Opening day is approaching for Oakland Roots on March 8 at Orange County’s Championship Soccer Stadium. 2025 perhaps represents the most important season in club history as it walks into the Coliseum with a revamped roster and significant investment. With that, what are the heights Roots can achieve this upcoming season?
Here are some predictions, some bolder than others, going into 2025.
1. Roots eclipse 15,000+ attendants multiple times
Specifically, 15,000 is the United Soccer League’s minimum stadium capacity to achieve Division 1 status. The Coliseum gives the organization a chance to see what its peak can be. Can they break FC Cincinnati’s USL Championship attendance record of 31,478? Can they be the first team other than Cincy to reach 21,000 to 31,000?
Roots are bound to have multiple games that will draw big crowds. The Coliseum opener on March 22 against San Antonio is an obvious place to start for at least one.
Another match could be Roots and Soul’s double-header on June 7. The annual double-header has become one of the club’s most attended games since its inception in 2023. Last season’s double-header was a 6,408 banner day, while the inaugural year reached 5,855.
The end of the season is another time for spikes in ticket sales, making October 4 against Hartford and the season-finale on October 25 against Lexington potential dates to watch. The last two games of the 2024 season brought out 5,000 and 5,252 fans to Pioneer Stadium in Hayward, 2023’s season-finale drew 6,135 to Pioneer, while 2022’s final two games at Laney College sold 5,509 and 5,472.
Oakland getting a re-do on a national CBS broadcast could also be in the cards. The USL sent out a full force of media coverage for Sunday, July 21’s rivalry meeting between Roots and Sacramento Republic, which drew 5,446, only to be outdone by Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race the morning of the match. Now in the Coliseum, getting a second try at a well-marketed national broadcast game seems like a realistic possibility.
Lastly, if everything comes together for the team, a home playoff berth would be another prime chance at eclipsing the 15,000 mark. It’d be a tall task given Roots have never hosted a playoff match, but with clear increases in roster investment, could this be the year? Hosting multiple playoff matches would provide more opportunities for large crowds.
2. Roots set the club’s wins and points record
Good segway, right?
There’s been a clear push in roster investment this offseason. Players like Panos Armenakas and Jürgen Damm represent influential signings, Peter Wilson was lured from Europe, they nabbed a surging talent in Adbi Mohammed out of New Mexico, and Kendall McIntosh is an experienced goalkeeper.
With the roster revamp, setting a record in wins and total points is an achievable goal and realistic expectation. Last season brought the team its most wins in club history with 13, while 46 points in 2022 remains the highest benchmark.
If Oakland pushes for a top-four seed like their offseason spending indicates, setting a wins record sounds like a good bet.
3. Someone scores the first hat trick since Jack McInerny
The date is August 31, 2019, Oakland Roots’ very first game.
Jack McInerny just sent in his third goal in the 43rd minute to put Oakland up 3-0 over Cal United Strikers, who eventually came back to tie 3-3. Fans never would’ve guessed it, but they had witnessed an all-time record achievement. Since that pre-pandemic night, McInerny remains etched in club lore as the only hat trick scorer in Roots history.
That changes this year.
It’s difficult to say where it exactly comes from, but Armenakas seems like the perfect candidate. He arrives in Oakland as a premier attacking signing with a nose for goal which Glinton can build a system around. Peter Wilson and Johnny Rodriguez could also be safe bets as goal scorers, maybe Damm or José Luis Sinisterra as well. If anyone has a chance, these guys sound like the ones to do it.
4. No more five-goal losses
Another achievable prediction. Going back to the 2024 season-finale 5-nil loss to Birmingham, coach Gavin Glinton gave a stark assessment of what he was seeing.
“We have a lack of commitment and consistency in our mentality. The minute we have anything going right for us, we start to think we’re Real Madrid and we won’t have to work. Birmingham had nothing to play for; we’re on top of them, they transition and we feel like we don’t have to run back,” Glinton said in October.
“It’s embarrassing. It’s about having fight, commitment, and heart in a lot of these moments… We have to stop getting too high on ourselves too early. That’s been a problem, you see a lot of these 5-zeros come after big wins. We have to make sure guys don’t get carried away.”
Glinton has proven to be a hard-nosed type of coach, consistently mentioning culture and building a team with a winning mentality. He brings the perspective of a former MLS Cup Champion with LA Galaxy.
