Oakland Roots’ claimed its second win in a row last Friday with its 1-nil victory over FC Tulsa on the road. It was a game where Oakland’s positive streak ended two negatives, with the clean sheet marking its first since August 4 against Charleston and the win-streak becoming its first since winning three in a row in July of last year when beating Monterey, El Paso, and Las Vegas.
The victory brings Roots’ record to 4-2-6 through 12 matches and up to seventh place with 14 points. They are one point back of Orange County in fourth, but have played one more match. Eighth-place San Antonio has one game in hand on Roots and are equal on points, while ninth-place Colorado Springs has 13 points and two games in hand.
Oakland’s goal in the 20th minute came when Trayvone Reid received a quick throw in by Justin Rasmussen, then ran down the sideline like a tightrope before squaring a pass to Baboucarr Njie, who’s shot bounced between him and a defender before laying up perfectly for Miche-Naider Chéry. The tall Haitian striker caught the ball perfectly out of the area, rocketing in the right-footed shot.
Following the early score, defense is what ultimately got the job done for Roots. Tulsa had the better side of possession with 58 percent of the ball, while cranking out 18 shots on the night and eight corners. However, just three of those shot attempts went on target for the home side while Oakland’s defense blocked eight shots.
Gagi Margvelashvili made a huge slide tackle in the ninth minute when Stefan Stojanovic had an open look at net, he had another block on Patrick Seagrist in the 26th. Later in the first half, Neveal Hackshaw blocked a longshot from Justin Portillo right before halftime at 45+2′.
Oakland had a pair of blocked shots in the 60th minute when Tulsa was looking dangerous in the box. Memo Diaz got a foot in to initially block Blaine Ferri at the top of the box. The ball fell to Stojanovic, who was targeting the right post on the volley, but Neveal Hackshaw was there to block the shot.
Then at in the seventh of nine minutes of second-half stoppage time, Roots’ defense came up its largest. After Stojanovic scuffed a shot into Hackshaw, leading to Phillip Goodrum taking a straight shot at Gagi in the six-yard box. Margvelashvili jumped in front of a follow-up attempt by Goodrum, leading to a corner.
We named Paul Blanchette our RootsBlog Man of the Match for keeping the clean sheet and making big saves in the 37th and 65th minutes, but the defenders prevented a lot of dangerous looks from going his way.
Here are more talking points coming out of Friday’s match.
Paul The Wall performance
There might not be a more popular player on Oakland Roots and Paul “The Wall” Blanchette proved why on Friday night. Along with our Man of the Match award, he earned FotMob’s highest rating with a 7.7. He recorded three saves including two by dives and stopped two shots from inside the box, adding two high claims and nine recoveries.
His big save in the 37th when Owen Damm had a shot toward the right post, but Blanchette made the diving stop and held on to change possession. Then in the 65th, Paul The Wall made another huge diving save on Portillo’s shot from atop the box.
With the help of solid defense in front of him, Blanchette also stayed in good position to hop on dangerous passes to shut things down. He made a claim of a free kick in the 67th minute, then made an easy stop of a header by Bradley Bourgeois in the 82nd.
Adding some shithousery, Blanchette took a bow in front of the Tulsa supporters in second-half stoppage time before yelling in their direction at the final whistle.
An identity forming?
Perhaps the largest credit we can bestow to interim head coach Gavin Glinton is that an identity appears to be forming for the first time all season. Glinton has harped on cultural and systematic changes he was looking to instill upon his promotion to the interim role, noting intensity and making difficult choices for opponents.
“We like to play with a lot of intensity and we like to be proactive,” Glinton said during his first interview following their U.S. Open Cup loss to San Jose. “We want to get on the ball and we want to force the opposition into making difficult choices. We want to be the ones pushing the game. We’ve got some way to get there, but you can see some of the strides we started to make tonight and I thought we did that in the first half against a very good team. We want to be the ones who are proactive and pushing the game with intensity.”
