Roots fans are you ready for some football!?
The Roots are back! And back in Oakland!
A new-look Oakland Roots will play this season at the Coliseum, returning to both Oakland and proximity to a BART station.
This post will try to summarize the offseason as of March 2, 2025. As an initial matter, you can read all about these moves on Jon’s offseason tracker, which links to the individual posts where he goes into this stuff in more detail. As usual, my writing will be much heavier on vibes and memes and much lighter on attention to detail.
Who left the Roots?
I initially wrote this before the news of Johnny’s transfer to Vegas was announced, which unfortunately threw a wrench in everything. Johnny was the longest-tenured Root, their all-time leading goal-scorer, the talisman, and the face of the team. I am, if not optimistic about the restructuring of the team, at least open to the possibility that the FO wanted to change the idea of the attack, and that letting Johnny go for money was a reasonable decision. Nonetheless, it is a heartbreaking departure.
The other big departures are Memo Diaz, who returned to El Paso Locomotive after four seasons with Roots, and Paul Blanchette, who is currently without a club, also after four seasons with the club. Lindo Mfeka departed towards the end of the 2024 season, closing the book on another player who has been with Oakland since their inaugural stint in the USL Championship. Midfield experiments Irazoke Donasiyano and Napo Matsoso departed after two seasons, neither having ever found their footing for the Roots. Forward experiments Miche-Naider Chery, Trayvone Reid, and <sigh> Dom Dwyer also departed the club. In happier news, Etsgar Cruz departed for Club America, by far the highest-profile club now employing a Project 510 product.1
Several players departed, and Koze and Napo deserve thanks for the efforts and minutes they put into the club, but it’s genuinely strange to go into a season without Lindo, Paul, Johnny, and Memo on the roster. Diaz and Mfeka started Roots’ first game in the USL (a 3-0 drubbing by Phoenix Rising). Blanchette did not start until July of 2021, but once he won the starting role, he did not give it up that season. Weirdly, you may recall Roots briefly tried to have a different starting keeper (Benny Diaz) under Juan Guerra, and that did not work out. For the old heads out there, Memo and Blanchette both started the 2-1 COVID game loss to Las Vegas in Livermore where Roots had only two players on the bench because someone (probably Brandon Allen) showed up to the team with COVID. That was Blanchette’s first start and he had no backup keeper on the bench. Blanchette is one of three Roots players to ever make a first- or second-team USL Team of the Season.2
Happy trails to all four of these servants of the club, in particular Johnny, Memo, and Paul the Wall. Oakland loves you.
Who has joined the Roots?
Oh baby, this offseason started slow but got spicy towards the end. Through January 16, Roots’ offseason was causing some consternation to fans, not least me. Oakland signed centerback Kai Greene, who had played well in 2021 before anchoring Monterey Bay’s defense from 2022-24. In early December, Roots signed Tyler Gibson, a 33-year-old box-to-box midfielder with a lot of USL Championship experience, but an unclear future as a centerpiece of an elite USL team. On Christmas Eve, they signed Oakland-native Kendall McIntosh, a keeper that we have heard the FO had its eye on for quite some time, and finally managed to lure home to Oakland. McIntosh is talented, but he’s a similar player to Blanchette, and it’s hard to ever get super excited about a keeper signing.
Three weeks went by with nothing and we were antsy. Then on January 17, Roots brought in Panos Armenakas. A 26-year-old attacking midfielder (the club announcement listed him as a winger, but :shrug:) who has had excellent seasons as a playmaker for Loudoun United and Phoenix Rising, including significant contribution to Rising’s recent championship run. At 26, Armenakas is entering his prime at that position and is, by himself, enough reason to be excited for this upcoming season.
Roots made four more signings in the next three weeks, all somewhat more specualtive than the Armenakas signing, but intriguing with upside: a true right back in Abdi Mohamed, who contributed regularly to New Mexico’s solid defense last season; Liberian/Swedish international striker Peter Wilson, who is so enigmatic there is open dispute between various websites about how many goals he scored last year; Mexico international Jürgen Damm, a pacy winger/fullback who may not still have the pace but was still a regular contributor on good Liga MX sides in his prime; and young forward EJ Johnson, a local-ish prospect that got some minutes with Riverhounds last season who Roots can develop as Johnny Rodriguez’s heir apparent.
What should we expect to see from Roots next season?
Here’s how I am projecting the lineup for week 1:
I have not seen any preseason games. I don’t know who has been in training, who has been nursing injuries, anything like that. I just think that Glinton liked this formation towards the end of the year.
Attack
I have Armenakas lining up centrally–he may well be our best player and if he can do it successfully in the middle, we want him there where he will be touching the ball the most. Gomez may be his first back-up, as he often played in the attacking midfield role last season. I thought Sinisterra showed real flashes last season, and now he has had time to settle in with the team.
