Oakland Roots 2-2 Las Vegas Lights

 

This feels like a game Oakland will eventually rue as a lost opportunity.

Oakland came out in their now-expected 4-2-3-1-slash-4-1-4-1. They played an unusually high line in this one, and the fullbacks (Diaz on the right, Takahashi on the left) were given all kinds of license to get forward. The end result was a lot of open space for Las Vegas to run into, and it looked, in the first half, as though Oakland were willing to give up that space in order to put pressure on Las Vegas’s backline. And I understand the bet: if you were betting which of the two backlines would hold up best, you are absolutely putting money on Emrah Klimenta and Kai Greene. This is especially true when you have guys like Jeremy Bokila and Quincy Amarikwa on the pitch, two lads who seem to attract outsize attention and who give USL defenders fits. But the amount of space on the pitch meant a very free and open game, which may not have necessarily played to Oakland’s comparative strengths.

Vegas regularly exploited the space behind Oakland’s midfield. Their fifth minute goal, for instance, featured winger Julian Vazquez running into real estate vacated by Takahashi in an attempt to press high. Vazquez had space to collect the ball, turn, and get a head of steam to beat Klimenta to the end line. Vazquez eventually crossed the ball to Danny Trejo, who tapped it home. This was borderline offside, but also I am not convinced that was intended as a pass; I think Vazquez simply beat Blanchette far post, and Trejo sticking his foot in wasn’t part of the plan. Lights had another chance about 9 minutes later when another runner snuck in between Fissore and the back line, a third in the 19th minute had a moment with possession around 20 yards out from goal and with Oakland’s back line outnumbered in which they elected not to attack, and then perhaps misplayed a 2-on-2 in the 21st minute. In other words, Lights had opportunities.

But Oakland also put Vegas’s defense under immense stress. The first 16 minutes saw two penalty shouts, the second of which was given. In the 3rd minute our hero Wal Fall found himself unmarked in the box following a Memo Diaz free kick. Fall elected to draw contact from the recovering defender rather than test the keeper, but the ref wasn’t buying it. In the 16th minute, Diaz received the ball on the edge of the area following a switch of play from Takahashi. Mohamed Traore was late getting out to Diaz, and compounded that error by sticking his foot in with no real regard for where it was going. He ended up going studs up into Diaz’s knee, earning himself a yellow. Quincy Amarikwa took the penalty and did, frankly, what I think all penalty takers should do, which is try to put a hole in the keeper. If he had gotten any air under the kick it’s a goal.

Oakland really got going in the 23rd minute. I think the little shift in strategy was to attack CC Uche on the left side of Lights’ defense, rather than playing through the middle to Bokila. Uche, it should be noted, played his college ball at Duke and Ohio State, and is therefore an enemy of the Blog. Amarikwa was typically posted out to Oakland’s right, and the matchup between he and Uche was testy from the off, with Uche going down under any touch in a pretty blatant attempt to earn Amarikwa a caution. In the span of around 30 seconds (22:00 to 22:30), Oakland generated two really good chances by playing through Amarikwa on the right side. For Oakland’s opener, however, Amarikwa vacated that space, I think baiting Uche to press up on Memo Diaz as he carried the ball down the flank. Lindo Mfeka easily ran in behind Uche, and played a beautiful cross into the box, where Amarikwa found himself unmarked because...the Lights CB simply left him. It looks like the CB ran to cover the near post, expecting someone else to take the far post, but that’s a terrible decision here, since there are no Roots anywhere close to the near post, and any movement to cover the far post would have meant abandoning Jeremy Bokila in the middle of the box. As it was, Amarikwa was wide open, and wouldn’t miss a second time.

QUINCY TIME!

1-1 | #OAKvLV pic.twitter.com/ex1Sym67B4

— Oakland Roots (@oaklandrootssc) October 3, 2021

Oakland continued to flood the right side, and in fact their second came from nearly identical movement to the first: Amarikwa drifted centrally, this time drawing Uche into the middle, again allowing Mfeka to run into a city park’s worth of space on the right side. Mfeka sent a low cross into Amarikwa, but Vegas got there first with one of the more impressive diving headers you will see. Nothing the keeper could do about this bullet off the noggin of Tony Leone.

"I'm in your HEAD."

2-1 | #OAKvLV pic.twitter.com/4JEBqCY5GI

— Oakland Roots (@oaklandrootssc) October 3, 2021

Vegas did their best to exploit Diaz’s forward positioning, and in the second half moved Tony Leone into a more forward position along the right, I think to try and facilitate service into that area. But in fact Vegas found way more joy in the second down their right side, frequently catching Takahashi ahead of the ball. It didn’t help that Lights’ front line (and presumably this explains why they score as much as they do) was probably the quickest group of players on the pitch.

Oakland went a man up in the 73rd minute (Mohamed Traore tried to finish his work on Diaz by throwing an elbow) but frankly looked out of it for the match’s last half hour, much like a team that thought they could cruise to the victory. I do wonder if the pace of the match (I would describe it as “torrid”) had something to do with it. Johnny Rodriguez did his best to add to Oakland’s tally, hitting the post in the 69th minute, and nearly finding Harish in front of goal in the 82nd, but it was Vegas, down a man, who spent the last quarter hour on the front foot. Though they didn’t equalize until the 89th minute you could tell something was coming. The goal itself was shocking. Vegas played a really harmless looking cross to the D, and...no one on Oakland reacted. Tony Leone came to receive the cross, and appeared to handle it. The handball wasn’t called but the back line all kind of stopped playing, leaving CC Uche all alone. Fair play to him, it was a nice finish, but that goal is more about what Oakland didn’t do than what Vegas did.

It is worth noting, I think, that, prior to the goal, all of Oakland’s substitutions had been essentially like-for-like subs for attacking players. Central midfield and defense probably could have used some shoring up. Max Ornstil was available, but didn’t appear until the 90th minute. Akeem Ward was available but did not appear. Neither Jose Hernandez nor Chuy Enriquez made the matchday squad, and in a game played at the speed of this one, the absence of Oakland’s two paciest mids was notable. (To be fair, I’m not sure if Chuy makes an appearance here, since he normally plays on the right wing, which means you’d have to move either Amarikwa or Rodriguez, both of whom played very well, but he hasn’t appeared in the last three matches now, which is noticeable because he featured in 11 of the 12 matches previous to that.) Hindsight is 20-20 obviously, but Oakland seemed in dire need of a defensively minded substitution that didn’t come until too late.

On the other hand, Oakland had the two Rodriguez chances, plus two well-taken free kicks from Wal Fall. Convert any of those, and Uche's goal only brings this to a one-goal lead, and we're talking about how well the defense held on.

Getting Hernandez back in the side, in particular, seems like a must for the closing kick. Oakland’s attack has been incredibly one-sided the last few weeks: Nearly everything is running through Memo Diaz and whomever happens to be the right winger at the time. Oakland are blessed with a bumper crop of RWs, but you’d like to see some offense come from elsewhere (and to see that without having to start a midfielder in the center forward role). When Oakland have found attacking success elsewhere, Hernandez is almost always on the pitch.

Oakland now sit a point back of the final playoff spot, and have taken just 4 points from their last 4 matches, dropping points at home against both LA Galaxy II and Las Vegas Lights, two results we did not really foresee. Wednesday’s 6-pointer against Sacramento takes on even more significance. Lose that, and next weekend’s trip to Wild Horse Pass becomes a must win, not exactly the challenge you want to set for yourself.