Tacoma Defiance vs. Oakland Roots - Match Preview (August 8, 2021)

 Oakland roots travel to Tacoma, Washington for a 1:30 p.m. fixture on August 8, 2021 against Tacoma Defiance.  The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and on KOFY TV.

The Club

Tacoma Defiance are the reserve team of Seattle Sounders F.C., a decent MLS team.  The team was founded as Seattle Sounders FC 2, and rebranded as the Defiance in January 2019.  “Defiance” is a reference to Point Defiance Park, itself the namesake of the USS Point Defiance, a Naval ship that is represented on the Defiance Badge.  Speaking of the Defiance Badge:

God, that’s so cool.

Defiance play in Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, a minor league baseball stadium that primarily serves as home of the Tacoma Rainiers, the AAA affiliate of the Mariners. Cheney Stadium is also home to the OL Reign.

2021 Season So Far

The Defiance sit fourth in the Pacific Division with 18 points in 14 matches.

Tacoma are tied with five other clubs for the second-fewest goals, with 14 in their 14 matches. However, that is offset somewhat by their stingy defense, conceding only 16 in those 14 games. In fact, 8 of those 16 were conceded in a rough three game losing streak away to Lights, Rising, and Switchbacks, in order.

Tacoma has stabilized some since then, with only one loss since June 23 (although also only two wins in that 8-game run). Their two wins in that time have come in Washington against LA Galaxy II and San Diego Loyal. Tacoma has also kept their squad remarkably turned over--only two players have recorded more than 900 minutes (10 full 90s) in their 14 matches so far. For context, despite all of the Roots’ rescheduled matches, Akeem Ward and Danny Flores would both be top 5 on the Defiance in total minutes played so far this season.

Players to Watch

As described above, the Defiance do not have a ton of goals so far this season, and those goals are spread around. Four players have tallied two on the season, another six have tallied one. Here is who we think may have an impact on the match-up against the Roots:

Carlos Anguiano # 88 - Anguiano is a 21-year-old midfielder from Salem, Oregon, who moved to the Defiance this season after four campaigns with the Portland Timbers 2.  Anguiano’s debut match was as a sub in a match against Reno 1868--Lindo Mfeka started for Reno and Max Ornstil started for Timbers 2.  Anguiano’s two goals this season are half of his career total.  Before COVID derailed life, he had his best season in 2019 with two goals and five assists. Anguiano’s first career goal came in, sure enough, another match-up against Reno 1868, in which Lindo Mfeka and Emrah Klimenta started for Reno and Max Ornstil started for Timbers 2.

Ray Serrano # 80 - Ray Serrano is a 19-year-old from Central Washington who is somehow in his fourth season with the Sounders’ system.  He netted three times in the shortened 2020 season, and has two goals and two assists so far this season, including setting up Defiance’s only goal in their August 5 draw against Sacramento.  Serrano’s goals both came in Defiance’s 2-0 win over LA Galaxy 2 in late June, and since then has only played one full match, with two 20-minute sub appearances in the last couple weeks, and missing one game entirely.  Here are highlights of his brace over Los Dos:

Neither is that inspiring, but you can’t fault him for taking the shots he got.

Predictions

We are posting this late enough that we know the Roots’ lineup:

Bloom - Roots looked good against Phoenix Rising.  They are surely completely gassed, but everyone in USL is playing a crazy schedule right now, and Roots are going to have momentum. 2-1 to the Roots.

RootsBlog - A team that doesn’t score many goals but is also stingy defensively, you say? This is it. I’m feeling good about this one. 2-1 Oakland, with the winner a late goal coming from absolutely nothing.