Roots Nation it is game day once again! Roots head down to Seaside, California to face the Otters1 of Monterey Bay, F.C.2 at Cardinale Stadium on the campus of CSU Monterey Bay at 7:00 p.m. on March 15. Both teams are coming off of difficult away defeats to start the season and are looking to right their respective ships. Speaking of the bay and ships:
Cyborg Octopus whips and I used to do entry-level legal drudgery with their (frankly outstanding) guitarist. They’re currently very selfishly touring in places that aren’t the Bay Area.
Around the Western Conference
The Pa-Madou Kah era in Phoenix got off to a rocky start with a 1-0 loss at home to FC Tulsa. Phoenix dominated possession, managing three shots on target and one big chance. The only goal came in the 25th minute with a silly turnover in a dangerous area, a decent save under significant pressure, but the ball dribbling to an open man in the box with the Rising keeper still struggling to get off the ground. The reigning champion Switchbacks drew 2-2 in El Paso. Switchbacks were gifted an easy start, receiving a penalty in the 40th second. El Paso leveled it in the 43rd off of a frankly criminal turnover in the box, with Switchbacks trying to play the ball out of the box and instead passing it to a Locomotive player in the box. Switchbacks had a lot of guys there, so it was not as easy as it might have been, but come on. Switchbacks took the lead in the 74th on a nasty deflected shot from distance and in the second minute of stoppage time, Wilmer Cabrera salvaged a point for Locomotive with a sly near-post finish by Andy Cabrera.
Sacramento beat New Mexico 2-1. United went ahead on a slaloming run by Greg Hurst, but the wheels came off when United got the brutal red card/penalty combo right at the 42nd minute. It was cynical but not violent and I guess the right call? Still, seems harsh on United. Very David Luis-y. Sacramento converted the penalty and then scored right after half-time, the penalty-receiver poking in a ball rebounding off the post. United had the ball in the back of the net in the 57th but it was called back as offside and I don’t know if I agree.
As you can see, the ball has just been passed, and while the next player to touch it (circled in the middle) is likely past his man, I’m not sure he’s past the other two guys closer to the middle. That said, i have highlighted the linesman who has a pretty good angle. I’d be annoyed if I was a United fan.
The only cross-conference match was Lights 1-0 over Rowdies. Johnny Rodriguez started, even though I have it on good authority that players need several months before they are allowed to start with a new team. Fotmob suggests the teams were pretty even, although the highlights show more for Rowdies than for Lights. The winning goal is, without a doubt, the easiest three points Lights will snatch all season. Let’s do a little quiz. Let’s say you’re Rowdies’ keeper. In this situation, where do you try to clear the ball?
Is your answer “anywhere but straight into the face of your own player?” That is the credited answer. And yet, here is where the ricochet ends up:
He doesn’t miss. The announcer describes it as “not the best of clearances.”
Roots’ Form
Well, it wasn’t the opener we wanted.
Things got off to a rough start with the Roots running out, I mean, not anyone’s projected lineup for the season. Things got off to a rougher start when newly named captain Tyler Gibson got a yellow card in the 3rd minute. The Roots have a lot of faith in Ali Elmasnaouy, and I don’t think that’s necessarily misplaced, but he isn’t a central striker at all, much less a starting one. Neither is he a good enough central attacking midfielder to justify displacing Panos Armenakas. With those two interchanging, and a midfield of just Gibson and Danny Gomez, the center of the pitch did not (positively) answer the question that neutrals had about the Roots’ offseason. With Hackshaw unexplained absence, Riley took his spot in central defense. One of the Roots’ other weaknesses at the end of last season was having two leftbacks who are offense-first, and the Roots started the season playing both of them. Orange County scored three goals from open play and all three involved attacks down the Roots’ left side. In fact, the first goal came on a breakaway created by Njie’s overcommittment to the attack (although the Roots recovered and absolutely could have stopped this goal had Gomez not perplexingly given up on his defensive run) and the second and fourth goals came off of nearly identical moves by players faking to the line, Njie biting, and the Orange County player using the space from Njie’s movement towards the goal line to serve up assists.
Let’s break down the first goal a little more.
The Roots had a lot of men forward on attack, and the Orange County keeper snagged the ball in the air before launching this counterattack with a long throw that was continued out to OC’s attacking right. At this point, Orange County is on the front foot with speed, but they are outnumbered by Roots outfield players.
OC dribbles forward, and Cam slips, which I think contributed to some fans’ assessment that he had a bad game.
No doubt Orange County is in a favorable position here, but they have not overwhelmed Roots with numbers. The two runners in the box are marked and the ball-carrier is double covered. What chaps my ass on this goal is that Gomez, marked as #6, has outrun the goalscorer Doghman, marked with the star. Already at the point I have screenshotted above, Gomez has arrested his run and is coasting into the D where just ambles a couple steps while Doghman runs unanswered to the back post.
