RootsBlog

Roots fans it’s game day! The Roots travel to Cary, North Carolina to face USL old-head/newcomer N.C.F.C. at 4:30 p.m. at WakeMed Park. The Roots’ watch party is at Dokkaebier, a block of Broadway in JLS.

North Carolina are tenth in the Western Conference on 30 points, but with both more goals scored and fewer goals conceded than the Roots.

A certified North Carolina banger.¹

The big news in Roots’ world this week is the signing of Rafael Baca. This man is almost as old as I am, but he was Monterey Bay’s best player in most of their games this season, and if he can contribute right away in central midfield then he will make the team noticeably better. Also, don’t look now, but the Roots’ attacking signing, Sinisterra, has made the trip to North Carolina.²

Around the Western Conference

The same day as the Roots’ victory over New Mexico, Monterey Bay managed to lose 1-0 in Miami, which is not quite throwing in the towel on the season, but you would not want to be a Monterey Bay fan right now. San Antonio drew 1-1 with Charleston, which is a respectable result, and their hopes of 8th are not gone yet. Orange County fell to Vegas, keeping Vegas in the race for 3rd but dropping Orange County effectively out of the race for a home playoff berth. Phoenix beat Loudoun to stay in that race. On Sunday, Colorado Springs thumped FC Tulsa 4-1 in Tulsa to also keep pace with the race for a home playoff berth.

In the Friday night fixtures for this match week, New Mexico beat Miami 1-0, which is maybe less emphatic than New Mexico fans would want coming off a loss at a rival, but they nonetheless move towards locking down first. Phoenix beat Tulsa 1-0, an uninspiring result, but again keeping Phoenix in the race and making Tulsa’s grip on the last playoff spot more tenuous.

North Carolina F.C.

If you are confused about the cover image to this post, it is because, as we discussed on this week’s RootsPod, North Carolina F.C. used to play under the name “Carolina Railhawks,” before abandoning it for prestige.

If you are still confused about the cover image, I have nothing to offer you but my apologies. In case you think “Railhawks” means something–it does not.

North Carolina are not great, although they are competitive in an Eastern Conference that is probably better than the Western Conference for the first time in awhile. They don’t have any big runs of good or bad form, they have just been consistently okay throughout the season, never winning, losing, or drawing more than two games in a row. Their only particularly quality wins were a 1-0 win over Orange County in Miami (I’m being generous–Orange County aren’t Miami) followed by a 4-1 hammering of Colorado Springs Switchbacks.

North Carolina repeatedly created breakaways against Switchbacks and punished them on those breakaways three times. The only other goal was a second-chance off of a corner kick.

That was North Carolina’s last win, and since then they have beaten San Antonio on the road, drawn Phoenix on the road, and lost 4-6 to Louisville City, in what they are calling the “own goal Derby.”

What a silly game. The opener came on a beautiful direct free kick from outside the box, looping over the wall and into the near-side top corner. Gotta feel pretty good to lead 1-0 over the overwhelming title favorite on their home turf. The next sequence of events in the highlights, starting at 1:28 of the video, is silly and you should just watch it. Louisville equalized on a corner where the ball fell to an unmarked man at the back post, but NC took the lead again on, you’re not going to believe this, a breakaway. That initiated the sequence of three consecutive own-goals, two in Louisville’s favor, one in NC’s, all off of scrappy play in the box. Then NC took the lead again, 4-3, on a breakaway and great finish from Oalex Anderson [not typo]. Louisville scored a penalty, a breakaway of their own, and then Wilson Harris finished his hat trick with a half-volley shot from about 23 yards out.

What I have gotten from my extensive film review (the two highlight reels above) is that you just do not let NCFC hit you on the break. In this game I probably actually agree with Gavin’s road strategy of straight turtling.

Roots’ Form

One can’t complain, huh?

New Mexico are deservedly first in the Western Conference, but are not a historic offensive powerhouse the way Louisville or Charleston are. Nonetheless, it is still quite something that the Roots just shut them down. Fotmob says that New Mexico had 0 big chances and that sounds about right to me. Paul had to make two saves, but that’s contractually obligated.

In the 71st Dom Dwyer came in for the first time in forever, and in the 76th he got big for an excellent Memo Diaz corner and put the Roots ahead. That’s Memo’s second assist from a corner in as many games.

Lineup and Score Predictions

Bloom

In the past, Gavin has gone on the road and turtled up and hoped to grind out a result. That seems likely to be the case again, although with Tamacas departed from the club, he can’t run the 7-2-1 from the Rhode Island game.

I have this feeling that Dwyer traveled, so with him and Sinisterra we have some attacking options off the bench.

I predicted 1-1 on the podcast and I am going to stick with that, just because the travel I think will weigh heavily on the team.

Jon

Not a very creative lineup for me. Although Sinisterra traveled with the team, I’m thinking he’s on the subs list instead of instantly joining the starting 11. But, I do think we see him get on the field at some point.

I’m sticking with my prediction on the pod of a 3-1 Roots win.

Aaron

Without giving my location away, I was at a nightclub on the Vegas strip last night, and my nose hairs were vibrating from the bass line in a remix of, I believe, Nelly Furtado and the opening notes of Sirius by the Alan Parsons Project³. My point is that you can be rocked to your core even by the most unexpected things. So I expect new man Baca to start, and a 3-1 win from a lineup composed almost entirely of defensive players. Gagi with a very unexpected brace.

1. My god, the “rock bands from North Carolina” page on wikipedia is absolutely appalling for its population and number of decent college towns. Whole state should be ashamed of itself. Anyway, this is a song I liked a lot in high school when I was very sad a lot of the time. ↩︎
2. Tbf he may have just gone to the airport to see the boys off. ↩︎
3. Every time Jack or Ivan posts and successfully use Gen Z slang, Aaron has to come back with an admission that he can recognize an Alan Parsons Project song and remind everyone how close to death he and I are. ↩︎