Roots fans it is game day again and time to get your weekend off to an early start! Roots travel to Cary, North Carolina where they will face North Carolina F.C. at 4:00 p.m. Pacific at WakeMed Soccer Park. Roots are coming off one of their wins of the season and North Carolina are fresh off a 1-0 win over Orange County S.C.
[This song was discussed on a recent episode of 60 Songs that Explain the 90s1 and it has been jammed squarely in my head since then]
As a side note before we get into the soccer, I want to make sure you saw this story about Nashville SC supporters groups. Everything is political, especially sports. What ICE is doing in this country is unforgiveable. Purportedly sensible political and media figures wagged their fingers at us for calling to abolish ICE five years ago and we were right and they were wrong. Abolish ICE and prosecute its leadership and the administration.2
Around the Western Conference
Roots are one win off of a home playoff berth, just like we all predicted. Obviously a lot of those teams above the Roots have a game in hand, but Roots are suddenly very much in the mix in a way that they just weren’t four league games ago.
NCFC’s Form
NCFC allowed five shots on target, but not a single big chance, per FotMob. You’ll (I’ll) be pleased to know that Tom Brewitt got real big on a stoppage time corner kick that he put on goal with pace, but right into the NCFC keeper to preserve the win.
NCFC have scored 11 goals on the season and conceded 9 (for context, the Roots have scored 11 and conceded 14 in the same number of games). NCFC’s offense is led by Evan Conway, who you will recall from his stint with San Diego Loyal from 2022-2024. Another familiar face is center back Conor Donovan (Donor Conovan), who played for Sacramento Republic 2022 until this season. The only player other than Conway with multiple goals is defensive midfielder Pedro Dolabella3 who NCFC picked up off of USL League One Union Omaha this past offseason. FotMob identifies as NCFC’s standout player on the season Rafael Mentzingen, a Brazilian (?) RWB.
Roots’ Form
Well well well not so easy to find a keeper who doesn’t suck shit, huh?
Roots’ aggressive press almost paid off in the third minute when Peter Wilson pressured the San Antonio center back on an errant back pass and won possession about 20 yards out. The difficulty of winning the ball left Wilson with no momentum and he had to try to juke the onrushing keeper from more or less a standstill. The keeper dove and batted the ball away, and by the time Wilson recovered to shoot there were defenders back and Wilson had to just rip it past the two now-recovered centerbacks, missing just wide. I did not realize this live, but on replay it really looks like the San Antonio keeper’s swat of the ball starts inside the box and finishes outside the box, which I think is supposed to be a red card? That is, intentionally handling the ball outside the 18-yard-box to prevent a goalscoring opportunity. The referee was not interested and did have a better view than the camera, although there was a lot going on and it would be a sorta strange call. VAR might have had made a big difference there. Still. Sanchez was lucky to stay on.
I may have overreacted in the game thread when I said that Jorge Hernandez’s opener was a worldie, but it’s still an excellent goal at pace under pressure and man I am tired of Roots’ opponents always seeming to execute those. San Antonio pinged the ball around with some crisp headers, and when the ball found Hernandez, Greene was wrong-footed and by the time he recovered Hernandez had gotten his shot away. I honestly do not really fault Greene here, I think when a player controls the ball that cleanly and can quickly put in a shot that beats the keeper to the far post that there’s just not much you can do.
Luckily, Roots were able to get one back on a penalty ten minutes later. Wilson made a lot of the contact that was called for the foul, but the San Antonio player made a pretty colossal mistake and I would be surprised if anyone is suggesting it wasn’t a foul. Sinisterra’s penalty was class, utterly fooling the keeper so that he was fully on the ground before Sinisterra made contact, allowing him to just pass it the other way.4
McIntosh had some big saves in the second half, particularly a stretch between 70 and 80 minutes, culminating in a diving point blank save in the 77th that was the pick of the bunch.
In the 84th a Roots’ attack frustratingly petered out and, apparently caught between two minds, San Antonio’s keeper lost the ball mid-throw, sorta lobbing it to Peter Wilson in the box. Wilson was not to be denied again, and took a couple little touches and scored on the empty net.
The beautiful game.
Just a couple minutes later, Mitch Taintor got a second yellow and the Roots saw it out up a man.
One of Roots’ better performances of the season, and a deserved result, even if Roots did not dominate. I suspect the Roots will not dominate many games this year, but their three wins in the last four league games suggest that maybe they can win with this recipe of stiff defense (particularly in the air) and capitalizing on turnovers in dangerous areas.
Match Predictions
Roots are not changing their lineup much in recent weeks, so we’re going to move this into a general “match prediction” section for now. Try it on. See how it feels. Give it a little walk around.
Bloom
North Carolina have a pretty marginally better record, and are at home, so are probably favorites on paper. Roots’ form has improved recently, but that’s a long flight to North Carolina, so I think it will be uphill for Roots. NCFC have had basically 50/50 possession in their last two games, though, so they don’t appear to be averse to taking possession, and playing at home, that could mean the Roots will have the opportunity to run out their press and fast counter plan. Still, it’s a long flight. 1-1 draw, and we call it a point well earned.
Jon5
My one change from the previous lineup is Camden Riley replacing Ilya Alekseev. If he’s healthy, I could also see Jurgen Damm at the spot. I like how last week’s system operated, so other than that, no changes.
The boys come back home on a high note, 2-nil Roots
Aaron
Not a huge fan of these cross-country trips, tbh. They were unkind to the Roots last year, but also they were all basically crammed in one part of the season. Going to North Carolina just a couple days after getting back from San Antonio does sound awful to me, but I’m not a professional athlete. In addition to the travel, I’m not sure this is the best matchup for the Roots. But the team is also flying right now. I won’t read too much into a loss here, but I like the Roots to continue their good form. 2-1 Oakland.
- If you’ve never listened, I highly recommend. The relevant episode is “Feel Good, Inc.” which, yes, is a 2000s song and does not feature Del. That is not what we would consider a tenuous connection by the standards of that show. ↩︎
- A good buddy of mine recently observed that the only thing making him feel patriotic these days is Jason Mantzoukas on Taskmaster and I cannot disagree. ↩︎
- Mr. Dolabella, Mr. Bob Dolabella; Mr. Dolabella, Mr. Bob Dolabella ↩︎
- Someone pointed out that the ESPN+ feed was the San Antonio broadcast and they were being unusually home team biased. In my rewatch to capture some gifs, I realized that they literally refer to SAFC as “the good guys.” ↩︎
- Jon apparently dislikes a “general” match prediction format. Or maybe he just likes the new lineup prediction graphics more. ↩︎