuenmayor, and Danny Barbir–not counting the instrumental loan of Ottar Magnus Karlsson.

With that amount of coaching and roster turnover, it’s no surprise Roots have struggled to find its footing in the USL Championship. Saturday’s attendance of just 3,430 at Pioneer Stadium has continued diminishing numbers in 2024, and if the losses continue piling up, that number might keep going down. Glinton has a tough task ahead in guiding Roots for the rest of the way.

But one thing is indisputable for Oakland Roots’ front office in 2024. This time around, it’ll require much more than a quick fix to change years of mistakes.