Oakland Roots hired former Sporting KC II head coach and United States Men’s National Team midfielder Benny Feilhaber as their new head coach on Monday. He’ll be at the helm of Roots, at least, through the remaining 2025 season.
Feilhaber comes to Roots after parting ways with SKC II in November after the conclusion of their 2024 season. He ended his time at Kansas City with a record of 32-15-33 in MLS Next Pro.
Being without a head coaching job for the last seven months, it’s difficult to imagine Feilhaber was in demand around the USL Championship or MLS. His most recent activity was on the pitch playing for Des Moines Menace in the U.S. Open Cup earlier this spring, appearing in their 2-1 win over SKCII on March 19 and Des Moines’ 2-1 loss to Union Omaha on April 2–where he scored a penalty kick goal.
At just 40 years old, Oakland is taking a gamble to see if a former USMNT talent with head coaching experience can blossom and invigorate Oakland’s struggling side. Despite holding a record with more losses than wins, Fielhaber has a proven ability to groom talent.
Fullback Jake Davis, valued at $2 million on Transfermarkt, has been one of Sporting KC’s biggest breakthroughs out of its academy. Davis played under Fielhaber in 2021 when he was the club’s assistant coach, played over 1,000 minutes in 2022, and briefly appeared in 2023. His valuation grew from $150,000 in 2021.
Kayden Pierre, 22, carries a valuation of $800,000 and now plays for KRC Genk of Belgium’s first division. He appeared 2,352 minutes in their 2021 USL Championship squad and watched his value grow from $100,000 in 2021.
John Pulskamp, 24, is a goalkeeper who got time in SKC II’s starting lineup in 2021 and 2022, and limited minutes in 2023 and 2024. His valuation jumped from $250,000 in 2021 to a high of $500,000 in 2024.
Kamron Habibullah, 21, is a striker and midfielder who now plays for Sandvikens IF in the second tier of Swedish football. He scored 11 goals and three assists in 2,000 minutes in his lone year in Kansas City last season. His value rose $25,000 to $225,000 under Feilhaber.
Beto Avila, 24, is another striker who currently plays for El Paso Locomotive after one year with SKC II. His valuation dropped $25,000 to $225,000, but he logged 1,881 minutes last season with nine goals and three assists.
Ethan Bryant, 23, has 10 appearances for Monterey Bay this season as a central midfielder. He had 1,178 minutes in 2024, scoring five goals and five assists, to go along with 1,768 minutes in 2023 for eight goals and three assists.
Oakland certainly has younger players like Ilya Alekseev, EJ Johnson, Julian Bravo, Danny Gomez, Wolfgang Prentice, Panos Armenakas, and Jose Luis Sinisterra who could use guidance. If Feilhaber can help create production, maybe he has a future at the organization.
However, Feilhaber’s future remains a looming question. Let’s dive into that below.
Looming Questions
Benny’s addition becomes the organization’s seventh head coach for its men’s first team since its inception in 2019.
Because of the seemingly never-ending revolving door, many fans are taking to social media to ask if Feilhaber’s arrival is enough to turn the page on years of shoddy decision-making.
In 2019, Paul Bravo was the team’s first manager in NISA and finished winless at 0-3-3. Technical director Jordan Ferrell then took over in the spring of 2020 prior to the pandemic, remaining head coach until entering his current position when joining the USL Championship in 2021.
Dario Pot, now an assistant coach at Loudoun, was hired as head coach in 2021 but fired just two weeks before the season started, thrusting Ferrell into the interim role. Roots finished 2021 with an 11-8-13 record and snuck into the final Pacific Division playoff spot, upsetting El Paso in the first round and taking eventual-champs Orange County to penalty kicks.
The following offseason, Roots announced Juan Guerra as its head coach on December 30, 2021. Multiple sources previously confirmed Guerra was the second choice that offseason, originally offering current Phoenix Rising HC Pah-Modou Kah a contract after he won the Canadian Premier League Final with Pacific FC and was named the league’s Coach of the Year. Kah opted to join North Texas SC in 2022 and spent two years with Charlotte FC of MLS before arriving in Phoenix for 2025.
Guerra then spurned the organization with nine games left in 2022 for Phoenix Rising’s vacant head coaching job, winning a league title the following year. Delgado took over as interim head coach and went 5-1-3 to attain a playoff spot, upsetting San Diego 3-nil in the first round on his way to landing the full-time gig.
Delgado finished the 2023 season 11-9-14 and 10th place in the Western Conference, but was retained for 2024 after missing the playoffs for the first time in club history.
After firing Delgado in 2024, Gavin Glinton was named interim head coach, leading the team to seventh place and securing a playoff berth. Oakland announced they re-signed Glinton to the lead role despite the supporters’ groups’ pleas for change.
Oakland is now on the hook to pay out Glinton and assistant coach Jesse Cormier’s remaining contracts, as it did with Delgado.
Feilhaber becomes Roots’ third head coach since president Lindsay Barenz’s arrival on January 13 of 2022, and the first hire outside the organization under her watch; Guerra was notably brought into the fold before Barenz’s appointment. Roots hold a league record of 38-28-47 under Barenz since 2022, equating to a 33.6 winning percentage.
The commitment to Feilhaber is still unclear.
Roots and Barenz commented twice in Monday’s press release that Feilhaber is slated to lead the team, “through the end of the season,” at minimum. Barenz also said their roster is good enough to make a “strong run into the playoffs.”
Is attaining a playoff berth, once again, the club’s goal? Is Feilhaber someone they intend to build around toward 2026, or is he a five-month appointment to reevaluate at season’s end?
Feilhaber, 40, is young and clearly has potential with his background in the professional game. But for Roots, stability at head coach has been something the organization has yet to find since its creation in 2019. Can Feilhaber provide the security Oakland needs?
It all spells out another imperative situation that Barenz and Roots’ board has put themselves in come November. Time will tell if Oakland has learned from their mistakes.