Roots Take Hold: Oakland 3-1 Phoenix

Credit: Oakland Roots SC

You have the league’s attention now, Oakland Roots. The quality of Oakland’s recent 2-2-0 stretch was in the eye of the beholder. Were they showing signs of improvement, or were they merely winning games against lower-table sides? The quality of Oakland’s win over Phoenix is not nearly as contestable. Phoenix are the runaway Pacific Division winners, and Oakland ran them off the windy Las Positas pitch on Wednesday night.

https://t.co/k5suWmWCkA pic.twitter.com/G37r73Gofb

— Seriously Loco (@SeriouslyLoco) August 26, 2021

This is basically unimportant because OAKLAND BEAT PHOENIX HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS, but we (or at least I) got an answer to a question the last couple of games have raised: Is Oakland playing a straight up 4-1-4-1, or are they playing a 4-2-3-1 with a #6 and a #8 instead of two holding mids? And the answer is the latter. The box-to-box to begin this game was Ariel Mbumba. In light of Phoenix’s well-known attacking prowess, it looked like Oakland’s plan was to compress into basically a 4-5-1 in defense, but Phoenix went with a heavily rotated squad, and I think Oakland sensed an opportunity and got out of their shell early.

Your Roots starting XI featured Max Ornstil’s return to the back line alongside Emrah Klimenta in central defense, Akeem Ward at LB and Memo Diaz at RB. Matias Fissore resumed his spot in the #6, Mbumba in a deeper lying midfield role, with Wal Fall, our large German lad, as the CAM, Hernandez at LW, Enriquez at RW, and absolute unit Jeremy Bokila up front. Around the 18th minute, Roots moved Mbumba to the left wing, and brought Hernandez into the center of the pitch, rotating Wal Fall into the #8 role.

The tale of this match very well could have been the wind, which was at Rising’s backs in the first 45. Phoenix were able to get over the top very easily early, and it was clear they were basically just lofting balls into the jet stream knowing they’d get downfield. Rising had a couple of golden opportunities early on, but could not cash in.

The tide began to turn when Roots moved Mbumba out wide, and over the balance of the half, Roots would ask increasingly difficult questions of the Rising defense. In the 20th minute, Roots launched an incredible counterattack: Emrah Klimenta cleared the ball from within the 18-yard box towards Bokila at the halfway line. Wal Fall won the second ball and sprung Ariel Mbumba down the left flank. Mbumba’s outside run opened space for Jose Hernandez on the underlap: 

Mbumba centered the ball to Bokila at the top of the box, who, in a display of just how threatening he is, drew three defenders and played a cheeky pass to Hernandez: 

Only desperate plays by a late-recovering Rising defender and the Rising keeper, Ben Lundt, kept Oakland off the scoresheet.

The hits would keep coming. In the 27th minute, Fissore found Enriquez on a quickly taken free kick, and he fizzed in a cross in front of goal, where both Bokila and Mbumba were waiting, but neither could get on the end of it. In the 33rd minute Oakland needed 4 passes to advance the ball around 70 yards, all the way into the box, forcing a late tackle and earning a corner. Hernandez found Klimenta at the near post on the corner, and he hit the post. In the 42nd minute, a beautiful through ball by Ariel Mbumba sent Bokila in on goal, and only a brilliant reaction from the Rising keeper kept the score even.

Finally, in the 43rd minute, Oakland finally posed a question Phoenix couldn’t answer. This fateful sequence almost ended before it began: a miscommunication on a throw in between Enriquez and Diaz caused Diaz to throw it right to a Rising player. But Diaz won possession back, and Fissore helped keep it despite a crunching challenge from Jon Bakero. That’s when Oakland got cooking: Fall to Hernandez to Mbumba got the ball along the left flank deep in Rising’s defensive half. Mbumba crossed to Enriquez, who did wonderfully to control the ball with his chest, and he centered to Wal Fall, who blasted it home first time.

Bangers only!

Roots up right before the half. 1-0.#OAKvPHX pic.twitter.com/zEEna8t2H7

— Oakland Roots (@oaklandrootssc) August 26, 2021

Phoenix came out of the locker room playing a much higher line, clearly attempting to solve their problems with aggression. Roots had some trouble dealing with this pressure, but they also weren’t interested in allowing Rising’s attack to get in gear, and ultimately it was the Oakland press that drew blood first in the second half: On a ball played back to Rising’s keeper, Wal Fall made an incredibly intelligent decision to bend his run in a way that discouraged Lundt from playing the ball out wide.