At the moment, unfortunately, our best RW is Armenakas, who is our only Central Attacking Mid, and our second best RW is Sinisterra, who is also our best LW. However, Njie can slot in at LW and not really at RW, so I think Sinisterra starts the season on the right. Wolfgang Prentice may pip Njie for the starting role until a different formation shakes out or another player comes in.
I think Peter Wilson is the long-term starter at striker, but I do not think he will be ready by Week 1. I watched a tiny bit of EJ Johnson at media day and (a) he’s a large lad, and (b) he had some impressive shots. At 21, he is not a finished product yet, but I think there is reason for optimism that he will grow into the role if he ends up with enough minutes.
Midfield
Indy fans and Eastern Conference neutrals were so-so on Gibson, but my understanding is the team is pretty bullish on him as the starting box-to-box midfielder. They also ran him out for a press conference at media day and for the kit-launch interview on (I think) KTVU. That is a lot of face time for a guy if the Roots don’t expect him to play.
I think Riley is our defensive midfielder unless injured. He was extremely reliable last season.
Defense
McIntosh will be starting in goal. The free analytics available at this level of play suggest he is a very similar player profile to Paul, i.e., a great shot-stopper but not much else. I believe the club’s thinking is that the numbers don’t really show he is a step up in both controlling his box and distributing the ball.
I think Hackshaw will start at centerback to start the season, but I would not be surprised if he ultimately loses the spot just based on his ever-fading speed. I understand folks are impressed with Julian Bravo’s performance since the Roots picked him up from Timbers’ academy. I think Gagi Margvelashvili could also jump back in if Hackshaw no longer has the juice.
On the left, I think Rasmussen is the starter unless some new blood comes in. The right is interesting, as the Roots’ highest profile signing, Jürgen Damm, came in ostensibly for the same role as Abdi Mohamed, one of their other higher-end signings, which I think might signal Damm playing higher up as RW. I think Mohamed is the more conservative, defense-first choice. I have Mohamed starting on that basis, but also I think Damm has had limited training with the team as his P-1 visa processes and, therefore, Mohamed is likely to start Week 1 for that reason alone.
The Coliseum!
Jon wrote about this here.
I wondered previously if Roots might decide it was easier to stretch one year in the Coliseum to five or ten years rather than trying to build two new stadiums in ten years. The soccer-specific aspect of Malibu was cool, but I think a lot of the things that make the Coliseum feel sub-par as a Major League Baseball facility will not seem disappointing compared to Laney, Merritt, or Pioneer. Pioneer and Laney both would have been improved with the Coliseum’s trough toilets.
Now, I guess the question is how long the Roots stay in the Coliseum. Buying land at the Howard Terminal site and building a stadium there would be a massive undertaking, unlike anything this club has ever really done. But that’s true of buying land anywhere in Oakland and building a stadium, so maybe I shouldn’t be particularly skeptical of Howard Terminal as a location. Buying land for a stadium has been on the organization’s agenda for five years, it’s not like the current owners haven’t known that the big financial hurdle is coming. With Howard Terminal, I think it’s just that I let myself dream of a fancy new stadium for the A’s and got burned by it. I’m not even a big A’s fan, and yet it still feels bad.
Despite its age, the Coliseum is a functioning stadium that far exceeds Roots’ current ticket sales ambitions as well as the new USL Eredivisie3 standard, assuming there is no change to the USSF Division I requirements. Possibly I misunderstood the potential timeline, but it surprises me that the facility still has not been sold. I wonder if each year that Roots successfully operates at the Coliseum will empower them to negotiate better terms on a lease and/or control of various aspects of the operation. For instance, I have recently learned that Roots are subject to prior agreements for the Coliseum site as to at least maintenance, vending, and parking, leading to (in the case of parking) pretty steep rates that will not even go to the club. The parking situation may also significantly curtail tailgating hours. More on this as we learn from the SGs on their plans.
The Season Ahead
It is difficult to assess a USL schedule in advance, just because it can be hard to guess which other teams have hit on their offseason bets until the season starts. You can count on Louisville to be good and Sacramento to be pretty good, but it used to be safe to bet on San Antonio and they missed the playoffs last year.
Roots’ first two months in the league look like this: @OC; @MBFC; vs. SA; vs. LV; vs. RIFC; @TUL; vs. OC. The last game in April is away to Spokane Velocity, as USL1 side, in the Jagermeister Cup. This is a good cross-section of the Western Conference and the results probably need to be good for Roots to be on track for a good season. Obviously there’s a lot of season left after that, but with only a single out-of-conference game, there are a lot of six-point affairs there.
Predictions
The Blog’s season predictions are available here. On the RootsPod that will drop this week, we give our predictions for the Roots’ final position in the conference table.
My personal prediction is that we’re all going to have fun.
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