Oakland Roots Postgame Presser: Quotes From Jordan Ferrell Following 1-Nil Loss To OCSC

The Oakland Roots fell 1-0 to Orange County SC under the lights of Laney. OCSC finishes 2021 with a 4-0-0 record in its season series with Roots, scoring seven goals to Oakland's one. 

Roots SC's record now dips to 9-7-13 with three matches left. It's been a rough month for Oakland, going 2-1-4 over the last seven matches. 

Technical director and interim head coach Jordan Ferrell's body language showed clear frustration in the postgame interview, seemingly relieved to voice a bit more displeasure once the mics and cameras were all shut off.  

Oakland looks ahead to two more road matches at Tacoma (Oct. 20) and San Diego (Oct. 24) before turning home for the season finale on October 30 against Sporting KC II at Laney. 

Here is a full transcript of Ferrell's postgame press conference:

Initial reaction to the loss?

"It's a tough one. We did it to ourselves. We had some good chances, Paul [Blanchette] even almost scored. Obviously, we were pretty stretched going down to 10 men, but we're not just gonna pack it in. We're going to go after it and we had some chances. That was a tough one."

Regarding the red card to Jose Hernandez:

"You expect a more seasoned ref to manage that with his personality; give a yellow, it was retaliation from someone stepping over and rolling up on them. I understand that it's a red, but I think it could've been handled differently, so that's tough. In tight games, emotion is a part of the game. Without emotion, you wouldn't want to play, but there's also that fine line.

"Tonight, Jose put the team in that situation. But I'd like to add that the team stepped up and did really well afterward. We conceded the one tonight, which we were really playing out of spaces we shouldn't of put ourselves in. But there were a lot of good things there that we'll try to pull from and take into next week."

 How the system progressed throughout the night? 

"Early on, we were getting in good pockets with Lindo Mfeka and got some good looks in those parts of space. I wouldn't say their goal changed much with our game plan, we were still finding good opportunities. Their goal felt more like a slap in the face than anything else. 

"In the second half, we knew we were going to push numbers forward in order to get the goal, but the red card came as we were about to make that sub. We wanted to still control their central direct-play, but also give ourselves a chance to support the forwards.

"Down a man, we asked a lot of everybody. Wal Fall and Matias Fissore did a great job of covering a lot of ground tonight. From there, we shifted a couple of times based on what we were seeing from them. The sub of Chuy Enriquez later on almost created a couple of chances for us." 

 Regarding Bokila subbing on in the first half; is Lindo okay?

"We'll see [regarding Lindo Mfeka's injury]. He was on the table at halftime and we'll have the doctors check him out to see where he's at. The substitution wasn't because we saw something strategically, it was because he went down. 

"It changes the way we attack. We're very different with Lindo than we are with Bokila; equally as dangerous in terms of the chances we created, but very different between both of them. It disrupts the rhythm that we were building through the first half and into the second."

How do you approach the end of the season psychologically? 

"It's a game at a time. There are going to be some games played on Saturday that affect us. We've got to beat Tacoma, that's the main thing. If we beat Tacoma, then we own the series against them. This was a really big chance, obviously, it's a six-point game and we would've been six points improved from where we were. 

"The battle is at fourth, so these are important points dropped. We've got to go into the next game and get those three points." 

On conceding the goal shortly after Blanchette's penalty save:

"I feel like it was a real high after the encroachment and Paul making a great save, but then you have to reset. That's something that we need. We haven't been in that situation after a PK save but that's something we have to be capable of. 

"There are going to be highs and lows, but you can never be too high or too low. I'm not sure if we were just overly happy or what the deal was, but that was a tough roller coaster."

Is there a heightened sense of urgency going into the last three games? 

"It's the same sense of urgency we had when we were 0-for back in early July. I don't think that it's changing or we're prioritizing one game over the other, we're in the situation where we've got to win games to be able to get in the playoffs. 

"With three left, they are very important games but also three very winnable games. All of our focus is going to be on Tacoma and nothing else. If we were focusing on Tacoma tonight, it would've ended much worse. Our focus needs to be on whoever we are playing."