Roots fans it’s game day! Roots head to San Antonio for a 5:30 p.m. Pacific Time match against fifth place San Antonio F.C. I suspect anyone heading to the game already knows where it is, so for the rest of you, catch it on KTVU Plus, ESPN+, or at the official watch party at Todos Cantina.
The Roots are on uncertain footing going into this match. Gavin Glinton took over this week as interim manager following the firing of Noah Delgado. Glinton has never had a head-coaching role, but has 3.5 seasons on the sideline as an assistant, mostly with the Roots. Glinton worked with Jordan Ferrell at the Sacramento Republic academy in 2017-19. Notwithstanding the two wins, the Roots are in some of their worst form since 2021, but there is hope on the horizon in the form of their highest profile signing ever, and the return of some veteran players from suspension. All of this comes as the Roots travel away to San Antonio, even as fans already have their eyes on Tuesday’s clash with the San Jose Earthquakes.
San Antonio F.C.
San Antonio are not off to as good a start as usual, which gives the Roots the perfect opportunity to steal some points on the road.1 San Antonio started the season with four straight games in which they scored two goals, earning two wins and two draws. Draws with Loudoun and Rowdies are mixed, wins over Switchbacks and Monterey are nothing to write home about. They then lost away to Las Vegas lights and drew 0-0 at home to Orange County.
San Antonio traveled to Hartford and got a big win on the road. The opener in the 7th was a clean header from Machop Chol assisted by Lucas Silva. Marcus Epps pulled one back in the 28th placing the ball wide of the keeper under significant pressure from Mitch Taintor. Both teams had some chances of varying quality. The tie was broken open on a really lousy own goal. Shannon Gomez played a good cross into the box but the Hartford defender had the jump on his man and perplexingly headed it down and directly into his own goal. Luis Solignac, making his return to San Antonio after a season in Chile and three seasons in El Paso, got the insurance goal converting a penalty in the 85th for a pretty weak foul in the box.
After a strong performance in Hartford, San Antonio played last week against bottom-of-the-East Miami in front of a crowd of dozens. Oh look, it’s Danny Barbir! In a polo for some reason.
Luke Haakenson’s opener was a leaping volley into the top corner, which the color commentator had the gall to say the keeper could have done more with. Miami equalized in the 24th when the San Antonio keeper saved a low shot but couldn’t keep the ball under control, allowing an alert Miami forward to poke the ball home. That stadium PA announcer gives it an unnecessarily long “golazo” for a ball that was basically a mistake.2 Miami’s eventual winner came on a classic USL passage of play: Lawrence has the defenders beat and a good pass will allow him one-on-one; the ball is not good and he has to pull up, allowing three defenders to get between him and the goal; he durdles around to the right a little bit; no defenders follow him; he beats the keeper at the far post with a low shot. Honestly, I think the passage of play might have had negative xG.
Players to Watch
Machop Chol #50 – What a name. Chol is a 25-year-old native of Khartoum, Sudan, who came to America as an infant and grew up in suburban Atlanta. Chol played at Wake Forest before signing a homegrown contract with Atlanta United. He got 32 appearances in MLS but not very many minutes, and only found the back of the net twice over three seasons. This past offseason they let him go and San Antonio scooped him up. At 6’2″, with several appearances for the South Sudan National Team, you can see how as a marginal MLS players he could really thrive with a competent USL team like San Antonio. He has one goal in 175 minutes for San Antonio so far this season.
Jorge Hernandez #10 – The Roots have been plagued by Jorge Hernandez since he was the most talented player on Los Dos in 2021, scoring 13 and assisting 5 in that season, including 2 goals and 1 assist against Oakland. Hernandez tried to make it work in the Belgian Pro League in 22-23, but ultimately returned to USL, where in 2023 he scored two and assisted TEN for San Antonio. Despite SA’s slow start to 2024, Hernandez already has four assists in eight matches played. He’s only 23, and the one positive to him likely getting better is that an MLS team might decide that Galaxy were wrong to let him go. Probably won’t happen before the Roots’ game, though.
Mitchell Taintor #3 – A centerback has to be pretty special to get featured here.3 John Morrissey ranks Taintor at the twelfth best player in the USL, one rung above Paul Blanchette. Taintor never quite made the real jump to MLS out of the Toronto academy, but found success when he moved to Sacramento Republic. He split 2021 between Sac and San Antonio, but has otherwise been a mainstay of San Antonio’s backline since 2020. He scored an impressive 5 goals in 2022 and 3 in 2023. His name is funny.
Roots’ Form
nah.
Here’s a link to the liveblog from the Switchbacks game if you want to be unhappy.
Here’s a link to Jon’s article about Noah getting sacked.
Remember we signed a striker and we’ll see him soon, if not this weekend. Also Hack and Gagi are back. The cavalry is very gradually arriving.
Lineup and Score Predictions
Bloom
I think Jon may be right below. It will be fun to see what the kids can do, as long as you’re not counting on getting three points. As Rog Bennett would say, “not in the face.”
2-0 San Antonio.
Jon
This is some mighty guesswork, but I have a hunch that Oakland Roots and Gavin Glinton are prioritizing Tuesday’s match against San Jose. With that, there’s going to be some kids in the mix. Up top, I’m going Chery and Reid in order to keep Johnny Rodriguez and Dom Dwyer rested. At the CAM spot, I’m going Etsgar with Ali Elmasnaouy and Danny Gomez behind him in the midfield. At wingback, I’m going Rasmussen and Memo on opposite sides. My back line is Camier at LCB, Gagi central, and Alekseev at RCB.
Roots score early and hold on for dear life, 1-0 win.
Aaron
As I said on the pod, I think one goal of the new regime should be getting as many of the defenders on the field at one time as is possible. This proposal leaves Gagi out, but obviously you want someone who can come in off the bench. Jon’s lineup prediction also raises some intriguing possibilities: we have central defenders on whatever the academy/pro contract hybrid thing Roots use is. Jon drops Camier into his lineup, but there’s two other fellas on the website we haven’t really seen much of. I think once Roots get their goal and start protecting a lead, we should employ some sort of Maginot Line of central defenders, like 6 or 7 across at the back. Then you can drop your fullbacks in where the central mids, attacking mids, and wingers normally go. Chery seems destined to come on at the 80th minute here, so if you’ve got a sub left, put him up top. 1-0 Roots.
I’ve never seen snark used as a tool to get people to read the footnotes before. I vote for putting that snark up where it is easier to read…..