Oakland Roots v. Los Angeles Galaxy II - Match Preview (September 18, 2021)

Oakland Roots host Los Angeles Galaxy II for their first final match-up against a divisional opponent on Saturday, September 18 at 7:00 p.m., broadcast on ESPN+, KOFYTV, and TeleXitos. Saturday will be “Climate Night” with the Roots partnership with East Bay Community Energy. Your guess is as good as mine what that means. Roots are also hosting Kossisko and also hosting the Roots’ community partner Soccer Without Borders and also giving away sunglasses.

Roots’ History Against Los Angeles Galaxy II: 2-0-1

Last Match-Up

The Roots' first win in the USL was a 3-2 win over Los Dos in Los Angeles on May 23. Akeem O’Connor-Ward started with the captain’s armband for the first time that week, as Wal Fall had come off in the 16th minute of the season opener. The first Roots goal, you may recall, was a tidy one-time finish from Danny Flores at the back post.

How’s Danny doing these days?  Here's what I could find.  He has only appeared on the scoresheet for VA Tech with a single assist, but he has the 5th most minutes of any outfield players, with 6 starts in 6 matches, and the Hokies are 3-2-1 in that time. Good for him.

These teams met again on July 25 and the Roots fell 3-0 again in Los Angeles. In some ways, that was probably the darkest moment of the season. I don’t think we knew yet quite how bad Las Vegas was, when the Roots had dropped the previous match, but at least the Roots scored in the Lights match. Plus the COVID protocols pulling players within seconds of the start of the game made that all such a mess. But Galaxy II are not very good, and 3-0 was a gutting result.

Then the teams met again on August 14 at Merritt College of all places. My parents were in town and came out along with my brother’s family and frankly I think they turned the Roots’ entire season around.

Jorge Hernandez opened the scoring on a deflected free kick in the 12th minute, and it really seemed like things might get dark, even if Roots were playing fine. Then in the 22nd Owen Lambe hacked Wal Fall down from behind JUST outside the box, so avoiding the penalty but earning himself an early shower. Shortly thereafter, Jose Hernandez’s corner bounced out of the box and to Max Ornstil whose shot might have broken the sound barrier.

Seconds later, Amarikwa would keep the ball in play with some fancy footwork on the touchline and then guide the ball across goal for Harish to guide home. With the man advantage, Roots rode out the 2-1 win for 70 minutes.

Roots Form Since the Last Match-Up

The Roots won 7 points in their first 13 matches, and have won 20 points in the following 9, starting with that 2-1 win against Los Dos. The Roots had 8 goals (six coming in back-to-back weeks against Sacramento and LA) in those first 13 matches, and 16 in the 9 since. The Roots’ goals and assists are shockingly evenly spread out. No single Roots player accounts for more than five goals + assists (Wal Fall has 4/1 and Jesus Enriquez has 2/3).

Even as the Roots have continued to string together results in his absence, I do wonder if Jeremy Bokila could have pulled away in goals if he had played in the last three matches. Likewise, Quincy Amarikwa was doing incredible things on the pitch before his extended absence, even if it only resulted in a single assist. Amarikwa pulls the defense to him, to the benefit of Oakland’s seemingly endless list of midfielders who are dangerous in the box.

Here’s the Roots’ season:

[Source: FBRef]

At the time we knew Tampa was good, but for context, Tampa are now on a seven-match shut-out streak to move to the top of the Atlantic Division, and one-point shy of Phoenix. I said before the Tacoma match that, in light of the importance of taking points from Tacoma, and the loss to Tampa and draw to San Diego, that the Tacoma match would really show whether the Roots had faltered from their high-flying form. After the impressive win over Tacoma on Wednesday, I think it’s fair to say their form remains good.

Here are the standings:

[Source: FBRef]

As you can see, things are tight. Like a tiger.

As you may have noticed on the standings image above, the Roots’ end of the season is loaded with divisional match-ups. Of particular note, another against Tacoma, and two each against San Diego and Orange County. The Roots would probably need to find another gear above where they already are, but second is mathematically extremely possible.

