Roots fans can you believe that it is game day once again?! Probably. I mean, there is a scheduled game for tonight. Louisville and Lexington played last night. Probably the Oakland Roots are going to play tonight. But maybe not! Anyway, should a game break out, it will be at 7:00 p.m. at Cardinale Stadium in Seaside, California. At the time I am very belatedly writing this, there is still probably time to grab a ticket and get down there! You can also catch the match on ESPN+ or KTVU Plus.
Is There Going to be a Game/Season
Unclear!
The USLPA has voted to authorize a strike. They have, to date, not actually struck. The season opener between Louisville and Lexington went forward following a stoppage of play at kickoff where the players stood aroud in protest while the traveling Louisville fans chanted “we support the players” (not really audible in the clip).
The Players Association made a public statement to the fans about their demands in December. You can find that here.
Their more recent statement is here:
The response by the owners, which I’m not going to bother sharing, suggests that some portion of teams already meet the demands by the players. Tommy McCabe made some remarks at media day that suggest the players in Oakland are not disappointed with the Oakland benefits, but I really do not want to get out over my skis and suggest I know something about how this all works that I don’t.
While I have no specific reason to think the Roots’ ownership are part of the problem, I think it cannot hurt for Roots fans, on the road and at home, to vocally support the players, if only to make sure that Roots’ ownership understands that we think it is incumbent upon them to bully other owners into treating their players with dignity.
Monterey Bay’s Offseason
Monterey Bay had a disappointing 2025, finishing 11th in the Western Conference, a 7-8-15 record, with a mediocre defense and a paltry 27 goals scored. The only team less productive than Monterey Bay was Las Vegas with 23 (people were very angry about the Roots selling Johnny Rodriguez and, while I liked the guy and think he’s better than his 2025, I will be raising this repeatedly this season). Mayele Malongo shared the team lead for goals with 5 (oof) and he is a key departure. They have added a number of likely starters, and while it’s hard to predict them getting worse, neither Backheeled nor I is predicting them to get much better.
Since Backheeled wrote their season preview, MBFC added 33-year-old San Francisco-native and USMNT veteran Sebastian Lletget. Lletget moved from Santa Clara Sporting to the West Ham United Academy at 17 but never played for the first team. He moved to LA Galaxy where he accumulated 158 appearances between 2015 and 2021, earning himself 33 caps for the USMNT between 2017 and 2021. He played one season for New England Revlution in 2022 and moved mid-season to FC Dallas where he has played since. While he was a semi-regular starter in 2024, he made only 15 starts in 2023 and 14 in 2025, suggesting that he is an “old 33” so to speak. During his time at FC Dallas he also faced allegations that he cheated on Becky G, and per Wikipedia he “apologized for cheating allegations,” which may just be dubious Wikipedia writing but it’s pretty funny if he apologized for the allegations.
Roots’ Offseason
There’s still time to listen to this week’s RootsPod! Maybe on your drive down to Seaside!
Roots’ Form
N/A
MBFC’s Form
N/A
Is the World Less Fucked than Last Match?
No, significantly more fucked! The U.S. all but declared war on both Venezuela and Iran and began a concerted, large-scale ethnic cleansing campaign in Minneapolis (and less concerted elsewhere). I’d say the outlook isn’t looking great for improvement before the next match. The best bit of hope is that the President appears to be falling apart at the seams and he was pressured into canning crimes-against-humanity specialist Kristi Noem.
Also, as disappointing as the Democrats have been for the last 2-90 years, the country is really turning on the GOP because, as it turns out, a sizeable portion of the American electorate doesn’t actually like the ethnic cleansing campaign that was the natural, predictable outcome of their voting for the GOP.
Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy posted this week about seeing erstwhile DHS Secretary Kristi Noem at “Nuremberg 2.0” and I hope he understands how very specifically I am taking that promise.
Match Predictions
Bloom
Hard to project an exact lineup, but as we discussed on the podcast, I think that–injuries allowing–Martin is going to try to play something like a 4-4-2 diamond with two out-and-out forwards, a creative attacking midfielder at the top of the diamond, attacking midfielders on either side of it, and a single holding midfielder to set the tempo. This would be a much more offensively-minded lineup than we have basically ever seen from the Roots. Let’s hope the new-look defense is up for it!
I am not overly confident that the Roots will have their shit completely together week 1, but balancing that against the same issue for Monterey Bay and the fact that my gut (re: John Morrissey’s significant research) tells me that Monterey Bay aren’t going to be particularly good this season, I am predicting the Roots get a 2-0 win despite some shaky play at times. A goal from a forward and from Bobosi to get the season off on a three points.
Jon
I’m sticking to my guess on RootsPod of a huge 4-2 Oakland victory to set the tone for Ryan Martin’s Roots.
As for the lineup, the club did not provide any injury notes in its Match Notes press release, so we’ll see how things shake out. Still, I think there are several people you can expect to start, like Peter Wilson, Bobosi Byaruhanga, Tommy McCabe, David Garcia, Michael Edwards, and Wolfgang Prentice.
Aaron
As I said on the Pod, There Will Be Goals but I don’t know if there will be any real lessons, so to speak. The addition of two attackers in the last week who don’t seem like they’re destined to be top contributors this year suggest a team uncertain about depth in attack. When things got going last year, Roots were getting a lot of help from guys who are probably best classified as attacking mids in the modern game. Assuming we see a match, I think the Roots probably operate out of a fairly defensive-looking 4-2-3-1.
One thing the Roots have going for them to start the season is that they return a bunch of guys who have already played together, and have imported a handful of guys who also have played together, which I think decreases the runway you need to start gelling. My guess is that this pays off early, then we have an exchange of really scrappy goals going into halftime, and then the Roots put it away late as Monterey presses for a share of the points.