Oakland Roots earned their first points in club history at Al Lang Stadium. drawing 2-2 with the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Here is one thing I loved, remain unsure about, and hated from Saturday night.
Loved: The Roots’ Grit
I’ve never been a believer in moral victories. I’ve always believed that what the scoreboard shows is the bottom line. Saturday was one of those rare occasions that challenged that belief.
Although Roots only walked away with a point, it felt like so much more. They traveled across the country, faced one of the league’s best teams, and did it with a hobbled roster.
All of these factors mattered. However, one stood above the rest: the grit Oakland displayed throughout the match.
This can’t be measured by FotMob ratings, possession, or shots on target. It is something intangible. But it was impossible to miss – even through a television screen almost 3,000 miles away.
The fact that Roots went down not once, but twice, and rallied back against the best team in the USL reflects that grit. They responded within 15 minutes after each goal.
Tampa Bay’s first goal three minutes into the match was a confluence of mistakes by the Roots. It would have been easy to fold, but they didn’t. Instead, they responded by dominating long stretches of the game with a beautiful style of possession football.
Then came the gut punch: a first-half stoppage time goal after the Roots’ strongest stretch of the match. Shoulders could have slumped. Heads could have bowed. Again, they didn’t. Roots came out of the halftime break and immediately scored.
Oakland scratched and clawed back twice to earn the point. They didn’t just survive; they thrived for large portions of the game. The match demonstrated the emergence of an identity that head coach Ryan Martin called for in the preseason.
This identity is even more surprising given the past two seasons. Former coach Gavin Glinton constantly called out the Roots’ culture and lack of grit. After a match against Sacramento in July 2024, Glinton remarked, “Just nowhere near an acceptable level of effort, to be honest… Unacceptable isn’t even the right word; it was embarrassing to see the lack of effort and commitment.”
After Glinton’s firing, Benny Feilhaber echoed Glinton’s sentiments near the end of the 2025 season, lambasting the lack of leadership by stating, “I don’t think we have enough guys, I really don’t,” and lamenting the lack of players “who bring the level up a notch in tackling and grittiness.”
That history makes Saturday stand out even more. Many of those same players are still on the roster. Roots’ fight against Tampa Bay is a testament to the leadership of Martin and the roster’s buy-in to his philosophy.
One of the major characteristics of the East Bay, and Oakland especially, is its grit. That hardworking, blue-collar attitude forged from existing in the shadow of a much bigger, flashier city. An attitude shaped by being spurned by three franchises. A resilience built from being counted out again and again. As The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson put it, “Being constantly disrespected and disregarded has created an edge, a penchant for having something to prove.”
The last two seasons, I watched the Roots come out flat far too often, with matches against Hartford and Pittsburgh coming to mind. It might have been one match, but Saturday felt different.
For the first time in a long time, this team felt like Oakland.
Unsure: What to think of the Goalkeeper position
Those hoping that Kendall McIntosh would seize the starting goalkeeper spot from Raphael Spiegel will need to wait another week.
When looking at Saturday’s statistics, McIntosh’s performance looks eerily similar to Spiegel’s per-90 statistics for the season. It is a small sample size, but that’s all McIntosh has to win the job.
McIntosh logged three saves, while Spiegel averages 3.75 per match. McIntosh completed 18 passes, while Spiegel completes 17.25 on average. McIntosh proved slightly more accurate with his passes (72.0%) than Spiegel (66.3%). Spiegel has been more effective going long, averaging 3.75 long balls per match at 30.0% success rate compared to McIntosh’s lone long pass at a 14.3% rate. McIntosh’s save percentage (60.0%) trailed Spiegel’s as well (78.9%).
All in all, the performance did little to change the dynamics of the position. If anything, it reinforced a harsh reality: the long-term starter may not currently be on the roster.
Hated: Another Injury to a Depleted Backline
Tyler Gibson departed the match in the 58th minute due to injury, resulting in Michael Edwards moving to right back after Gibson’s injury. It’s the second straight match that the Roots were forced to make the move. It means that shifting Edwards to the right back spot weakens one of Oakland’s biggest strengths: the center back pairing of Edwards and David Garcia.
More concerningly, a backline of Edwards, Garcia, Neveal Hackshaw, and Julian Bravo, while physically imposing, lacks pace and can be exposed in space. Tampa targeted this by playing quickly between lines and stretching the backline. It nearly worked. Chances came in the 60th minute, 65th minute, and 85th minute that attacked this vulnerability.
The deeper issue is workload. Garcia and Edwards have played every minute this season. Julian Bravo, already nursing an injury, has played 390 of 450 possible minutes. Gibson’s injury only worsens this issue. That creates a difficult balancing act for Martin: Roots’ need for these players on the field versus the increased injury risk that comes with heavily relying on them.
The situation may push Martin to lean more on Jesus de Vicente. After a difficult debut against Phoenix, de Vicente has appeared in three straight matches as a substitute. In each successive appearance, he looked more comfortable and effective. On Saturday, he delivered a beautifully weighted pass to Peter Wilson to set up a major chance. His arrow is pointing upward at the exact moment the Roots need him.
Early on, the season has already thrown adversity at the right back position. Presumed starter Keegan Tingey has already missed significant time, and it remains unclear when he will be available. Mark Fisher stepped into the role and impressed before going down with an injury at Phoenix, resulting in Gibson shifting out wide. Now, Gibson joins the list of injured right backs. Is it Jesse Maldonado’s time to get more minutes after being signed to a 25-day contract? With the depth chart already at dangerously thin levels, will he receive a year-long contract to shore up the roster?
One by one, options are disappearing. Martin will need to find answers quickly. It’ll be another test of that Oakland grit.