Republic Sac'd: Oakland Roots 2-1 Sacramento Republic

 

I have to say, I think Sacramento very much had a bead on what Oakland were trying to do Wednesday night. Oakland’s general shape very much resembled what we’ve seen since the squad got fully (or nearly fully) fit, but I thought this played a lot like a 4-3-3 with a false 9, with Lindo Mfeka doing a lot of roaming about the center of the pitch. The gameplan was practically Sarri-esque. Build-up after build-up saw Roots try one of two things: (1) Fall and Hernandez seek to receive the ball in the half-space and then immediately hit a third man out wide or through the middle, or (2) an intricate passing sequence that would switch play in about 4 to 5 passes. The problem was that Sacramento’s physicality really prevented this kind of fluid movement for much of the match. Sacramento aggressively pressed Fall and Hernandez after they received the ball, more often than not forcing a pass back to the center backs. For much of the game, the fullback runs through the wide areas were also ineffective, as Sacramento’s wingers did a creditable job keeping Diaz and Ward in check.

But it did not matter because of two moments of real footballing brilliance. The first was born out of Oakland's strategy, and came before Sacramento had a chance to download it and adjust. Here is a shot from early in the buildup:

A few things to note: First, Johnny Rodriguez up top is occupying Republic RB Jordan McCrary. Rodriguez is about to receive the pass from Ward (possibly a little wider than Oakland really want), and he will have two outlets: Fall and Mfeka. That brings me to note #2: Look at Mfeka’s positioning. He operated as the central striker in this game, but has dropped very deep to fill the half-space on the left side, I think on account of the fact that Fall himself is nearly at the back line, having cycled in behind the advancing Ward. Note finally that no one is within shouting distance of Jose Hernandez.

The second shot:

As Rodriguez collects the pass and dribbles away from his own goal, Fall steps forward to provide the outlet, while Mfeka, shadowed by Republic’s Andrew Wheeler-Omiunu, vacates the half-space, leaving no Republicans in the middle of the pitch between the backline and the forwards.

This is the key:

Hernandez moves to fill that void, and Hayden Sargis, one of Sacramento’s CBs, is forced to step up. As he does this, off screen, Quincy Amarikwa runs into the space he vacates. Sacramento LB Duke LaCroix is almost inexplicably wide and Dan Casey, the remaining CB, is caught betwixt and between.

Look at this shot from the reverse angle:

Oakland’s movement has basically put Sargis on an island: He has to choose between Amarikwa and Hernandez, and Oakland are positioned to react regardless of his choice. (Diaz is sitting unmarked on the right while all of this happens.) Brilliant football. You can see in the video that Duke LaCroix immediately remonstrates with Sargis after the goal, but frankly I'm not sure why. Sargis almost certainly made the right choice, inviting Fall to try the riskier long ball rather than the safer short pass to Hernandez. Which is just another reason this was an incredible goal: Perfect execution from both Fall and Amarikwa.

Amarikwa’s would be Oakland’s only shot for the first half. Roots made a few more dangerous-looking moves, but Republic essentially smothered Roots’ attack from that point forward. Rather than pressing high up on Oakland’s backline, Sacramento elected to sit deep and press aggressively in midfield, preventing Oakland from making their desired second pass in any buildup. The space Fall has in that second and third images above never really materialized again.

Roots put it away with another moment of class in the second half. A free kick into the box from Jose Hernandez is recycled by Kai Greene to Johnny Rodriguez, whose shot in has to be cleared off the line by Republic. Rodriguez does some solid work to help retain possession and the ball is eventually recycled to Fissore, who lofts in a beautiful cross that is ably headed home by Emrah Klimenta.

Roots’ free-kick initiated goal matched Sacramento’s only tally of the game, which came following a similar sequence. Oakland may have been lucky to limit Sacramento to just the one goal, though. Oakland’s decision to position Fall and Hernandez in the half-spaces left some space through the middle of the park, which Sacramento exploited. And when Sacramento’s press made Oakland play backwards, Sacramento was ready to pounce if the opportunity struck. Sacramento also found a lot of joy down their left. The Memo Diaz-Dariusz Formella matchup on that flank was basically a heavyweight (or middleweight, as it were) title bout, both in terms of quality and also in terms of physicality. Diaz had some notable wins, but Sacramento also succeeded in getting some dangerous-looking crosses from that side of the field, including one in the 35th minute that led to a free header in the middle of the box. (The header went wide.)

That Sacramento was limited to a single goal is, I think, mostly down to the work of Emrah Klimenta and Kai Greene, who stonewalled several Republic attacks once they reached the 18-yard box. Nearly perfect work from the Roots’ CB combo, in my opinion. Had Klimenta not scored the winner, you could make an argument for them being joint Men of the Match.

Jordan Ferrell was also not about to repeat the mistakes of the last match when, as you’ll recall, he made exclusively offensively minded substitutions before the 90th minute, and a ragged Roots defense surrendered an equalizer to 10-man Lights in the 89th minute. Every single substitution in this one was arguably defensively minded. By the end of the match, Oakland was playing something like a 6-4-0, effectively parking a fleet of buses in front of goal. One thing I appreciated though is that Travian Sousa, given the most forward role in this formation, continually harassed the Republic back line so they couldn’t get long balls off cleanly.

Oakland now sit in 4th place in the Pacific, having finally bagged 3 points in a matchup I labeled “must win”. They are 2 points up on 5th place Galaxy II, but The Two have a game in hand. We are all Las Vegas Lights fans tonight, as Vegas hosts Galaxy II at Cashman Field. Oakland will go to Phoenix on Saturday, and then get a week to rest up before a stretch of 3 games against division opponents, and a finale against Sporting KC II. Gird your loins, friends, this is going to be a wild ride.