Roots fans it’s game day! Roots host long-time rival (sometimes with more bad blood than others) Phoenix Rising at 7:00 p.m. at Saturday, July 12 at the historic Oakland Coliseum. Roots are celebrating Bastille Day with the guillotining of effigies of artistocrats and Girondins in the parking lot in the lead-up to the game, followed by a half-time performance of La Marseillaise by the Chœur de l’Armée française featuring Mistah F.A.B. Roots will also be giving out little mosaic revolutionary cockades. It is going to be lit.
Around the Western Conference
Roots are on a winning streak and have shot up the Western Conference table!
Oakland Roots to the moon!
Seriously, though, a point out of a playoff spot and five points out of a home playoff spot is almost unimaginable for how dire things felt with Feilhaber came on.
Rising’s Form
Not good.
Phoenix started the season 1-5-4 through May 7. It looked like they’d turned things around with four wins on the bounce over New Mexico, Monterey, Las Vegas and Orange County. They have come back down to earth, though, with a 1-1 draw to FC Tulsa, a 4-1 loss to Charleston, and a 1-0 Loss at home to Lexington. Lexington are hot, with three wins in a row, but as you can see from the table, they are not “good,” at least we shouldn’t say so yet.
Y’all want to see Phoenix get dunked on?
A bit I’d like to adopt but will lose track of is “Phoenix Rising is the Sideshow Bob of USL Championship.”1 Needs work, which I will not do, thus the forgetting. On to the dunking!
My read of this is that Phoenix’s defense is prone to awful high-pressure lapses, particularly one-on-one, which is a thing Roots fans are FRUSTRATINGLY FAMILIAR WITH. The fourth is really a wonderful USL goal, Hassoou Landry strikes the ball almost exactly on the half-way line and, to be honest, I think the Phoenix keeper does not look like he hustles as hard as he can to get the save. I’m not saying he gets there, I’m saying it’s much funnier if he sprints and then falls into the net. Honestly, the only bad part of this game is that it can’t be blamed on Juan Guerra.
Roots’ Form
One loves to see it, does one not?
Roots’ Defense–Maybe fixed?
Roots’ Offense–Extremely not fixed.
Roots’ Luck–FEELING IT.
It is a little amusing that the highlights go straight from kickoff to the end of the first half. “Nothing of import happened here.”
We named Panos our man of the match, and he had to be, but Gagi and Ali both joined him on the USL Team of the Week. Since Feilhaber took over, Roots’ opponents xG has fallen precipitously, with basically only Colorado Springs exceeding the 1.0 xG mark. Roots’ offense has suffered in that time, and the xG against Detroit City suggests Roots got a little lucky, but Roots have deserved some luck. Plus, on an individual level, Feilhaber seems to have unlocked something in both Panos and Ali. On a day where the Roots overall played pretty well, I felt that Wilson, Prentice, and Bravo all had pretty pedestrian performances (although Bravo deserves a share of the credit for a shut-out, without question).
Match Predictions
Bloom
I’m curious to see if Riley or Bobosi can work their way into the starting lineup. I don’t think Feilhaber is going to upset the apple cart to try to get more offense out of the team, at least not unless he’s chasing a goal, but I’d imagine there is still some tweaking as players become available. Also curious if Damm is back to being match fit after missing out last week entirely.
I don’t think we did predictions on this week’s RootsPod, so don’t need to worry about consistency there. I like Phoenix to make some mistakes. They certainly have some offensive capabilities, but they haven’t been getting much joy recently. Roots 1-0.
Jon
Bonjour, ca va?!
Starting off, the main question about the lineup is at left outside back. Jürgen Damm was left out of the previous lineup, which I’ve heard was a “team decision.” This means Julian Bravo could be Roots’ only option, and if so, I think LWB is a prime position to address with less than a month left in the transfer window. I’d honestly be surprised if a move doesn’t happen before I return home. I just hope, 1. It doesn’t happen while I’m sleeping, and 2. It doesn’t happen while I’m doing tourist shit in France. If they do either, scold them for me, s’il vous plaît.
Aside from that, I’m going no changes. Ali starts at CM opposite Gibson, Panos starts in the 10, and the Gagi-sance continues. Roots keep the good times rolling in another 2-nil win.
Aaron
Hey, did you guys see clips from that TV hit that Tom Homan did, in which he asserted that ICE agents “don’t need probable cause” to “briefly detain” someone based on “physical appearance”? Just FYI, that is deeply wrong, both morally and constitutionally. And anyway, it’s pretty rich coming from a guy whose physical appearance would probably give a police department probable cause to detain him over a number of crimes.
Anyway, I’m liking the Roots here. I imagine they will continue to churn out really solid, vanilla performances for a bit. Very midwestern of them, all things considered. But I think there’s enough quality among the attacking players to produce enough moments of magic to produce a goal. 1-0 Oakland.
- No one who speaks German could be an evil man. ↩︎