New defensive additions who look like soon-to-be starters include center-back Kai Greene, fullback Abdi Mohammed, and goalkeeper Kendall McIntosh. If Glinton’s team can provide the “fight, commitment, and heart” he’s looking for, the five-goal defeats should be a thing of the past.
5. Roots finally score five or more goals in a game
Going back to Roots’ inception, the team has netted a high of four goals on four different occasions; once in 2021, twice in 2022, and once in 2023, but has never eclipsed the five-goal mark.
It’s time for them to do it.
Oakland’s offseason additions have focused on the attacking side, like Armenakas, Damm, Wilson, and EJ Johnson. Then throw in fellow forwards Rodriguez, Sinisterra, and Wolfgang Prentice, and that’s some pretty potent firepower. Njie and Rasmussen have also had lethal moments bombing down the wings.
Glinton has quite a few feathers in his cap from his 2024 run. His team defeated Sacramento at Heart Health Park, won Roots’ first-ever games against Tampa Bay Rowdies and Louisville City, and held a home record of 4-0-0 at one point–putting an end to a lengthy stretch without a victory at Pioneer Stadium under Noah Delgado. If Oakland can score five or more goals in a game, that would be one more impressive record set under Glinton.
6. Roots sign a goalkeeper during the season
This isn’t a knock against Kendall McIntosh’s ability, I think he will step into the starting role and play well, showing the sterling shot-stopping ability Roots’ fans came to love from Paul Blanchette.
However, it’s difficult to predict how a season progresses and McIntosh is looking ahead to the most playing time he’s received throughout his professional career. In fact, 17 appearances with Portland Timbers 2 in 2018 is the most playing time he’s had.
Last season, McIntosh only appeared in nine matches for San Antonio FC and was listed on their injury report on multiple occasions. How valid those injuries were is unclear, but an injury–even a minor one–leaves Roots in a vulnerable spot.
The club believes in Tim Syrel’s potential, but at just 21 years old, there’s still a lot of time for his development. If Oakland is looking like a contender in the USLC Western Conference, along with being competitors in the Jägermeister Cup and U.S. Open Cup, another addition makes sense.
7. A starter is transferred
Take a breath before we get into the weeds, Rootsfam, understand this writer is overviewing things from a personnel perspective and we aren’t campaigning for your favorite player to leave. This sounds spicy, but transferring players has been a natural part of Roots’ business over the last few years.
Oakland sent Edgardo Rito to Hartford Athletic and Darek Formella to Phoenix Rising in 2023. Last season, Jeciel Cedeño was sent to Detroit City in July. Project 51O callup Etsgar Cruz, who had four USLC starts, transferred to Club América earlier this month.
Who could be tradable options this year? Looking at Roots’ roster, marketable players who make sense include Danny Gomez, Justin Rasmussen, and Johnny Rodriguez.
Gomez is just 24 years old and became a routine starter in 2024, appearing in 32 matches for three assists in 2,419 minutes. With his prime years ahead, it could be a good time to find a suitor. However, he’s just one of three midfielders currently on the roster, so this feels like a tough ask.
Rasmussen, 26, has been impressive since his arrival as a Day 1 starter and is also in that prime age range for his career. In 2024, he finished with 31 appearances, one goal and three assists in 2,158 minutes. Roots still have Baboucarr Njie as a potential fill-in to the left-back role, while recent signee Julian Bravo has experience in the position.
But Rasmussen brings a different level of speed and positional flexibility to the left side, making any move from him difficult to envision.
Rodriguez, 26, is Oakland’s longest-tenured player since joining the organization in 2020 during its days in NISA. He’s coming off back-to-back career years, recording 12 goals and one assist in his first year as a starter in 2023, along with 12 goals and three assists in 2024.
Johnny turns 27 in June, meaning this year could be the best time to strike a deal for his peak value. Oakland has depth at his position too, notably signing center forwards Peter Wilson and EJ Johnson this offseason, while Project 51O striker Luis Saldaña is waiting in the wings.
Would the club move on from another fan favorite after parting with Memo Diaz and Paul Blanchette? He’s seemingly the face of the franchise, being plastered on the 880 billboard and muralized on MLK.
Perhaps Ilya Alekseev, a young teenage talent like Etsgar, could be attractive to other teams. Not even 20 years old and deserving of minutes at fullback, Ilya looks like someone Roots wouldn’t want to part with as his value trends upward over the next 4-5 years.