Roots fans it’s game day once again! And it’s a home game, so the Roots might not get blown out! The Roots host San Antonio F.C., a perennial contender having an uncharacteristic down year (with signs of life recently) at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 14 at Pioneer Stadium on the campus of CSU East Bay in Hayward, California. Roots come into this one off of a surprising early-September bye week that they celebrated with a couple cross-country flights.
Around the Western Conference
That’s strange, the Roots’ goal differential got a lot worse. Oh well. Anyway.
Charleston came from behind to beat Sacramento 2-1 in Charleston, leaving Sacramento still within chasing distance for the Roots. Colorado Springs beat Tampa Bay 4-2 at home, jumping Roots in the standings. El Paso drew Detroit City, which is a solid result but every dropped point for Locomotive is a point they can’t spare. Monterey Bay lost to San Antonio 1-0 on the Central Coast, missing a big opportunity to jump back into the playoff picture. With Yallop and Baca gone, Union may just be done. Those three points get San Antonio very suddenly back within striking distance of the playoffs. Midweek, Memphis split the points with Hartford in Memphis, and excellent result for the Roots that keeps them tied on the table with the Roots owning the game in hand. Tulsa and Lights split the points in Tulsa, which keeps Lights below the Roots and improves1 the Roots’ position relative to 8th.
San Antonio F.C.
San Antonio’s offense is pretty bad, with 26 total goals (Roots have 33, so y’know, could be better). Their defense is much better than most of the other teams around them in the table, but not as elite as it has been in some recent years, despite a lot of the same personnel. San Antonio’s goals from from Juan Agudelo, with 7, and that’s basically it, one coming against the Roots in their 2-2 draw in May. Let’s actually take a look at that game, which was the first of Gavin Glinton’s tenure.
A Reid assist for a Chery goal? Surely not. I had forgotten that this game was scoreless until the 65th minute. Agudelo’s goal really shouldn’t have happened. Gagi fluffed his lines a little bit, I think, and Syrel maybe could have done more. Syrel definitely could have done more with Kevon Lambert’s go-ahead goal in the 79th. Lambert was then guilty of the (maybe harsh) handball right at the 81-minute mark that resulted in a penalty that Johnny converted to win a point for the Roots.
In their last six, San Antonio have a 3-1 loss at home to Tulsa, a 0-0 draw in Pittsburgh, a 1-0 win over North Carolina, a 1-0 loss in Sacramento, a 1-1 draw at home to Charleston, and a 1-0 win in Monterey. That’s a mixed bag, although the result against Pittsburg and North Carolina are enviable at the moment. San Antonio have not scored two goals in a game in July 6. They scored two the prior week, and then before that you have to go back to that Roots game on May 4. Their offense has never been good this season, but it’s been worse recently.
Roots’ Form
I want to stick with my guns pretending the Roots simply did not play last weekend, but there are two points I want to mention. First of all, a quote from last week’s preview post:
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.
Second, I thought Sinisterra looked lively, which is exciting. I thought Dwyer looked alive, which is also pretty exciting. I don’t know why Riley and Gomez didn’t start. Hopefully they are capable of starting and Gavin merely inadvisably rested them in a winnable game.
Lineup and Score Predictions
Bloom
Sinisterra may not be ready to start yet, but I think he should get the chance. I don’t think anyone has locked it down at the moment. I would be equally fine with Johnny starting up top and Sinisterra on the right opposite Reid, but I had to pick one. I hope that Diaz is able to take the time off to be with his family.
I said 2-0 on this week’s RootsPod and I’ll stand by it. San Antonio aren’t great and the Roots have done a reasonable job of bouncing back recently.
Jon
Just a couple of differences with my lineup and Peter’s; I have Njie starting on the left side opposite of Sinisterra and Johnny up top. I’m hoping Memo Diaz is back in the home lineup, while everything else is the same. In the midfield, the experiment of Koze/Napo obviously didn’t work in North Carolina, so back in is Gomez/Riley. Speaking of the midfield, I’m hearing Rafa Baca is available; he’ll probably open his time in Oakland on the subs list.
2-nil, Roots.
Aaron
Again, we are more wishcasting than predicting down here at the ass end of the preview post. Obviously we’re going to see a 3-4-3, and obviously none of the in-season signings will start. But I don’t want that to be true, so you don’t see it on the little field facsimile above. The one thing of prediction-type substance here is Njie in the RB role. New parent Peter suggests that new parent Memo Diaz might not be ready to go, and I have no reason to disbelieve him. I think Njie gets the call there, simply because you would trust his defensive nous more than Alekseev’s–the youngster has always looked much better going forward. I think that leaves Reid to take the LW role. Anyway, I think once Baca is cleared to play we should head back to a back 4, but I also don’t expect that to happen.
3-1 Roots.
- Tulsa got a point and the Roots’ didn’t, so technically the Roots’ position got worse relative to Tulsa, but also there are finite points remaining and the Roots’ position got only a single point worth. So y’know. Close enough? What this book presupposes is… maybe he didn’t? ↩︎