Oakland Roots were able to salvage a point in a 1-1 draw with Birmingham Legion on June 17 at the Coliseum, thanks to a late goal by Peter Wilson in the third minute of second-half stoppage time. Pending Tulsa’s results tonight, Roots stay in third place and are now two points shy of second-place Orange County and three back of first-place San Antonio. However, they remain just three points ahead of 10th-place Las Vegas in the ultra-compact USL Championship Western Conference standings.
Right before halftime, with Roots controlling nearly 70 percent of possession, Birmingham opened the scoring when a through ball from near midfield found Peter Vasell running in behind the defense. Vasell sent a clinical shot into the top corner strike for one of Birmingham’s two shots on target.
“We felt really good about the performance overall. We thought the start of the match was good, the first half was really dominant,” coach Ryan Martin said. “I think we took a very valuable lesson about the margins of error, and a turnover in the middle of the field leading to a counterattack against a team that sits in a low block, which makes a difficult second half for us.”
In added time of the match, Oakland’s pressure finally created an answer. From a corner, Jesus de Vicente sent a long cross that bounced to Wilson, swinging his foot through the ball when falling backwards to guide it inside the right post.
The goal marked Wilson’s seventh of the year, tying him for fifth in the league with former Roots and current Lights striker Johnny Rodriguez. De Vicente was credited with his fourth assist of the year, tying him for the league lead with 10 other players, including Wolfgang Prentice.
Offensive woes
Oakland was just a couple of minutes away from going their third league match in a row without a goal. They went approximately 302 minutes of regulation time without scoring, going back to their 3-2 loss to Orange County on May 23. As a result of the offensive woes, Roots are still searching for their first USL Championship win since May 9 against El Paso.
Martin can see a common trend in what’s factoring into the offensive struggles in the last few league games, pointing out that they are figuring out how to break past defenses sitting in a low block.
“In the last three games, in particular, teams are sitting in lower blocks and forcing us to break them down. To do that, you need incredible quality in those final moments and avoid rushing the game,” Martin said, via Daniel Poulter. “It’s so hard when you’re playing low blocks. The World Cup is a tremendous example of teams that are struggling to break low blocks and have to deny the counter. I went to the Austria-Jordan game, and it was basically the same story.”
It goes back to Saturday’s tie with Miami, where Martin talked about how their system is still in the development stages. It’s worth noting that Oakland still ranks 2nd in the Western Conference with 19 goals despite its long run without scoring.
Opposing teams are finding ways to adjust, forcing Oakland to find new avenues toward the net, and Martin knows that. Although the scoring drought has come as a bit of a surprise, the numbers show that they’re working to figure it out.
“We have a mission to continue to improve and be a better team than we were today. So, when we get to Saturday or the next time we see a low block, we’re going to be more ready for it,” Martin said. “We just keep learning from these moments. How fast can we move the ball? How much can we shift to create vertical pockets and get behind the back line? When there’s not much space behind, the precision has to be elite.
“That’s now the challenge for the guys. Some of the guys haven’t been in moments where the space is so condensed, and they have to operate in different realms. Teams are being so compact against us, and you have to be able to move them. It means we need a little more versatility and thought behind what we’re trying to do.”
It marks a second match in a row where Oakland controlled the offensive action.
In the 0-0 tie with Miami on Saturday, Roots finished with 66 percent of the ball and logged 12 shots, 3 on target, 22 touches inside the box, missed two big chances, and drew seven corners. On Wednesday, Oakland had marginally better numbers with 13 shots, 3 on target, 37 touches inside the box, and 11 corners.
“I think we created more than enough to get a win,” Martin said. “At the same time, the resiliency and the belief that the team showed to score in added time is incredible. I think they just kept believing, kept fighting, and we knew our chances were going to come again.”
Danny Trejo still finding the mark
Danny Trejo is still seeking his first goal contribution of the season in 13 appearances and 511 total minutes. Last season, Trejo logged two goals and two assists in five fewer appearances and 118 less minutes.
Despite not finding the mark, Trejo is still showing an ability to create chances. He ranks in the top 20 percent of USL Championship forwards with 0.35 big chances created per game, is in the top 13 percent with 1.41 successful dribbles per game, and is in the top 12 percent with 5.99 touches inside the box per game.
According to Martin, Trejo is still showing those signs of the clinical finisher he was throughout his time in the USL Championship during their training sessions. For his league career, the forward has 40 goals and 15 assists in 7,816 minutes.
To Oakland’s players and coaching staff, it’s a matter of time before he rediscovers himself.
“He converts in training and continues to train well, which is why he gets minutes. He will continue to get minutes, because even though he missed a big chance [against Miami], he adds a lot of quality,” Martin said last Saturday. “He’s very dynamic one-v-one, and his pressing is very good. It’s similar to our conversation about Peter [Wilson] in the beginning of the year, where if he gets one, it will open up the floodgates.
