Postgame Presser: Oakland 1-2 Las Vegas

The Oakland Roots took a 2-1 loss to the Las Vegas Lights in its first appearance in front a home crowd at Livermore’s Las Positas College, its temporary home through the next week of matches. The Roots felt the energy from its supporters after going ahead 1-0 after 24 minutes by Tarn Weir, but conceded to the Lights at 55’ and 74’ to fall behind.

 

“We’ve had a zero in the goals scored column for quite some time, and I think we made some very good chances tonight. A couple at the end, obviously in the first half with Tarn finishing—that’s a big positive for us. We’ve also not been conceding cheap goals and that’s something we’ve got to improve,” said manager and technical director Jordan Ferrell after the match. 

As mentioned by assistant coach Chris Malenab, Saturday’s match was the first home appearance in front of Roots fans for nearly the entire roster.

 

“The home crowd is huge; for a lot of these guys, it was their first opportunity to play in front of the Oakland fans. Just to see what the fans bring, the guys are ready to perform for the fans and for themselves at the same time,” said assistant coach Chris Malenab regarding the home crowd.

 

Roots SC only came into Saturday night with 13 players after the club announced that health and safety protocols limited roster availability; only Saalih Muhammad and Matias Fissore were available on the subs list.

 

Starters Brandon Allen, Danny Flores, and Wal Fall were pulled minutes before kickoff due to health protocols, Douglas Zimmerman of SFGate notes that the move was likely COVID-19 related.

 

Although there was not much explanation from the league, the USL mandates that personnel members to test positive or come into contact with the infection must quarantine and examined by the team physician.

 

The Roots held a 1-0 lead in the 24th minute when central midfielder Lindo Mfeka quickly won the ball off LV’s Daniel Crisostomo, playing a slow rolling through-pass to Tarn Weir charging through the back line—Weir, a typical wingback in Ferrell’s lineup, sent in a left-footed shot for the goal.

 

It snapped a 408 minute scoring drought for the club.

 

Along with Weir playing in the attack, another wingback has contributed up top in the last two matches, Memo Diaz.

 

“Playing from the front is something we don’t have a lot of experience doing as a group but it’s something that we’ll learn from… They are guys who like to runs, that’s why we like them at wingback. With our personnel issues, we still needed to stretch the field and that’s something at Sacramento that we didn’t get a lot of. How they set up, we thought Tarn could get in on that left-hand side and he had a couple of good moments there.

 

“While Tyler [Blackwood] recovers from an injury, Brandon [Allen] is still getting his feet under him. We have to find a way to get in behind teams, Tarn and Memo did a good job tonight,” explained Ferrell.

 

Malenab also commented on Weird and Diaz’s versatility up top, describing that it was a goal to field a roster with flexibility.

 

“If you look at our roster across the board, we got guys that can play multiple positions and that was part of the construction of the roster. We wanted to create flexibility and for guys not just filling a role, but actually playing that role well. That’s key for us,” added Malenab of both players.

 

Saturday night also featured recently signed goal keeper Paul Blanchette getting the start, recording seven saves on the night. The native of Palo Alto had a pair of diving saves in the first half at 2’ and 5’, while he stopped big 1-on-1 situations in the second  half at 63’ and the first minute of stoppage time.

 

Although a loss, Blanchette played well in goal. Following a Taylor Bailey clean sheet against Sacramento, it’s clear that the Roots have three capable keepers on the books once Zeus de la Paz returns.

 

“It gives guys confidence that whoever is between the sticks is going to make the saves that are necessary. I don’t think either of the goals allowed were his fault or anything he could’ve any better. That’s huge for us; Paul is a bit of a veteran, you saw Taylor’s upside at Sac, and we know the quality that Zeus brings. It was important for us to bring in three guys who could all push each other. We’re seeing big performances from each of them,” said Ferrell of the keeper position.

 

“Having three keepers is so important, credit to our goal keeper coach Jeremy Clark; he has improved each one of those guys from Day 1. With the work that he puts them through every single day, they come into these moments. Each guy has been ready, as you saw today. We don’t skip a beat when it comes to goal keeping,” mentioned Malenab.

 

As for the result, the Lights were all over Oakland in the second half—peppering the goal with 17 total shots, nine of which on target. 

 

Roots had its best chance to tie at 2-2 in the 83rd minute when Diaz played a perfect pass to an overlapping Muhammad, but his shot to the far post was kick-saved by the LV’s Tomas Romero. Emrah Klimenta had a slow shot attempt in stoppage time.

 

The Lights goal in the 55th when Crisistomo took a shot above the penalty area, his shot deflected off a slide-tackling Weir’s foot and arced into goal. In the 74th, a corner fell to the feet of Antonio Leone for the goal.

 

FotMob.com’s best rated players include:

Lindo Mfeka, 7.7

Max Ornstil, 7.5

Tarn Weir, 7.1

Emrah Klimenta, 6.9

Soya Takahashi, 6.8