RootsBlog

It has been too long, Roots family.  The USL Championship has named its first-team, second-team, and Coach of the Year winners for 2021 without any Oakland Roots players; a strong oversight of the organization’s turnaround under interim head coach Jordan Ferrell—who will focus on his primary role as technical director for 2022 and onward.  The league, unimaginatively, named Tampa Bay's manager Neill Collins Coach of the Year followed by Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC’s Brendan Burke and El Paso Locomotive FC’s Mark Lowry while 13 coaches received votes from technical staffs, executives, and a select media panel.  Now moving into the offseason, on the evening of the USL Championship Finals between Orange County and Tampa Bay, the omission from the league committee doesn’t do justice to what occurred in Oakland (and Livermore) this adversity-filled 2021 season. Ferrell took control of the lineup after a mutual separation with Dario Pot, who went on to be the assistant...

The Oakland Roots' season came to an end on Saturday, November 13 at Championship Stadium in Irvine, falling 6-5 in penalty kicks to Orange County SC after a full 120 minutes completed without a goal being scored.  Oakland came in with a specific game plan to stop OC's Ronaldo Damus, and they did so up until the final penalty attempt. Roots' keeper Paul Blanchette stopped Damus' initial try but was called for encroachment, resulting in the Haitian National burying his kick.  Damus was repeatedly called for offside throughout the 120.  "Penalties, I love penalties. I look at penalties and say that’s our game. I’ll continue to think that way even though things didn’t go our way tonight. We had a good game plan and created some good opportunities. I certainly think that we did enough tonight to be stepping into the Western Conference Final, but that’s knockout football," reflected technical director and interim head coach Jordan Ferrell.  "You play to PKs an...

Welcome to Saturday's edition of the blog's live coverage of Oakland Roots taking on Orange County SC from Championship Stadium in the USL Playoffs' Conference Semifinals.  We're not ready for this season to finish and are, once again, sending up a prayer to the Soccer Gods. It worked last week , please let it work again. Regardless of superstition, a divisional playoff matchup is what both teams wanted.  This is effectively the Pacific Division title with both San Diego and Phoenix eliminated. Anything can go down in a derby.  John Morrissey of USL Tactics writes that Oakland's x-factor is the creativity from wingbacks Memo Diaz and Akeem Ward.  For Orange County, Morrissey points out that Ronaldo Damus is the obvious man to stop.  Provided is Bloom's official preview of tonight's match where he highlights both team's meetings throughout the season.  Lawson also details Orange County is his latest running of "Know Your Enemy."  Oakland have f...

Oakland Roots, victorious over the Mountain Division champion El Paso Locomotive, will look to continue their playoff run against our old friends Orange County Soccer Club at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 13 at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, California. The match will be broadcast on ESPN+ and KOFY TV.   Oakland’s History Against Orange County : Look, I mean, Orange County aren’t better than El Paso. Luckily, we have written some stuff previously on Orange County. June 12  - Orange County 1 - Oakland Roots 0 Preview Recap The Roots and the Blog were both still finding their feet when the Roots traveled to Orange County for just their fourth match of the season.  Ronaldo Damus scored the loan goal  July 31 - Oakland Roots 0 - Orange County 3 Preview Things to Watch Recap Orange County was already up 2-0 when Max picked up a questionable red in the 55th, and Orange County's third late was pretty meaningless.  The Roots were in rough shape here--this ...

Before we get to this weekend’s opponent, let’s briefly revel in last week’s win for Oakland Roots. Look at this goddamn picture: Source: Oakland Roots SC Put it in the Louvre. We don’t have a new enemy to get acquainted with this week, as Oakland’s conference semifinal is against old foe Orange County Soccer Club, the squad nice enough to do us the favor of beating LA Galaxy II so that Oakland could take the final playoff spot in the USL. This is currently the only playoff soccer being played in the state of California. We need a name for this, like the “Copa Calafia” or something. In many ways, last weekend’s opponent was the perfect matchup for Oakland. But we have plenty of evidence that that will not be true again this weekend. Orange County are on a bit of a tear, having now won 6 in a row. During that stretch they have surrendered only one goal. But if you were watching their quarterfinal matchup against Colorado Springs, you may have heard the play-by-play announcer say that th...

Keeping up with the USL as a whole is something of a struggle. With the exception of Akeem O’Connor-Ward, USL news does not make SportsCenter very often. For the Blog, I check FBRef pretty regularly, but even then it’s mostly research on the Pacific Division and whoever the Roots are playing that week. This article is my attempt to learn more about what is going on in the USL playoffs, and as long as I am doing that, to give you a little mini uh--I’m not sure I am permitted to say I am going to provide you with that, so like, here is a BlortsCenter--for the USL Championship playoffs. The Eastern Conference [Source: USLChampionship.com] [Source:  USLChampionship.com ] Eastern Conference Semifinal One - Tampa Bay vs. Birmingham Legion November 13 at 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time. How Tampa Bay Got Here Tampa Bay Rowdies romped to an Atlantic Division title, racking up one shy of the best goal differential in the league. Tampa was only seventh in the league in goals, but had the best def...