Coming off the heels of a shocking 5-0 loss in Pittsburgh, Oakland Roots had an opportunity to make things right and set a tone for their games going forward in their biggest home match of the season against rivals Sacramento Republic. Instead, they sent the wrong message by conceding fives goals yet again in a 5-2 loss.
In his postgame press conference, Roots’ interim HC Gavin Glinton had some choice words for the effort he’s seen over the last two games.
“Just no where near an acceptable level of effort, to be honest, in both games. Unacceptable isn’t even the right word, it was embarrassing to see the lack of effort and commitment today. It wasn’t even close; it’s a Derby and it looked like one team realized it and the other didn’t realize it until maybe halftime. It just hasn’t been anywhere near acceptable in terms of effort, commitment and intensity–all of the things we’ve been focusing on over the last 12 weeks,” Glinton said.
The big lineup decision was Timothy Syrel starting in goal ahead of the far more established Paul Blanchette. If you look at the 34 game USL Championship schedule, there are certainly some softer landing spots than Sacramento for a backup goalkeeper to get an opportunity. Granted, Blanchette clearly had a tough game against Pittsburgh Riverhounds, but to pull him from this marquee matchup after his overall body of work in the last three seasons was a big call.
“Like everyone else, everyone is in competition. I think Tim’s done well in the matchups he’s had and he’s earned the right to be a part of the lineup,” Glinton said of his decision to start Syrel.
Almost immediately it didn’t work out. Of the five goals conceded, three of them were tough for any goalkeeper to deal with. That being said, the first of those five goals came down to a 1-on-1 duel between Syrel and Kieran Phillips, a situation where Blanchette tends to fare well. However, too many times the defense and midfield made errant passes. Furthermore, the offense continued to look lifeless in the first half, similar to the Pittsburgh game.
The killer blows in this game came either side of halftime. Had Oakland Roots been more focused during those key transitional periods, they would be only down 2-0 by the time Johnny Rodriguez got his second half brace. Instead, what could’ve been a game tying effort merely brought the score-line to a semi respectable 4-2.
“I think we haven’t done a good job of communicating runners. There’s breakdowns in that we’re not communicating on marking runners, we’re not tracking back, we’re just not getting back. Balls are getting in behind us and we’re not hungry enough to defend like we’ve been. We need to defend like our lives depend on it. We’re asking a lot from our goal keepers and our back line. Everything you can do to be bad defensively, we’re finding a way to do it over the last two games,” Glinton said of the defensive effort.
Not only was that brace for naught, it reinforces the concern many Roots fans have that this offense is over reliant on Rodriguez’s goals. How much longer can he be the leading goals corer while the Oakland Roots remain competitive in the USL Championship? Oakland finished with six shots and four on target after recording just one shot attempt in the previous game at Pittsburgh.
“We need to do a better job of creating more dangerous moments and not being so predictable. You see a lot of hunger from Johnny to work and get in behind, but we need that all the way along the front line as well,” Glinton said of their tendency to rely on Johnny.
After these last two games, the Roots need to rework their approach to get back to that competitive level. The most damaging result of this loss beyond rivalry implications is that Sacramento Republic jumps ahead of Oakland Roots in the Western Conference standings with a game in hand. The Roots are only five points away from 9th place Phoenix Rising. Third place feels about as secure as a napkin being bound to a table by someone’s beer bottle.
Oakland Roots have one last chance to make amends before a break period as they head to the East Coast to play Miami FC. Miami FC are languishing at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, but the Pittsburgh Riverhounds weren’t faring much better prior to that encounter. Three points would help send a positive message, somethings the Roots failed to do this Sunday against Sacramento.
“It’s not quite starting over from scratch, but it definitely is a re-breaking down. Because somewhere, we started getting ahead of ourselves and started to think that we don’t have to do some of the little things that got us here. It’s going to be breaking things back down and making sure that we dig into the details,” Glinton said of his message to the locker room.
Match Notes
Oakland Roots (Gavin Glinton; 4-2-3-1): Timothy Syrel; Memo Diaz, Camden Riley, Neveal Hackshaw, Justin Rasmussen; Danny Gomez, Napo Matsoso; Jeciel Cedeno, Lindo Mfeka, Trayvone Reid; Johnny Rodriguez
Used Subs: 46′ Gagi Margvelashvili (Matsoso), 46′ Baboucarr Njie (Reid), 46′ Dom Dwyer (Cedeno), 72′ Bryan Tamacas (Diaz), 76′ Miche-Naider Chery
Unused Subs: GK Paul Blanchette, MF Koze Donasiyano
Sacramento Republic (Mark Briggs; 5-4-1): Danny Vitiello; Jack Gurr, Jared Timmer, Shane Wiedt, Lee Desmond, Damia Viader; Cristiano Parano, Nick Ross, Justin Portillo, Luis Felipe; Kieran Phillips
Used Subs: 58′ Aldair Sanchez (Viader), 78′ Jonathan Ricketts (Parano), 78′ Trevor Amann (Phillips), 87′ Rafael Jauregui (Gurr), 87′ Da’vian Kimbrough (Portillo)
Unused Subs: GK Jared Mazzola, CB Conor Donovan
Scoring Summary
0-1 5′ Kieran Phillips (unassisted)
0-2 27′ Shane Wiedt (Jared Timmer)
0-3 45′ Nick Ross (Cristian Parano)
0-4 46′ Phillips (unassisted)
1-4 55′ Johnny Rodriguez (Memo Diaz)
2-4 71′ Rodriguez (Justin Rasmussen)
2-5 85′ Trevor Amann (Ross)
Disciplinary Summary
31′ Johnny Rodriguez (Yellow)
32′ Shane Wiedt (Yellow)
39′ Luis Felipe (Yellow)
53′ Camden Riley (Yellow)
73′ Danny Gomez and Aldair Sanchez (Both Yellow)