House Money: Las Vegas Lights 0-1 Oakland Roots

 

Oakland Roots got back on track Wednesday night in triple-digit heat and under a weird pink haze(?) in Las Vegas. This game was a real standout USL Championship viewing experience: The main camera, which shook the entire time, was apparently positioned about 20 feet from the pitch, so we were constantly zoomed in on the ball, and the shot had to swing wildly with each pass. The upshot is that we can make, at best, only tentative tactical observations here.

Both clubs came out firing. Oakland’s early strategy was to put Las Vegas’s midfield and back line under a lot of stress. Oakland found a lot of joy down their left hand side. Ariel Mbumba simply physically outmatched Lights’ right back, a 16-year-old Dylan Presto, and for whatever reason Lights refused to give Presto any help when Soya Takahashi would make overlapping runs. You would expect maybe the midfielder to that side, usually Christopher Jaime, to track those runs, but Takahashi was frequently allowed to roam free.

Oakland also found success playing back to front, using the movement of the ball to stretch out Vegas, creating seams to run into. A prime example occurred in the 15th minute. Oakland were playing out of the back, and Las Vegas winger Roberto Molina was doing mansome work harassing Roots keeper Taylor Bailey and center-half Emrah Klimenta. Some secondary pressing pushed Oakland into a corner, but two nifty passes (Kliimenta to Fall, and Fall to Mfeka) broke the press. Mfeka advanced the ball to Mbumba who just charged at the Vegas back line, causing a fair amount of chaos at the back. The reactions were such that Mbumba could lay the ball off to Chuy Enriquez, who had a good five yards of space to work with himself, and then could slide unnoticed into the box, where he almost headed home an Enriquez cross.

The issue for Oakland was that Las Vegas was determined to exploit what they saw as a mismatch at the back. Las Vegas played a couple of nifty through balls to Cal Jennings and Roberto Molina. Molina in particular had a couple of golden opportunities, including one cut-back where he fired his shot straight at the keeper, and one near-worldie, where a 40 yard shot thunked off the crossbar. Jennings had a few one-on-one opportunities; Kai Greene and Emrah Klimenta shut those down, though often it was too close for comfort.

After about 15 or 20 minutes, the tempo of the game slowed down dramatically. Neither team, I think, wanted to expose their back line, plus, despite the nightfall, it was apparently quite warm in the Nevada desert. For Roots’ part, Takahashi started making fewer overlapping runs, and Max Ornstil, occupying the defensive mid position in this one, appeared to sit deeper, to give the back line a little more protection. The last half hour of the first half felt like a fight between two boxers who are content to land a few jabs here or there, but aren’t yet willing to go for a knockout blow because they don’t want to leave themselves exposed.

For all this tactical maneuvering, though, the dispositive factor in the outcome here was Las Vegas’s youth. The opening quarter-hour of the second half was equally cagey, and Vegas subbed on three players in the 62nd minute, presumably to try and mix things up. But what actually happened is that they lost their focus on the restart, allowing Johnny Rodriguez to nip the ball off a Vegas CB following a lazy first touch, and slot it home.

Oakland then parked the bus. Lights had some trouble breaking Oakland down, though they did get a free header following a short corner in the 79th minute, only to direct it harmlessly off the woodwork. Oakland started to fight back some after that, and we were treated to some ragged end-to-end football in the last 10 minutes plus stoppage time. Oakland had a penalty shout in the 87th minute, but I think the ref got this one right: although the Lights keeper tripped Joe Restani, he got the ball a split second before.

So that was an uninspiring but totally acceptable 3 points for Oakland, setting them up for a critical 4-match “home” stretch (it will span two homes, Laney and Las Positas), starting with a match against San Diego Loyal at the weekend. Some observations:

There continues to be space behind the wingers. We noticed that Tampa Bay Rowdies found a lot of success exploiting the space behind Oakland’s attacking midfield. Once again in this game, on occasion Oakland appeared to get split apart: With the backline concerned about the runs from Cal Jennings & Co., there was plenty of room for Las Vegas to work with to help set up the through balls to their front line. The problem appears to be worse when a fullback gets involved in the offense. With just one defensive mid back for cover, when a fullback vacates the back line, no one is left to protect it. This might not be a problem if the attacking 5 and the defensive 5 stayed in contact, but occasionally they end up in different time zones. Something to watch going forward.

A habit of vacating shooting lanes. Another commonality between the Tampa Bay and Las Vegas matches is Oakland’s tendency to open up shooting lanes for opposing players carrying the ball across the pitch. In their zeal to cut off passing lanes, Oakland seems to forget too frequently that someone should stay between the ball and the net. Tampa Bay scored an absolute golazo because of this, but also had 2 or 3 more chances from about 25 yards out. Las Vegas almost scored in similar circumstances. Looking even further back, Santi Moar had a chance from about 20 yards out in the Rising tie at Laney. It’s a low percentage shot, so maybe the thinking on Roots’ end is that it’s worth surrendering those opportunities, but it has started to feel like Oakland is playing with fire.

Manufacturing counters. For all we have heard about Oakland wanting to dominate possession, the lion’s share of their scoring success seems to come from the high press of the forwards and midfield. But I think we saw more clearly in this match than in previous matches how Oakland want to generate chances, and it’s a strategy that should work against a ball-dominating side like San Diego: Oakland will want to draw the opposition onto their back line before making vertical passes out and hitting third-man runs to split the opponent’s back line. Look for Oakland to sit a little deeper in this match, and hopefully for the return of Quincy Amarikwa to the matchday 18.