The Roots’ season came to an end in heart-wrenching fashion with a 3-2 defeat in Sacramento. While the result ended their playoff hopes, questions raised by the team’s late-season surge will linger into the offseason.
Loved: Those Twenty Minutes When Anything Seemed Possible
Around the hour mark, the away section went wild. Lexington had improbably come back from 3-1 to level the match at 3-3. After Orange County’s loss earlier in the day, with the Roots leading 2-1, Oakland was in the playoffs if the results held.
“Let’s Go Oakland!” chants immediately started ringing out. Fans high-fived and looked at one another in disbelief. Smiles and laughs spread across the stands. Fans who had spent the first half constantly glancing at their phones for updates turned their attention to the pitch. The Roots just had to hold on.
Earlier, when Lexington went down 3-1, I heard our own Jon C. say something along the lines of, “The soccer gods have spoken.” The Roots making the playoffs just wasn’t in the cards.
Then everything broke the Roots’ way. Maybe the soccer gods were on the Roots’ side. For about twenty minutes, anything seemed possible.
My mind started drifting to the “what-ifs.” A team with a strong defense, a keeper on a hot streak, and an attack featuring the reigning Golden Boot winner seemed like a side that could make some noise in the playoffs.
Then everything came crashing down.
In the 81st minute, Lee Desmond headed a Memo Rodriguez free kick into the back of the net to tie things up. Nine minutes later, Kyle Edwards scored on a counterattack after the Roots committed numbers forward on a corner.
The whistle blew. And just like that, it was over.
On our pod last week, we talked about how fate kept offering the Roots a storybook ending at the Coliseum, only for them to let it slip away.
On Saturday night in Sacramento, fate offered another chance. Perhaps an even sweeter one. Everything the Roots needed broke their way. The only problem was that they couldn’t do their part.
Near the end of the match, Jon leaned over to me and said, “How dare this team make me believe.”
The moment and Jon’s quote captured something bigger about being a Roots fan over the last few seasons.
My most memorable moments haven’t come from what occurred on the pitch. They’ve come from what happens in the stands.
The long pause before Peter Wilson’s penalty in the Coliseum finale, the anticipation building as the crowd waited. Everyone standing and chanting throughout the stadium. Strangers showing each other their phones whenever Lexington scored on Saturday. The eruption of noise from the stands when Lexington scored and the playoff picture shifted.
The results on the field have rarely rewarded the excitement generated in the stands.
Still, for twenty minutes in Sacramento, anything seemed possible.
And despite the gut-wrenching loss, we’ll always have those twenty minutes.
Unsure: What Does the End of the Season Mean for Next Year?
For another match, the Roots conceded possession. They had 48% of the possession. It marked a logical conclusion to Oakland’s recent stylistic shift. In their final six matches, the Roots won the possession battle once, against San Antonio.
Those six matches produced one of their strongest runs of form all season, a 3-2-1 stretch against playoff teams and contenders that put Oakland in a position to make the playoffs on the final game of the year.
Earlier in the season, the vision for the club was clear: they wanted to control possession and impose themselves on other teams. Ryan Martin put it bluntly in his Q&A at the start of the season with the blog: “I want to be in possession.”
Then reality set in.
Injuries mounted. Results stagnated. The Roots couldn’t score. And eventually, Oakland became something else. They leaned into their defensive strengths, conceded possession, and looked to hurt teams in transition.
The performances weren’t always pretty. But they worked.
That raises a question: was the late-season surge a temporary adjustment or did it reveal the team’s identity for next year?
The answer may begin with David Garcia.
He was arguably Oakland’s best and most important player during the stretch run. His return raised the floor for the entire team. With him anchoring the back line alongside Michael Edwards, the Roots developed a defensive foundation that kept them competitive even when the attack struggled.
If Garcia returns next season, Oakland could choose to embrace that identity. Rather than building around possession, the Roots could build around defensive solidity and the ability to hurt teams in transition.
The alternative is trying once again to become a possession-dominant side. If that remains the goal, the front office will need to address the problem that persisted throughout the season: a lack of creative midfielders capable of breaking down opponents.
Six matches is a small sample size. A 3-2-1 run doesn’t prove this style of play is right in the long run. But it might be enough to make the organization reconsider which direction it wants to take.
The Roots will have plenty of questions to answer this offseason. Few will matter more than deciding what kind of team they want to be.
Hated: Missing the Playoffs… Again
The loss ensured that the Roots would miss the playoffs for a second straight season.
In a league where eight of twelve teams in the conference make the playoffs, missing out two years in a row should be difficult to pull off. Yet Oakland has missed out in consecutive seasons.
The odds of missing the playoffs in consecutive seasons with this setup are 11%.
You’re about as likely to roll a five in dice.
Steph Curry is about as likely to miss a free throw.
But the two seasons didn’t feel the same.
Last season, especially during the Glinton era, it felt like the players were not fully bought in. There were listless performances, especially in the dog days of summer.
This season, it wasn’t for a lack of effort on the pitch.
From the stands in Sacramento, I watched players fight tooth and nail for the result they needed. I saw them endure a rough start and finish the first half up 2-1. I saw exhausted players sprinting back on defense after turnovers and throwing their bodies in front of shots. I saw a team that never stopped competing.
I drove down the 80 back to Oakland disappointed in the result, but proud of the players who wore the crest.
Last season was unacceptable. This year is understandable. It was a transition year and Ryan Martin’s first year at the helm.
Still, in a league where nearly everyone makes the playoffs, the playoffs should be the baseline.
After missing the playoffs last season, Lindsay Barenz issued a statement acknowledging the disappointment. She wrote, “We must also face the difficult reality that our performance on the field did not meet our expectations” and that it was important to “recognize and learn from the challenges.”
After the Roots’ elimination this weekend, the club thanked its fans on Instagram and acknowledged the “lows we won’t pretend away.”
Missing the playoffs in two straight seasons, missing the playoffs in three of the last four years, and delivering a toothless performance in their playoff game in 2024 are lows that the club can’t pretend away anyways.
The club has acknowledged the problem. But talk is cheap.
Next year, it’s time for those actions to speak for themselves.