Knights of Columbus, that was hard to watch!

Yes, against our better judgment, we've made an Anchorman reference.

The three-day turnaround from Roots’ weekend “home” fixture against Austin Bold meant the starting lineup saw a bit of rotation. Kai Greene and Saalih Muhammad got their first starts of the year, featuring on either side of Tarek Morad in what played as a back 3. Akeem Ward and Memo Diaz appeared to slot in as wingbacks, with Fissore and Mbumba through the middle. Jeremy Bokila again got the start up front, often joined up top by Chuy Enriquez, with Danny Flores providing the ostensible link to the midfield.

The game played out…a lot like Saturday’s. Loyal dominated possession for the first 15 minutes or so, but couldn’t put the ball on net. Zeus made a snazzy looking save in the 11th minute, but on replay it seemed like the ball was headed wide. In the 13th minute, Loyal winger Moshobane tuned Kai and fizzed a dangerous looking cross into the box, but the resulting Loyal shot went wide.

Roots started to get a foothold in the game after the first quarter-hour had gone, but San Diego remained dangerous. Zeus made an absolutely god-like save in the 21st minute:

Zeus de la Paz with an electric stop to keep things level for the Roots. ⚡#SDvOAK | @oaklandrootssc pic.twitter.com/1rGKBCeeNI

— USL Championship (@USLChampionship) June 30, 2021

After that, it seemed that Oakland had weathered the storm. Oakland’s aggressive man-marking in midfield, and their overall defensive organization, can really bog a game down. Over the weekend, it seemed to frustrate Austin, causing them to settle for mostly tame long-range shots, and over the balance of the first half, San Diego started doing the same.

For their part, Oakland had a golden opportunity late in the half, when a Loyal defender misplayed a cross, and it fell to the feet of Bokila. The Loyal keeper was positioned well, though, and the chance came to nothing:

Oakland tried to jumpstart their attack by subbing on Takahashi and Mfeka at halftime, and it kinda worked. San Diego took the half’s first chance, just 20 seconds in, but Loyal’s striker couldn’t make good contact on a cross, and the ball went harmlessly wide. For the most part, however, Oakland spent the early moments of the second half on the front foot.

But the game soon reverted to its first-half pattern: San Diego with the lion’s share of possession, much of it in dangerous areas. This stretch included one heart-in-your-throat moment for Roots fans: Zeus took a little too much time to send a ball long, and Corey Hertzog (who was responsible for Loyal’s chances in the 13th and 21st minutes as well) nearly plucked the ball out of the air. (I believe this is referred to as “Pulling a Kepa.”) Fortunately, the deflection went wide.

Both managers began making changes around the hour mark to try and change the complexion of the match. The first round of subs did not have the desired impact. But in the 67th minute, San Diego brought on Miguel Ibarra. He didn’t change how the game was being played so much as he finally broke the deadlock: In the 72nd minute, a Loyal winger played a ball to the top of the box. Morad, who had been man-marking Ibarra, gambled and tried to tackle the pass’s recipient. That gamble didn’t pay off, and Ibarra was left wide open at the top of the 18-yard box. The shot was incredible--a no-look, 180 volley into the corner of the net--and maybe going in no matter what, but you’d prefer someone there making life difficult for him.

(Morad's movement in red)

After that, San Diego looked to power the game down. They took one more chance, in the 75th minute, but Alejandro Guido, who found himself with space inside the 18-yard box, couldn’t hit the target. Possession was relatively even over the final quarter hour. San Diego seemed content to let Oakland have possession in the middle third, but shut down any moves into the attacking third.

Once again, Oakland’s best offensive chance came in the match’s dying moments: Emrah Klimenta almost saved Oakland’s blushes, channeling his inner Mohammed El Neny in the 94th minute to unleash a beautiful volley from about 30 yards out. The shot drew a diving save from the Loyal keeper, and that was that. A disappointing 1-0 road loss.

(Klimenta's long-range effort)

Give a hand to Soya Takahashi. Let’s begin our takeaways on a positive note: Soya Takahashi was a man on a mission in the second half. He made several energetic runs from the wingback position, and also was disruptive on defense. He was, in other words, all over the left side of the field in the second half, and it’s disappointing all that effort came to naught. One half of the Blog would describe his second half work as reminiscent of Andy Robertson. The other half as reminiscent of Kieran Tierney. They’d both be right.

Other star performers: Jeremy Bokila and Zeus de la Paz. Bokila and Zeus also put in performances worthy of a shout out. Zeus again made some terrific saves (see above), and his distribution was generally very good. He made the one mental error in the 55th minute, but it didn’t end up costing Roots, and, I think we can forgive one error in a game. The goal was definitely not on him.

Bokila’s hold-up play in this match was elite. He regularly found himself fending off half the Loyal roster to keep possession. Below is an example from the opening moments of the game. We probably could have clipped 5 or 6 moments like this.

On the other hand, I don’t think he completed a pass the entire game, which really caused several potentially promising attacks to meet an untimely demise.

Roots are clearly a defensively solid team. Three games, two goals, one of which was obviously offsides and shouldn’t have counted, and the other which resulted from an impressive individual effort. And this isn’t a fluke: Oakland do a wonderful job clogging up the middle third and getting back behind the ball. We’ve seen now two games in a row in which the opposing team dominates possession but struggles to generate chances in front of goal. Loyal surely had more chances than Austin, but once Oakland had grown into the game, they were few and far between. Even on the goal in this game, I don’t mind the risk Morad took. Although it resulted in a goal, Oakland were never going to win without scoring anyway.

That attack, though. Roots had 37% possession, attempting 317 passes, and connecting on only 67% of them. Sweet Lincoln’s mullet, it was bad. Oakland bafflingly combined timidity in possession with repeated attempts at low-percentage through balls. Many attacks would get forward down the flank and then…just keep going harmlessly down the flank. Oakland seemed to organize themselves to get Akeem Ward and Matias Fissore further forward, but those two, despite being instrumental in Oakland’s early matches, were invisible against San Diego. Oakland looked a step slower than San Diego for much of the game, as well.

We’re still tentatively putting this down to a lack of game time. In the early parts of the match especially, it seemed that San Diego had turned up the intensity to a level Oakland haven’t seen yet. The timidity in possession might plausibly be down to these players not always knowing where they will find teammates. Combine that with the quick turnaround, and the personnel rotation, and the slight formation change, and we have a really unfortunate blend here. Oakland are bringing a new striker into the squad for their next match, against Sac Republic, so we’re obviously going to get our hopes up for that match, but my currently more rational self knows that a new striker is not enough to fix what ails this attack.