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We here at the Blog have always thought the Roots should have modest objectives for this, their inaugural season in the USL:

  1. Put a competitive team on the field,

  2. Drain the world’s oceans so we can find and kill god.


In fairness, we recognized that #2 might be a little ambitious. Maybe make the playoffs before pursuing the Almighty, you know? We did not imagine Oakland would get tripped up on objective #1. Yet here we are, 4 games into the season, and Oakland have put together a competitive team, but have no field to play on.



In one of the more surreal scenes I have ever witnessed, Roots announced 25 minutes before kickoff was scheduled to occur that the match with Sacramento Republic would not be played due to field conditions. This is certainly one way to keep the opponent off the scoreboard, but it is not, if we are being totally honest, the Blog’s preferred method.



The pitch for Roots games at Laney College appears to simply be draped over the existing football field. A soccer pitch is quite a bit wider than a football field, so one edge of the pitch drapes over onto the track that runs around the field. According to SF Gate’s Doug Zimmerman, this was the sticking point, with some Republic players raising concerns about that part of the pitch.


I can’t blame Republic players for raising concerns. An uneven pitch is an injury waiting to happen. We here at the Blog are a little flabbergasted this issue wasn’t vetted with the league before now. We’re also concerned that there’s no quick fix. We’re not privy to exactly what caused the match officials to deem the field “unplayable.” If it’s something to do with the fact that part of the pitch lays on the running track (and not simply the quality of that part of the turf), that seems like a significant problem. Perhaps the pitch can be reconfigured to be less wide or shifted within the Laney College stadium footprint. We certainly hope so. If not, it would stand to reason that Roots would have to find somewhere else to play, at least temporarily. There’s no shortage of quality football pitches in the Bay, but Laney is perfect for the Roots brand. Whatever the issue, we hope it’s fixed before Austin Bold get on a plane next week.


So through two scheduled Roots-Republic fixtures, we’ve had a really enjoyable, frantic 3-3 draw, and a game called off due to field conditions. This budding rivalry may not have history, but at least it's got vibes. I hope the match gets rescheduled, although that will be difficult. A quick look at the schedule suggests that a midweek makeup is the only option, possibly July 21, August 11, September 29, or October 27. Any of these options would result in a period of pretty severe fixture congestion for both sides, so the current guess here is that USL will wait to see if the game matters for playoff positioning before deciding to reschedule.

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