Roots fans it is game day again! Pioneer Stadium is going to be busy today, with Oakland Soul hosting Academica1 at 4:00 p.m. followed by the Roots hosting the Tampa Bay Rowdies at 7:00 p.m. Rowdies are good and the Roots are… still figuring things out. Still, it should be a fun atmosphere and hopefully a bigger crowd than has made it out to Hayward for the last few home matches.
On Thursday, Amy and I drove down to San Jose to spend the afternoon with her parents and get a few hours with some extra hands to tend to the baby. We took a brief jaunt out to Target to get some supplies (Amy’s first time leaving the house without the baby) and while we were in line for coffee, an adult man walked in with a Hot Topic bag. Naturally, my first instinct was to mock him. To my horror, I realized that well into my second week of never going to work or social events, and regularly changing shirts when *someone* spits up, I am so far down my T-shirt drawer that I was wearing a Flogging Molly shirt that I had bought at Hot Topic in, I would guess, 2004.2
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Rowdies started the season uncharacteristically slowly, 3-4-2 through their first 9 with some head-scratching results, including a 1-1 draw away to North Carolina, a 0-0 draw away to Pittsburgh, and a 1-1 draw at home to El Paso. Still, Rowdies had not lost until Match week 8 when they lost 4-1 on the road at Memphis, followed a week later by a 1-0 loss at home to Birmingham. Memphis and Birmingham both hoped to be competitors this year, but both are hanging out in the middle of their conference tables. I did not watch the Memphis match or highlights, but the first action on the box score was an 11th minute straight red card to center back Forrest Lasso (in his fourth season for Rowdies), which you would assume was decisive.
Rowdies righted the ship with a 5-0 dismantling of Tulsa in Florida and a less inspiring but no less points-y 1-0 victory over Lights also in Florida. This past weekend, Rowdies traveled to Sacramento:
Rowdies peppered Republic with 10 shots on target, but the only one worth anything came in the 53rd minute when Rowdies keeper Jordan Farr came 30 yards out of his goal to receive a back-pass during a spell of Rowdies possession. Farr cleared the ball down the field, dead center on the pitch, and it caught Republic’s right-sided centerback flat footed. Our old friend Charlie Dennis, playing through the middle of the attacking line, pounced on the opportunity:
Vitiello came out and Dennis casually chested the ball down past him and passed the ball into the open net.
Dennis has only one goal and one assist for Rowdies on the season, but is integral to the mechanics of their offense. Rowdies’ firepower comes from their two traditional forwards, who each have 8 goals and 1 assist: Cal Jennings, who we saw regularly for Las Vegas Lights in 2021 and 2022 before he moved to Rowdies last season (tallying 19 goals in 2023) and Manuel Arteaga, who played in Venezuela for his early 20s before jumping to Indy Eleven for 2021 and 2022 and ultimately joining Juan Guerra’s Rising in 2023 (as seemingly all Venezuelan players in USL eventually find their way to a Guerra line-up). Arteaga notched 15 goals and 6 assists in 2023, but was only a bench player and did not score in Phoenix’s playoff run on its way to lifting the trophy.
Rowdies have scored 24 goals, good enough for fourth in USL overall, and have conceded 12, which is also fourth best in USL overall. With their full eleven men on the field, they have only conceded two since April 11.
Roots’ Form
Well, things were better, but a 1-0 loss away in Colorado is a bad result, and it was the “easy” game before two real tough ones against Rowdies and Republic.
In the second minute, the Roots stopped a Switchbacks’ attack down the Roots’ left flank and got the ball out to Trayvone Reid. Reid was only going to have time for a very quick pass before getting shut down, but he had two wide open midfielders to chip the ball to. Unfortunately, he fell over, giving Switchbacks a 3-2 advantage on the flank, and an easy opportunity to work the ball towards the center, forcing Cam Riley to move towards the ball, leaving Delentz Pierre unchallenged in the center. The ball was played to Pierre, and with Riley a good 10 yards away now, Pierre took a touch to settle the ball and unloaded from 28-ish yards, finding the top corner of the net. It was a remarkable shot, and utterly back-breaking for a Roots team that came to Colorado with a defensive set-up and had to chase right off the bat. I think the shot might have been within reach for Blanchette if he dove right, but he could certainly be forgiven for not expecting that shot to come in at all.
In the 11th minute, the Roots were awarded a penalty, and then had the penalty taken away after the referee discussed with the linesman. The Switchbacks’ defender’s arm was clearly away from his body–I guess the decision was that it was both unintentional and so quickly off a deflection that the defender didn’t need to have his arm in a natural position?
What’s weird to me is that the referee (yellow circle) sees the ball (red arrow) fly into Riley and the exonerated ball-handler (purple) and defers to the linesman (green). The only reason I can think is that the referee was not sure the ball had deflected at the last second (causing the handball).
Not a ton of other interesting moments–Reid took a bunch of shots from distance and one of them was a great curling shot that bounced off the crossbar. In the 73rd, Njie took a great free kick that demanded a great save, but unfortunately the great save was forthcoming.
Per Fotmob, the Roots had 1 big chance and Switchbacks had 0. Admittedly, the Roots were chasing the entire game so Switchbacks didn’t have to force anything, but it does seem to be a bit of a vindication of the Roots’ defensive lineup. But it also shows the weakness of playing defensively–sometimes you get unlucky and concede if then you’re in an awful position to try to equalize.
Lineup and Score Predictions
Bloom
No Tamacas or Donasiyano, because of international duty, and no Dwyer because the soccer gods do not smile on Oakland at this time.
Johnny played 30 minutes against Switchbacks, so you’d think he would be ready to start, but if not, then Chéry probably starts up top. I’m not sure I like Cedeno/Mfeka over one of those two plus Njie, so we’ll see if Glinton keeps it from Switchbacks or goes back to Njie starting in a winger role. Finally, Logue may still be hurt, in which case Hack probably goes to the back line and Napo or Gomez comes in. I think there’s a playoff-caliber team in here, but Tampa are too good, even on a three-time-zone road trip. 2-0 Rowdies.
Jon
A shock at goal keeper with Paul Blanchettte ruled out with a concussion, leaving Syrel as the starter. However, Niall Logue is off the injury list after dealing with a right-foot injury. I’m going 4-2-3-1 with just a couple of changes from Peter’s lineup, plugging in Baboucarr Njie for Cedeño and Miche-Naider Chéry for Johnny. I like how Chéry is playing and he is completely healthy. Johnny played a shift against Colorado Springs, but given his groin injury has followed him since the preseason, I could see a little extra caution.
Roots win, 2-1.
Aaron
Unlike J & P, I am anticipating an ultra defensive approach from Oakland. For one thing, I will be anticipating said approach in every game going forward. For another, the only time Roots have ever been able to take the game to Rowdies was when they played a midfield that included Jose Hernandez, Matias Fissore, and Charlie Dennis, with Juan Azocar and Edgardo Rito out wide. Color me skeptical that the current squad has the horses for something similar. What we do have, though, is the ability to really frustrate Rowdies’ attack. And I think the soccer gods owe us one after last week, between Switchbacks’ 30-yard effort going on, our 30-yard effort pinging off the crossbar, and whatever happened with that penalty (my guess is that it hit higher up on the arm than the on-field official realized initially, and they generally felt bad about awarding the penalty, so after a discussion the refs decided it hit shoulder or something). Fortune smiles on the Roots. 1-0 to the good guys.