“We keep telling him to keep believing in himself, getting in the right positions, and it will happen. Strikers tend to put a lot of pressure on themselves when they aren’t scoring, and almost tighten up to a detrimental level. He has to play freely and be the best version of Danny. He helps the team in so many different ways.”
As Martin mentioned, it was a similar conversation with Wilson before he started his scoring run with a hat trick against Las Vegas six games into the season. When asked about Trejo, Wilson reiterated that the forward is impressive in practice.
“The most important thing for us as a team is to support him. We see him score goals in practice; he’s an incredible player. He can go one-on-one and beat any defender in this league. For us, it’s just supporting him, knowing what he can do. Eventually, when he starts scoring, it’s just going to keep on rolling. We all believe in Danny,” Wilson said, via Poulter.
Raphael Spiegel getting the nod
One of the marquee changes was Martin giving the nod to Raphael Spiegel at goalkeeper. It came after Kendall McIntosh made two consecutive league starts, including keeping Miami scoreless on the weekend.
Martin explained his decision, pointing out that the metrics show Spiegel has a strong points per game average while showing he’s a good system-fit.
“We thought he performed really well in the Las Vegas game. He’s done a lot and has gotten a lot of points per game in terms of what we’re trying to build. He has two of our shutouts,” Martin said, via Poulter. “The race has been tight between the two; they are both very good goalkeepers who have pushed themselves to open up the door.”
Martin added that they are still working toward deciding the starter for June 20 at Phoenix, and will decide on a “full-time” starter in the near future.
“We’ll take a look on Saturday. I told both of them that we’ll make a decision after the break on which direction we will go full-time,” Martin said.
Starting Lineups
- Oakland Roots
As Ryan Martin promised after the previous game, Peter Wilson returns to the striker position. Aside from him, Roots feature two other changes from Saturday. Tucker Lepley starts in place of Faysal Bettache, while Raphael Spiegel is back as the starting goalkeeper. No changes other than that. Bobosi gets his second straight start opposite of Tommy McCabe. Bravo continues to start opposite Edwards. Tingey and De Vicente make up the fullback combination.
Timeline
Birmingham GK spills a ball, leads to a shot by Bobosi from atop the box that’s blocked – 8′
Comes as a result of a good buildup down the left with Wolfgang.
Corner – 9′
Birmingham corner – 12′
Leads to a shot blocked out for another corner
Legion corner – 12′
Leads to another
Legion corner – 13′
Play short, ball in quickly cleared.
Legion header loops high – 16′
Comes from a long ball off a free kick
Legion rolls a shot wide – 18′
Valot shot blocked in the box – 22′
Lepley with a shot on target – 24′
Forces a diving save that was slow enough to handle. Lepley does well to make a few dribbles in the box and maintain possession.
May have actually been going a foot wide.
De Vicente dangerous ball to in front of net – 25′
Nearly settles for Wilson right in front, but no one can clean it up
Wolfgang sends a boucning shot on target, great feed from Valot into the box – 26′
Forces a corner
Corner – 26′
Corner – 36′
Ball is headed by Tingey and it skims off a defender, ball hits the post and out for another corner on the opposite side.
Corner – 37′
Corner – 44′
Nearly finds Michael Edwards on the doorstep. Goes for a high kick, probably could’ve headed that.
Legion scores on the counter right before halftime – 45+2′
Terrible defense in transition. De Vicente caught out of position on the left side, leads to a goal by Vassell. Birmingham’s first shot on target.
First Half Notes:
Terrible end for Roots, after otherwise controlling the action. They have nearly 70% of possession, 4 shots, 2 on target, 5 corners, 20 touches in the box, and several dangerous passes to in front of the net — but they’ve done nothing with it. Legion with 4 shots, its 1 on target a goal. We’ll see if Oakland turns things up even more.
Free kick in good area near the right corner flag – 48′
De Vicente lines up over it, leads to a header by Edwards that loops way high.
Corner – 55′
Ball fell to Edwards, but his header loops high. Probably can’t count that as a shot.
Corner – 59′
Jacquesson, Trejo, and Hackshaw on for Lepley, Wolfgang, and Bravo – 61′
Corner – 66′
Trejo dangerous pass to Jacquesson but deflected away – 73′
Bobosi sends a shot from 40 yards about 40 yards wide – 74′
Trejo dangerous ball to Wilson in the box, really hard pass behind him – 80′
Legion shot goes narrowly wide – 81′
Faysal on for Valot – 83′
Kiil on for Edwards
Damus shot blocked in the box – 85
Leads to a long shot by Legion that forces a diving save from Spiegel.
Corner – 90+2′
PETER WILSON CATCHES IT ON THE VOLLEY!!!!!!!
Bettache tries to send a rocket from distance on a volley – 90+5′
Spiegel big stop at the end – 90+7′
Great to rush off his line