You can see here that Fall has made the pass to the defender unacceptably risky, because if anything goes wrong, that's an Oakland goal. But also that Ariel Mbumba and Jeremy Bokila are shadowing the keeper's only options. Lundt elects to pass to Manuel Madrid, who is shadowed by Bokila.

Bokila not only took the ball off Madrid, but got two shots on goal. Good on Lundt for keeping those out, but neither he nor anyone else in a Rising kit bothered to clear the ball, and Jose Hernandez made sure the third time was the charm.

That's two in two for Jose Hernandez!#OAKvPHX pic.twitter.com/l4QUroUXOq

— Oakland Roots (@oaklandrootssc) August 26, 2021

Rising answered immediately, and fair play to Darnell King for his wonderstrike, a first-time volley after an attempted header clear from Akeem Ward. What a firecracker.

But Oakland were not about to let this opportunity slip. Rising had a fairly toothless attack in the 55th minute--they were slow to advance the ball down the pitch, allowing Oakland to get back in numbers, and when Rising recycled possession Ryan Flood sent in a cross that got nowhere near its (presumably) intended target. Oakland then got the ball and held on to it for all but about 30 seconds of the next 6 minutes. In the 61st minute, Oakland took a free kick in their own half following a Rising foul, and played 11 passes to work the ball back to front. I think if you’re a Rising partisan you have to be wondering where the defensive pressure on some of these was. Paul Blanchette, for instance, played a 60-yarder to a somehow unmarked Ariel Mbumba:

And the penultimate pass was to a similarly wide open Memo Diaz:

Diaz had the time and space he needed to loft a beautiful ball over Chuy Enriquez’s shoulder. Enriquez made a great run, but you just expect more resistance from Phoenix Rising. Enriquez’s shot was saved (again, Ben Lundt doing his damnedest in goal), but Ariel Mbumba was all alone for the rebound, and he deservedly got on the scoresheet.

At this point, Rising subbed on four of their heavy hitters, and Roots brought on Johnny Rodriguez in place of Mbumba. Rising had the upper hand for the remainder of the match, and had their chances to score, but they simply lacked the necessary precision in this one.

Phoenix had chances. We have noted here on the Blog after several previous matches that Oakland are often playing better than the scoreline would indicate because they were generating, but not capitalizing on, chances. In the interest of fairness, I think we need to note that Phoenix had that problem here. David Egbo in particular missed two sitters, Darnell King had a free run towards the far post in the 37th minute that nearly resulted in a goal, and late on Aodhan Quinn skied a ball that a player of his talents could easily thump into the back of the net. Apart from these moments, Phoenix’s attack did not have the pace or crispness we are used to seeing from them. Don’t get me wrong--Oakland were full value for the win last night. They had a handful of chances of their own that could have, but did not, result in goals. But Phoenix were a couple inches from grabbing an early lead, or making things very uncomfortable in the game’s waning moments. This game could have been very different if Phoenix had capitalized on those chances.

Walking wounded almost back? The commentating crew mentioned that Oakland’s two injured players, Tarek Morad and Tarn Weir, are almost back. I certainly hope so. Emrah Klimenta deserves a break. The man put in yet another quality shift against Phoenix, but is on pace for his highest minutes total since 2017. Now that Oakland has found a formula that really works for them, you can start to see where the squad can profitably rotate players. Except at centerback, where we remain stretched thin. Ornstil, who had been deputizing as the #6 (first to allow Fissore to move forward and then in Fissore’s absence) dropped back into a center back role, finally allowing Kai Greene some rest, but it’s hard to see Farrell giving Klimenta a breather without a healthy Morad available. We do not mean to suggest that Klimenta is fragile, only that we’ll need him in October. Let’s hope he can get a rest soon.

Hats off to Ariel Mbumba. In Roots’ last match against Rising, Mbumba played as a holding mid and was, I thought, a bit of a passenger in that game. Yesterday’s performance was night and day. Perhaps he isn’t quite ready to occupy a central role against a side with the quality of Phoenix Rising, but the improvement can’t be denied, and he deservedly got a goal before coming off. I think it’s worth remembering that he’s 19 and this is essentially his first season of senior footy. He’s shown flashes before (e.g., his goal against Sacramento Republic), but his potential emergence as a dependable midfield option should be huge going forward. Roots are about halfway through this brutally congested patch of the season, so any opportunity for midfield rotation is welcome.

Avoid the letdown. The players and manager can talk all they want about how they’re taking games one at a time, and focusing only on the opponent in front of them, but they’re human. I think everyone understands how big a win this was. Letdown games happen all the time after big wins. But this win is only significant if Roots can continue this run. Roots have an equally large match against Tacoma on Saturday. It’s imperative they avoid a letdown.

VAMOS.