Doghman overruns the ball to the backpost, because McIntosh gets a glove on it, so Doghman has to take a step back to get his shot in, all while Gomez is trying to restart his run to catch up.
It strikes me as unlikely that this is his assignment in this kind of situation and it’s really furstrating because Kai Greene and Abdi Mohamed mark their men very closely, and McIntosh’s hard work on gloving that ball away come to nothing because the Roots, not outnumbered, leave someone entirely unmarked. Orange County was already on the front foot in this game, on their home turf, and the Roots really never recovered from needing to chase.
There was not a ton to love from the Roots’ in this performance. Armenakas showed some of the skill that were why the Roots went out and got him. Mohamed had some moments, although the defense in general could have been better. Riley had some excellent long passes, mostly to Sinisterra. Sinisterra looked like a handful for Orange County, and I think there were glimpses of the high-octane press-and-breakaway offense that Glinton thinks he can get out of this team. EJ Johnson looked good and also huge. Wolfgang Prentice scored a nice goal off of an excellent run, but outside of that he generally looked like he posed some attacking threat. I would like for both to start next week.
All that said, I think this was a bad performance from a team that was just not ready for week 1. I don’t think this shows that it is a bad collection of players or that the team cannot come good or that the offseason planning was bad. It remains frustrating that other teams seem to get their players into practice and into games faster than Roots. Until Peter Wilson is in the team, it is very difficult to evaluate the offseason planning (except to the extent that they could have gotten him into the team sooner).
Monterey Bay’s Form
Not much better!
Fotmob says that Monterey Bay managed 0 shots on target and 0 big changes against San Antonio FC. The fan blog Union Report wrote up their analysis of the first match here. You can also find their preview of this week’s match here.
While Union mounted relatively little in the way of offense, and my understanding is a lot of that was a failure of the midfield to connect to the attack, their defense held pretty strong. Fotmob says they allowed two big chances, and the goal they conceded was pretty hard luck, although not defensively great either. In the 40th minute, San Antonio got a free kick about fifteen yards into Monterey Bay’s half. They played it long down the attacking left where Jake LaCava went fully over the Union defender to head the ball centrally. A Union defender tried to get up to head the ball away and just could not quite get there, so it fell to the feet of Diogo Manuel das Neves de Oliveira Pacheco who got good contact on the ball. I think the keeper was diving the right direction with good timing, but the ball bounced off of the leg of a Union player and bounced unmolested to the opposite direction the keeper dove. So there were chances to clear, but ultimately San Antonio got pretty lucky on their goal.
Predictions
Bloom
This lineup is sorta half-way between what I want to happen and what I think will happen. I think Spiegel may have been with the team longer than you might think for having just signed. Thus I have him starting, even though this team typically takes 2-3 months to decide someone is ready. If Hackshaw wasn’t ready for the bench last week, I’m not sure he’s ready to start this week, which means Riley probably stays in the back line which also means Gomez probably starts unless Bobosi Byaruhanga is ready (and to be honest I am not certain where Glinton sees Byaruhanga fitting in). I prefer Rasmussen over Njie defensively, but whichever plays, I think Prentice earned a start at his natural position (which is not the natural position for either of the others).
I have the game ending 2-2, which I would call improvement and fine.
Jon
I’m in near complete agreement with Peter, but I have Riley pushing back into the midfield. My hope (wish) is that either Hackshaw or Julian Bravo are available to let Camden play where he appeared more frequently in 2024. In the end, I just feel he offers more in the midfield than back line. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see Kendall McIntosh start over Spiegel based on how conservative Roots have proven to be with integrating players in the early portion of the season.
Roots win, 2-0.
Aaron
I had an absolute tour de force written up here about the Roots, the relationship between teams and the areas they represent, the California Coastal Commission, the central American concept of/word apapachar, and the lack of apparent certainty about the long-term state of the midfield. I also predicted the same basic lineup as my compatriots. Unfortunately, one or both of Jon or Peter overwrote it in an attempt to get Jon’s lineup graphic to appear, an endeavor they appear to have abandoned anyway. I’m pretty sure this is what they call cancel culture. I am being silenced (!) for my views. My view is that the Roots should win, by the way.
Anyway, be good to one another. Roots 2-1.
- Trying to will this into existence. If I write it enough, Joe Malfa might start saying it. ↩︎
- My understanding from very limited research is that MBFC did not abandon the use of the term “Union” in their badge because of my campaign of mockery but actually because of another team’s insistence that they own the rights to use the term “Union,” in soccer badges. The cover image of this article could be described as “a light satire” or “playing with fire,” or “giving heartburn to the RootsBlog Board of Directors.” ↩︎