Goalless but encouraging: Oakland 0-0 Sacramento

Credit: Jon Comeaux

The stats rarely tell the whole story, but they paint a pretty accurate picture of what happened on the pitch at Las Positas College on Wednesday. The critical numbers: Oakland with 60% possession and three shots on target; Sacramento with 40% possession and zero shots on target. Oakland were, by some margin, the better team on the pitch, but they still lack much bite in the final third.

The back line continues to be relatively stable: Greene and Klimenta occupied the center back roles, with Takahashi to the left, and Memo Diaz on the right, giving Akeem Ward a much-deserved breather. Jordan Ferrell opted for something like a 4-3-2-1: the three deepest midfielders were, from left to right, Ariel Mbumba, Matias Fissore, and Chuy Enriquez, the advanced mids were Yohannes Harish and Danny Flores, and Brandon Allen was up top. But there was a lot of movement in the midfield. It was maybe as fluid as we’ve seen the squad this season. Mbumba and Enriquez both had license to get forward, and Harish and Flores would fill the spaces behind. Brandon Allen also did a lot of roving around the offensive end of the pitch, looking to free up space.

Oakland spent the first half hour on the front foot, a welcome change from the previous two meetings between these squads. The attacking movement was more positive than we’ve seen yet this year, in this blogger’s opinion. Oakland were always looking to play over the top or between the lines, resulting in some really progressive football.

Here’s an early example of what I’m talking about. Oakland has unsuccessfully tried to play out of the back down the left, and in this shot have cycled possession over to the right. Memo Diaz has the ball on the touchline. One of Sacramento’s forwards is attempting to funnel the ball down the side, but Enriquez has dropped between the lines to receive the ball:

As he turns and looks, both Flores and Harish start to make runs at the Sacramento backline, which is effectively down a man, as the Republic player in the center of the shot is the left back, Duke LaCroix. Out of frame, Brandon Allen had drifted towards the touchline, spreading out the remaining 3 at the back.

Enriquez tries to pick out Flores, and while they don’t connect, Sacramento are scrambling a little at the back, and are unable to gain possession. The response to Flores’s movement also has left the center of the pitch vacant, and Harish comes screaming through, but he’s unable to get the shot on target:

Obviously there was no goal here, but these passages of play, which get the ball into dangerous areas, are what has been absent from Oakland’s last ten matches. So it was very encouraging to see tangible improvement in that area of the game.

Sacramento gained the initiative for the last quarter-hour of the first half, but never threatened. Roots, as they have in many matches this season, came out of the locker room on the front foot. Just three minutes into the second half, Oakland’s new found attacking fluidity nearly paid off. Roots were able to advance the ball down the middle of the pitch with some between-the-lines passing between Klimenta and Fissore, and then Fissore and Enriquez, which opened up acres of space out wide for Memo Diaz who put a really inviting cross into the box. A last-ditch clearance fell to Harish just outside of the box, whose attempt to curl one in from distance went just wide.

That sequence was this game, and really the last few games, in miniature. Oakland have solved their issues in the middle third of the pitch, but so rarely come up with those little moments of quality necessary to really seal the deal.

Also, too, this team does not seem to have any luck on their side. Just by virtue of the chaotic nature of the universe you would expect a ball to find the back of the net at some point, even accidentally. There were two moments in this game that really typefied Oakland’s lack of luck. First, in the 64th minute: Jeremy Bokila has just been subbed on for Brandon Allen. Off a throw-in Klimenta gathers the ball near the halfway line, and sends a beautiful ball into the box. The nearest Sacramento defender misplays it badly, and Bokila has a point-blank shot on target:

With any luck, that goes in. Oakland have no luck.

In the first minute of second half stoppage time, the Republic keeper inexplicably came off his line to deal with a long ball in from Memo Diaz. Takahashi easily slid the ball past the keeper:

Incredibly this ball also did not go into the net.

We also saw some moments in which Oakland maybe passed up some opportunities. This first I want to highlight to follow up on the analysis of Roots’ attack done by @USL_Tactics. One of his observations was that Oakland seem to be poor in transitioning from defense to attack. Here’s a sequence in which a better transition probably serves them well:

Bokila receives this ball (he always does, the man has velcro shoes or something), and has Fissore making a run right in front of him. You can also see Enriquez to the far side of the pitch, though he’s shadowed by Republic’s right back. Rather than pass to Fissore, Bokila holds the ball up and lays it off to Mfeka, by which point Fissore’s run has fizzled:

The pass is actually behind Mfeka, which arrests any forward momentum he or the move have. In the moment, I was a little upset that Bokila didn’t feed Fissore, but look at the center of the park. There is no one there. Right before this sequence Quincy Amarikwa had gone down, so he’s recovering, and Wal Fall’s run doesn’t have any urgency to it. So even if Fissore had received the ball, this seemingly promising attack actually had nowhere to go.

In the game’s dying moments, Enriquez elected not to hit the central runner here:

The runner here is Klimenta, and I have no idea what his first touch would look like in this scenario, but what Roots ended up doing was crossing from the corner. Roots connected on 3 of 19 crosses in this match, so maybe that was not the right play.

Overall, the game did not feature much action. Sacramento had one golden chance off a free kick in the 65th minute, but Dariusz Formella’s first touch was heavy, and gave Paul Blanchette the split second he needed to safely gather the ball. Oakland also had one other big chance, in the 82nd minute. Using some very crisp passing to switch the field left Memo Diaz with plenty of room to operate. He opted for a long ball into the box, which was cleared out for a corner. Kai Greene got his head to the ensuing corner, but it went just wide.

There was plenty to be encouraged by in this match for Oakland. They have absolutely found 90% of their attacking formula. The defense appears to have its feet back underneath it. The addition of Quincy Amarikwa also gives Oakland another good option on the wing. We didn't see much from him in attack, but on two occasions he made lung-busting runs to track back and win the ball for Oakland. That kind of movement should at least help free up some of the other wide players to get forward. And I'd wager there's still a goal or two in his boots. We shall see. 

We’ll need one more match to confirm, but I think we can safely label the Tacoma debacle a fluke. Roots didn’t look too crisp in that game, but were deservedly even before Tacoma were gifted three goals. This match was definitely a missed opportunity for Oakland to get back in the win column, but based on what they've shown, this winless stretch will end sooner rather than later.