Oakland Roots 0-1 LA Galaxy II

Jordan Ferrell and the Oakland Roots took a calculated risk on Saturday night at home against Los Angeles Galaxy Two, resting both Jose Hernandez and Wal Fall, and starting Matias Fissore on the bench. Following the squad’s covid pause, it had played 14 matches in 52 days, or 1 one match every 3.7 days. During that stretch Fall (who missed the first match of this run) logged almost 900 minutes, including playing the full 90 in 7 of the last 8 matches, and 82 minutes in the match before that. Hernandez had logged 831 over 13 matches. Fissore 849 over 13 matches. This crew, which also demonstrated time and again how valuable it is to this year’s Roots side, was in need of a break.

Perhaps thinking that the season’s closing kick will be really vital in terms of making the playoffs, and in view of the fact that the next stretch of games will not allow for much of a break (in order: SD, OCSC, Lights, Sac, Phoenix, OCSC, Tac, SD, and then the closer against Sporting KC II), Ferrell decided to rest all three against Los Dos. The logic is sound: These guys need to be fresh for the next two matches, which are way more important for playoff positioning, so you can’t wait until the match against Las Vegas on October 2 to rotate. Oakland have played a cut above Galaxy II for about the last month, so you should be able to rest your big guns without sacrificing the result.

And yet.

(I should also note that there’s a chance that Hernandez had to sit due to yellow card accumulation. He’s racked up 8 on the season, and if there are accumulation rules, you’d think they’d kick in at some point. But the Laws of the Game don’t address this so far as I can tell, and I can’t find any USL-specific rules. MLS gives you a one-match suspension after both 5 and 8, which appears to have been the rule in USL 2 years ago based on some older discipline reports. But Hernandez didn’t sit after his fifth card--he picked it up against Tampa Bay, and then played the next match against Las Vegas, where he picked up another one--and USL hasn’t put out a discipline report since mid-July. It is also possible that some of Hernandez’s yellows have been rescinded and this in fact was the suspension for his 5th.)

Likely in an attempt to account for the lack of Fall, Hernandez, and Fissore, Roots ran out a 3-5-2 against Los Dos. My suspicion is that the idea was to outnumber Galaxy II in midfield, so the absence of the big guns was irrelevant. That mostly worked, but it did not reliably translate into chances.

Part of the issue was that Roots were working in two new lads, Joseph Nane (in the back 3) and Brian Brown (paired with Johnny Rodriguez up top). It was clear that they are still in the process of developing chemistry with the rest of the squad. Brown, in particular, spent much of his time on the pitch begging to get the ball in dangerous areas, but he rarely received any kind of service, likely because no one, apart from Mfeka, who played with Brown in Reno, has much sense yet of where he’ll be.

But mostly this looked like a team missing its leaders. Oakland had no issue holding possession in non-dangerous areas. But when they attempted to advance the ball into areas that would stress Galaxy II’s defense, they had all sorts of trouble connecting on final passes. You can see from the first half heat map that the edge of the 18-yard box functioned almost like an invisible fence. Oakland had 8 touches in the box for the entire first half (two were crosses to no one, and one was a Mbumba shot over the bar, the others are not noteworthy). In recent games, that final pass has been made by Fall or Hernandez, and no one stepped up to fill that role here.

Oakland spent the first half hour on the front foot, and, indeed, controlled possession all night long. But I have to be honest they looked like a squad short on ideas for the last two-thirds of the match. And despite doubling up LA in possession, shots were basically even. The introduction of Jeremy Bokila in the 60th minute gave Oakland a little spark, and there was some urgency to find an equalizer after conceding a penalty in the 75th minute, but Oakland lacked that cutting edge all night.

One possible explanation, in addition to the absence of Fall and Hernandez, is that Galaxy II looked dangerous on the counter all night long. In light of Galaxy II’s habit of playing with no brakes, we expected Goals Galore in this one. We did not get that, but the run of play showed why Los Dos have such a potent offense. The speed at which they could counter was really something, and you do have to wonder if Oakland played into their hands with a back 3. I don’t want to overstate things, since LA’s only goal did come from the spot. But LA’s frequent counters I think prevented Oakland from getting into a rhythm, and prevented Oakland from truly committing numbers forward.

My sense is that this match will not be a harbinger of things to come. Oakland will (hopefully) have all their mids available down the stretch, and Nane and Brown will get in sync with the squad soon. Perhaps a loss like this can galvanize the team for the stretch run. The defense remains stout, which will always mean that 3 points are close. The midweek tie against San Diego looms especially large, though.

The good news is that Sacramento, Tacoma, and OCSC all lost their weekend fixtures. So this was a lost opportunity, but also Oakland’s loss isn’t a major setback in their playoff push. Tacoma and Sacramento play this week at the same time Oakland play San Diego, so that’s another potentially pivotal day.