Oakland Roots suffered a 1-nil loss on the road at Colorado Springs Switchbacks, bringing its record to 4-2-7 and ninth place of the Western Conference to end the weekend. Switchbacks did their damage with a stunning goal in the second minute of action by Delentz Pierre, where he unloaded a shot from around five yards atop the penalty area.
It was a frustrating night for Oakland’s attack, recording nine shots in the first half without any on target, adding four more shots with two on target in the later going. Roots dominated possession with 61 percent of the ball and even took a total of 18 touches inside the opponent’s penalty area, but couldn’t convert on its looks.
Oakland had some looks. Justin Rasmussen nearly landed a pass to a pair of targets in the ninth minute. From the left side, he sent a long cross toward Miche-Naider Chéry, but his missed on a header. The ball fell in the direction of Camden Riley wide open in the six-yard box, but he also couldn’t connect.
Moments later in the 11th minute, Roots had a penalty call undone by the referees when Trayvone Reid’s pass from a free kick bounced off of Riley into Zach Zandi’s outstretched arm. Today’s game feels like there’s never a clear ruling on what is and what isn’t a handball, and after deliberation, officials ruled Zandi didn’t intentionally obstruct the play.
Perhaps Oakland’s best looks came in the later minutes of the second half. Reid had a header from in front of goal go wide in the 33rd, Bryan Tamacas sent a rocket toward Christian Herrera in the 37th, but the goal keeper tipped it out for a corner.
Reid nearly landed a beautiful curling shot from about five yards atop the penalty area in the 42nd minute, almost arcing into the top-right bin.
But in the second half, Oakland struggled to create anything meaningful. Perhaps the most notable moments were instances where Roots failed to take a shot, like when a counter attack in the 64th minute was killed when Reid played a poor pass straight to defender. Then in the 69th, Trayvone was making a good dribble into the box when 1-on-1 against Wahab Ackwei, but made a cutback move that ultimately went out for a goal kick.
Roots seemed to depend on the long balls out of the back for the duration of the second half, but was inconsistent on execution. It’s evident by the stats from Oakland’s pair of center backs, Neveal Hackshaw and Gagi Margvelashvili. Neveal finished with nine long balls completed out of 20 attempts (45 percent), while Margvelashvili was five of 12 (42 percent).
Here are more talking points coming out of Saturday’s match.
Trayvone Reid
Trayvone Reid continues to look like Oakland’s most dangerous players over the last five games or so. In fact, Reid appears to have solidified a starting role, having started the last six straight matches and has appeared in 11 of 13 games.
The majority of Oakland’s chances on Saturday were generated from the Jamaican forward. He could’ve had his header goal in the 33rd, smacked the crossbar later on, and was the focal point of counter-attacks in the second half. With each game, Reid is showing more frequently the player he was brought in to be. His four shot attempts, in fact, was a season-high and has taken multiple shot attempts in each of the last three games.
However, his 6.5 rating by FotMob is an indicator of some things he still needs to clean up. None of his four shots were on target, while he was 0/4 on dribble attempts when isolated against defenders. He also finished 1/4 on crosses and 1/7 on ground duels. His lack of clinical finishing came through on his missed header in the 33rd and failure to pick out a teammate on the counter attack in the 64th with Johnny Rodriguez and Lindo Mfeka running free on both sides.
Reid undoubtedly still needs to clean some things up, but he continues to show some promise on the field.
International Duty
Oakland Roots confirmed today that Bryan Tamacas and Koze Donasiyano are set to join their national teams for World Cup Qualifiers. Notably not included on his national team is Hackshaw, meaning he’ll be available for Roots going forward.
For Tamacas, who exited Saturday’s match at halftime, plays for El Salvador on June 6 against Puerto Rico, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on June 9, and then wraps up international duty on June 14 versus Peru.
As for Donasiyano, he only plays in two matches for Burundi against Kenya on June 7 and Sychelles on June 11.
Donasiyano could return as soon as June 15 at Sacramento Republic, although he’ll be on short-rest plus a full day of traveling. Roots also play four days later on June 19 hosting El Paso.
Tamacas being out means Memo Diaz will likely fill into the right back spot, while the left side could rotate between Justin Rasmussen or Baboucarr Njie. As for the midfield without Koze, interim HC Gavin Glinton’s options will likely be between Danny Gomez, Napo Matsoso, or moving up Hackshaw once again.
Dom Dwyer
There remains questions over Dom Dwyer’s availability and when he will appear for Roots. Without a firm answer on the matter, the blog has been told Dwyer will be available “soon” and he’s looked strong in training putting away shots. There’s been some murmurs about a possibility of appearing in the next couple of games, but it’s all speculation at this point.
On Monday, John Morrissey pointed out Dwyer is slated to play for Nani FC, a team led by former Portugal winger Luis Nani, in the second annual 7-on-7 tourney with a $1 million prize, The Soccer Tournament. Nani FC’s social media posted three days ago that Dwyer is listed on their roster, but this appears to be an inaccurate and old list prepared before Dom signed with Oakland.
Shooting down these rumors, a club source confirmed Dwyer is not taking part in this year’s TST tournament from June 5-10 in North Carolina. Dwyer posted on Monday a picture of him at a gym with G-Eazy’s song “Calm Down” attached. Perhaps that was a message directed at the speculation.
As stated last week, the club taking their time with Dwyer is a calculated move. Glinton has shown a propensity to run his striker as a defender in an effort to retain possession high. Given Dwyer hasn’t played since 2022, he needed some time to get game-fit enough to run the marathon distances that will be asked of him. Let’s “calm down” and see what he’s like once he gets on the field.
Tampa Bay up next
Coming into Pioneer Stadium on June 8 is Tampa Bay Rowdies for the back-end of Saturday’s double-header with Soul playing earlier in the day. Saturday marks the first time Oakland fans get to welcome-back Charlie Dennis, a star from the 2022 roster.
Tampa will enter Hayward in fourth-place of the Eastern Conference at 6-4-2, scoring 24 goals and allowed 12, and are coming off a 1-nil win over Sacramento. Dennis scored his first goal of the season against Sacramento, while he only has one assist as his other goal-contribution this year. He’s missed some time this season with just seven appearances, two starts, and 249 total minutes.
I’ll be appearing on RBLR Rowdies podcast later this week, stay tuned!
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