I can’t be bothered to look up if the rest of the Pacific Division is this backloaded on divisional games, but I will do this tiny bit of work for you: Orange County play at Phoenix tomorrow evening, Sac host San Antonio (who sit second in the Mountain Division), and Tacoma have to go to San Diego for a match on Sunday. If you bet the chalk you’d have Oakland catching Tacoma Sunday night (on points; if the tie-breaker is GD (see above re: me not being bothered) then there’d need to be a six-goal swing). I am am expressing no opinion on whether this will happen. DO NOT PUT THIS JINX ON ME.

Galaxy II's Form Since the Last Match-Up

[Source: FBRef]

I get why Roots fans can’t be mocking one-goal victories over Lights, but to be fair, we have been disappointed by those performances. Likewise, Roots are familiar with the feeling of a 3-3- draw to Sacramento. There have been 19 goals scored in Los Dos’s last three games, so you bet your ass you’re getting embedded highlights from all of them. We’ll start at the beginning with the THREE PENALTY turd fest against Sacramento:

The first, in the fifteenth minute came when Josh Drack tried so hard to foul the attacker outside the box, failed, and then wrapped his leg around the attacker in the box while also completely whiffing on the ball. Around the 1:30 mark of that video is, for my money, the best highlight where Republican Jordan McCrary saves a well-struck shot off the goal line with an emphatic header. Preston Judd was brought down shamelessly by the Republic keeper in the 83rd, and Jorge Hernandez converted an ostentatious panenka. More importantly, two things: (1) this INCREDIBLE dead fish celebration:

(2) LA Galaxy II would concede a penalty of their own three minutes later. Admittedly it came from a pretty slick bit of passing by Sacramento, but Vasquez had no business taking out the Republic attacker from that angle. The odds, especially at the USL level, were significantly in favor of the attacker shanking his shot. Hilarious result overall.

Again, conveniently, I have recapped a match recently that has come up in another preview:

Again Williams’ opener is a solid goal, but Roots fans will not be surprised to see a bunch of LA Galaxy II defenders completely ignoring their marks in the box. Williams set up the second, which was a pretty solid finish from Hertzog. The third and fourth were respectable goals, but like the first involved some pretty half-hearted defending. That being said, Oakland have faced that LA Galaxy II before and did not beat them that soundly

Poetry. 

It is increasingly apparently that Preston Judd and Jorge Hernandez are good and that Galaxy's defense is, uh, not. Not to toot my own horn, but I highlighted Judd and Hernandez as the players to watch on this team and they now account for 21 goals and 4 assists between the two of them.

Galaxy II’s most recent fixture was a 4-3 shit show on September 11. Can I get you to watch the highlights by telling you that Phoenix go a man down and then win on a Galaxy II own goal?

 Literally, why would you ever watch a different soccer league? [Our lawyers tell me that I must disclose that, for my sins, I support Arsenal, and therefore am biased when I say the Premier League brings only pain].

Rising equalized in the 12th minute following a penalty and I have watched the clip a dozen times and don’t see the contact. The Galaxy II player does not protest like it was a dive, he protests like he knows he’s going to get screamed at later, so maybe there was contact and the grainy footage is obscuring it. Perez scored in the 86th to equalize and Los Dos definitely thought they were going to leave with a point. This sensational header sealed the win for Phoenix:

Predictions

Bloom - This is the last match-up between these two teams. Roots won a tight one when they were debuting in the USL, lost a bad one when it was all going to shit, and won a close one to find their footing. This time they’re going to fucking do them. 4-1 Roots.

Lawson - Roots really seem to play better at Laney, which is a problem for The Two because they’re already not quite on Roots’ level. That said, I think Oakland will have a little trouble getting going in this one. Central midfield is the only spot on the field where Los Angeles can really match up with Oakland and it's also one of two spots where Roots have not been able to rotate players during this current run. I’m guessing LA can (sort of) take advantage of that to keep things tight for a while, but Oakland’s overall quality will win out. Goals galore in this one, 4-2 to Oakland.