Roots fans, it is game day once again! After an exciting league match on Saturday, and an exciting but disappointing mid-week road match in the Open Cup on Tuesday, the Roots continue their road trip with a road trip to Albuquerque to face New Mexico United at 6:00 p.m. Pacific at Isotopes Park. The Roots are hosting a watch party at Tiger’s Taproom, which strikes me as an odd choice that may not be conducive to watching a game.
New Mexico United
After a down year, when New Mexico squeaked into the playoffs at 8th with a +2 goal-differential (losing 1-0 away at Sac in the first round), New Mexico have rebounded and sit fourth in the western conference behind only Sac, Orange County, and Monterey Bay, the latter two of which they could catch with a win in their game in hand. New Mexico has a 1-0 win over Pittsburgh Riverhounds and a 1-0 win over Phoenix Rising, both perfectly respectable results. United’s two losses are 3-0 and 4-0 road hammerings by Tampa Bay Rowdies and Charleston Battery, respectively. They have a 1-1 draw against an abysmal Rhode Island team, and otherwise their wins are over teams you’d expect the to beat–El Paso, North Carolina, and Vegas.
I have not linked them, but I watched the Tampa Bay highlights. Rowdies win this game in the first 16 minutes. First, a corner that New Mexico just doesn’t clear, resulting in a lot of defenders watching Cal Jennings slam the rebound home. Second, a poor attempt to play out of the back allows Manuel Arteaga to steal the ball and shoot a low cross into Cal Jennings, who tucks it away under significant pressure. The highlights include only a single offensive play by New Mexico, and it’s not even a great attack, although it results in a shot just wide of the post, it just happens to be what was happening when the final whistle went.
Last weekend, New Mexico traveled to Las Vegas (who entered the game 1-0-3 since beating the Roots, the only team against which they have scored multiple goals <belabored sigh>)
Daniel Bruce put up two in the first 30 minutes, the first a nice move and finish on a tricky bit of interplay in the box, and the third a banger from 25 yards. Vegas got one back on a quick counterattack, and New Mexico wasted a chance to ice the game in the 50th on a penalty that you just have to watch (5:40-ish mark in the youtube link).
Midweek, New Mexico United beat Real Salt Lake, the dumbest-named of all MLS teams, in the US Open Cup Round of 32. Even though Real Salt lake played a number of guys from their second team or the cusp of their first team, you still have to hand it to New Mexico for winning 4-2. Unfortunately, I cannot find highlights of this match.
New Mexico have scored 9 and conceded 12, although 7 conceded came in just two matches. So it’s like they have a pretty good defense except when they’re playing against good offenses.
Roots’ Form
Uh, get back to us on this? The San Antonio game was pretty good and encouraging, which I discussed in the preview for the San Jose match. The San Jose match was mixed.
Through halftime, I think the teams were pretty even, with the Roots arguably the better side. The Roots did better at playing the ball through midfield than they have in the past, and that was partially accomplished by changing the formation. Justin Rasmussen played as a right-sided midfielder ahead of Bryan Tamacas playing as a standard right back. The left side was Memo Diaz at left back behind ???. Unfortunately, the Roots still struggled to turn possession in the opponent’s half into possession in the opponent’s box, and commensurately, shots on target and goals. Still, they did start creating some chances, and weren’t quite unlucky not to score, but you wouldn’t have called it luck if one of their chances had gone in. The second half was a different story. San Jose started putting on subs, and I think the base-line athleticism of San Jose’s players started to come good. I think Glinton waited too long to make his first changes, and San Jose was able to just hold the ball in the Roots’ third and probe until soemthing happened. Eventually a mediocre chance for San Jose caught the inside of the far post and bounced in. Very shortly thereafter Johnny made a stupid mistake and earned himself a red card (meaning he’ll miss the El Farolito match you should have already penciled in for next April). That basically did it for the Roots.
Even though San Jose played a lot of youth, they did not really take over the game until subs started coming on, and those subs included Jackson Yueill, who despite some questionable form this season, is a 16-time capped US national team player with 184 MLS appearances at age 27. I think the Roots’ quality of performance against San Jose earns at least a draw and probably a win against almost any USL team.
Lineup and Score Predictions
Bloom
The Roots’ social media posts of travel to New Mexico, as of Friday night, do not show Dom Dwyer among the traveling group, but they only show 4-5 players (including very few players I have picked in my lineup), so it might not mean anything. Whether Dwyer will start if the question plaguing as many as dozens of us, as well as New Mexico’s advance scout/hotdog cannon operator.
This is sorta where Rasmussen played against San Jose and I cannot see dropping him. I think he was our best player in that game.
I’m ready for a win. 1-0 Roots.
Jon
I’m not sure what to expect this week. Will Roots put out a 3-5-2 graphic, or will it be the 4-4-2 diamond like was deployed against San Jose. My personal preference would be Camden Riley in for Cedeño to provide more of a flat 4-4-2, but Jeciel provides some attacking stability.
Roots, 2-nil.
Aaron
The search to find a midfielder who can play the ball from a deeper position may be reaching its conclusion now that we’ve moved Rasmussen into that role. He’s been nigh undroppable recently, and the only reasons he’s not obviously first on the team sheet are (1) Paul Blanchette, and (2) we have like 23 defenders vying for 5 spots, but only approximately 3 attacking-type players vying for the other 5. Like my compatriots, I will pencil Dwyer in for a start, knowing full well it ain’t happening.