Tall Wal Fall Mauls Ball to Secure One-Point Haul: New Mexico United 1-1 Oakland Roots

 

A few weeks back I think we were all a little disappointed when Oakland made no discernible attempt to sign free agent Leonel Messi, who would have been perfect in Oakland’s attack. Well, Wal Fall has done his best to forget we ever wanted to see Messi in Roots colors. I mean, who needs Messi when you’re making free kicks like this:

Sorry, wrong highlight.

WAL FALL FROM CENTER FIELD!#NMvOAK @WalFall17 pic.twitter.com/kgpJRKfQHv

— Oakland Roots (@oaklandrootssc) August 19, 2021

I mean, what the hell. How are you supposed to just go on about your life after a kick like that?

Yeah, I don't know either

While we’re here, I’d like to invite anyone with the appropriate credentials to edit Mr. Fall’s wikipedia page, which at the time of publication, looks like this:

That’s three sentences, one describing his current gig, a second asserting that he has a famous cousin with a “citation needed” tag, and a third which is not about Wal at all, but is instead a complete non-sequitur. While you’re editing, I’d keep the non-sequitur. Frankly, more articles on wikipedia should note that “St. Louis FC folded following the 2020 USL Championship season.”

The other really wonderful thing about Wal’s wondergoal (side note: motion to call Wal Fall bangers “wonderWals” from now on, do I have a second) is that it came completely against the run of play. I think it’s not an exaggeration to call the first quarter-hour of this match a disaster from a Roots perspective.

Roots came out in much the same shape we saw in the Los Dos fixture: something approximating a 4-1-4-1, though in the early going there was clearly a concerted effort to get both the fullbacks (Takahashi on the left and Ward on the right) and the wingers (Enriquez on the left and Amarikwa on the right) forward, so it played a lot like a 4-3-3 without a box-to-box mid.

The aggression paid off early, with Oakland generating a nice half-chance, but no shot, in the second minute. But the first portion of the game was characterized most by United winger Amando Moreno (who we highlighted in the preview) making mazy, essentially unchallenged runs through the Oakland midfield or defense. On two occasions he turned Emrah Klimenta, appearing to surprise the Oakland centerback with his pace. The first of these eventually resulted in a corner kick for United, and to United’s goal.

On the sixth-minute corner, Paul Blanchette punched the ball away but Oakland couldn’t clear. United was first to the ball, and the closest Roots player was Klimenta, who dutifully came out to press the ball. It looks like Oakland did not realize that a centerback had taken ball-pressing duties, as Kai Greene was left essentially one-on-three in the six-yard box (while several players marked no one) as United’s David Najem sent the ball back in. Blanchette elected not to play the ball, and Greene, it turns out, is not three people, so Devon Sandoval had the freest of free headers.

That would be bad enough, but it felt for several more minutes like United were not done. Oakland’s press regularly left huge gaps that allowed United to complete line-breaking or field-switching passes and get forward, and, to their credit, United’s forwards were making some very intelligent runs to split Oakland’s back line.

Here’s a glaring example from the 12th minute. An Emrah Klimenta longball is off-target and falls to United’s keeper. United elect to play it short and build out. After unsuccessfully trying to build up their left side, the ball is returned to the feet of Austin Yearwood (United’s LCB), who spots Rashid Tetteh (RCB) on the far side of the field:

I doubt Tetteh is supposed to be this wide open. You can see in this shot that Enriquez is covering precisely no one. Fissore is nowhere to be found because Akeem Ward had pushed up to stop the ball from advancing down United’s left, and Fissore filled the space behind him. Neither had recovered, so Tetteh has tons of room to work.

The other issue, as you can see in this shot from milliseconds later as Tetteh turns and plays it upfield, is that the backline is essentially in a different time zone:

This is an extreme example, and it wasn't all that bad. But it was a regular feature of the first 20 minutes or so that New Mexico's first look in just about any situation was to switch the field, and (1) they frequently had space to do so, and (2) it completely flummoxed the Oakland press, such as it was. Having regularly to chase the ball, Roots were frequently caught out of position, and New Mexico found it easy to run down the center of the park, something very few teams have been able to do against Oakland this year. United’s forwards, particularly Devon Sandoval, were consistently getting in between Klimenta and Greene, only to be stopped by a desperate clearance, an offsides flag, or a Blanchette save.

To their credit, Roots did grow into the game, and things settled down starting around the 23rd minute. By the 26th minute or so, Oakland was finally dominating possession, although, as is their wont, they weren’t doing a whole lot with it. In fact, the free kick that resulted in the Wal Fall golazo came following a period of 79 seconds in which Oakland passed the ball amongst themselves in their defensive half.

But who am I to quibble with the results here? Oakland held the ball for practically 8 minutes straight, got a free kick, and then lightning struck. (See above) After leveling the score, Oakland continued about as they had: keeping possession but not doing much with it, apparently content to go into the half even.

Adjusting their formation a little bit during halftime, Roots moved Quincy Amarikwa up to function as a second striker, giving the formation a 4-1-3-2 or 4-4-2 look. The idea, I think, was to use Amarikwa’s strength to give Roots a second option for balls over the top, and, on a few occasions, it seemed to work.

Just before the 54 minute mark, for instance, the tactical change nearly paid off. Blanchette played it long to Amarikwa, who held off his defender, then megged him with the backheel to get the ball to Enriquez. He passed it to Fall, who played it one time to Hernandez sprinting into the box, who tried to put it on a platter for Allen. But Tetteh read the pass and got there just ahead of Allen to clear it over the bar. (That was Allen’s last involvement, as he was replaced by Johnny Rodriguez, a like-for-like sub.)

That inaugurated a period of about 9 minutes or so in which Oakland, for the most part, had the upper hand. Their best chance came in the 62nd minute: Wal Fall intercepted a pass in the attacking third, and hit Rodriguez making a run into the box. Yearwood made a goal-saving tackle but Enriquez pounced on the loose ball. Tetteh rescued United with a goal-line clearance.

Roots would not really see the ball again after that. In terms of raw numbers, they went into halftime with 45% possession, and ended the game with 39%. I’m no mathematician, but I think that means second half possession was probably around 33%, and that includes the stretch we just discussed. United threw several attackers on, and it seemed like the altitude finally got to Oakland. Roots had just enough legs to make sure that United could not capitalize. They were also aided by a possibly dodgy offsides call in the 68th minute (finally one goes in our favor!).

Some other notes:

Man of the match (non-Wal Fall division). Let’s give a shout out to Kai Greene. Emrah Klimenta has been an absolute rock on the back line, but I thought he had an off day by his normally lofty standards. Oakland were basically unscathed though because Greene turned in one of his better performances of the season. We noted that he had Preston Judd on lock in the first part of the Los Dos match, and while the first parts of this match were a bit nervy, Greene showed up in a lot of good places during the United match.

The field. I think it has to be said that United are lucky Sacramento Republic don’t travel to Albuquerque this season because surely those players would complain about that field, forcing United to play several matches at the University of New Mexico or something.

Upcoming squad rotation. It will be interesting to see who gets the start this weekend at Las Vegas Lights. Hernandez and Fall both look like they could use a break, but Oakland don’t really have any other options who can play in a CAM role. On the other hand, with Johnny Rodriguez back, Oakland have a plethora of options on the front line. Go for broke, I say. Let’s play a 4-2-4 or something really wild.