Now, that is mostly coach-talk from Glinton, but the last two wins have featured some common trends. It’s a team that’s pressing on all level of the field, then getting compact once the opposing attack gets into their defensive third–evident by the amount of blocks recorded against Tulsa.
“We talked about more focus, attention to detail, and attention to quality. I think just making sure we continue to fight and have that in us from minute one to minute 90… But its mostly continuing to build on what we’ve been doing and tighten up in some certain detail areas,” Glinton said following the win over Orange County the previous week.
A big gripe under Noah Delgado was the team lacked a clear identity and there wasn’t comfortability at any portion of the field. Under Glinton, Roots are hounding the other team to force difficult passes and turnovers in dangerous areas.
It’ll be interesting to see how Roots’ operate in its upcoming match against Colorado Springs, which will already put a wrap to the season-series between the two. Their 2-nil loss to COS on April 27 put an end to Delgado’s time with the club, where Oakland struggled to create anything offensively and Switchbacks largely hard their way with 15 shots and six on target.
Things are looking better for Oakland a month later, but Colorado Springs will be a tough test having won four league matches in a row.
Trayvone & Chéry’s big game
There’s always a common phrase athletes at any level, “stack days.” For Trayvone Reid and Miche-Naider Chéry, it marked the second consecutive game they came away extremely very impressive.
Although Njie was credited for the assist on Chéry’s goal, it should’ve gone to Reid after his phenomenal run down the sideline before centering a pass. He made a lot of work being the spark for a lot of attacks, making many runs and progressive passes from midfield.
His heatmap shows that he took 11 touches around midfield, showing how he was tasked to hold-up the ball or make individual runs. Before going off relatively early in the 63rd minute, Reid may have been Roots’ most effective player.
Glinton commented on how Reid is beginning to “come into his own” following his productive game against Orange County. Now a second productive game in a row, it looks like Reid could become one of Glinton’s preferred choices.
“Tray is another one with fantastic talent, you can see he’s a handful going inside driving at people,” Glinton said. “I think he’s starting to come into his own as well, he’s starting to really see that belief and drive to get behind teams and make defenders have to deal with him. When Tray’s a problem like that, it makes the game easier for the rest of the team and we start to be really, really dangerous going forward.”
For Chéry, it was another strong day for the 26-year-old striker. After being signed as the heir apparent at striker for Roots, the Hattian forward is beginning to show the potential he was brought in for. It marked his second straight appearance after filling in for Johnny Rodriguez following his injury against Orange County.
“We know how raw he is and his potential but we’ve seen a lot of growth from him over the last few weeks in terms of his consistency and being much more difficult to defend,” Glinton said after the OC match on May 18. “He’s starting to attract the attention more than one defender, which frees up guys that can hurt underneath or one the wings. We just want to continue to have him develop and work on consistency is crucial for us.”
Chéry is a perfect example of what Glinton wants from his players. He clamps down with defensive effort and a highly active shift with consistent pressing, requiring a lot of energy, which could be a reason we haven’t seen Dom Dwyer yet. Glinton also praised his defensive work against Orange County.
“He pressured people as well on the defensive side… I think there’s a lot of ways we can hurt teams and I know we can do it. Credit to Miche, I don’t think he missed a beat,” Glinton said
Season passes the 1/3 mark
The blog’s Jack Morris gave Roots’ an assessment this week now that the season is passing the 1/3 mark at 12 of 34 games completed. It’s already been a season with some contention after Delgado’s firing, but Oakland is finally starting to show signs of life under Glinton.
As Jack mentioned, Glnton has changed formation shapes, tactics, and the “culture” on the field.
We now go into a difficult month of June with matches at Colorado Springs (June 1), hosting Tampa Bay Rowdies (June 8), visiting Sacramento Republic (June 15), hosting El Paso four days later (June 19), and road matches at Monterey (June 22) and Orange County (June 29). Taking points against the Western Conference foes will help shape the playoff outlook.