Live Blog: Oakland Roots vs. Orange County (November 13)

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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 faced Orange County four times this season, earning zero points in the process. We can throw away the first two results. For one, OCSC had a different manager for those games. For another, the Roots were still a work in progress during those games. Oakland’s starting XI in the first featured two players who are no longer even with the team, Luis Barraza and Danny Flores. The second matchup was Oakland’s second game following the covid outbreak, also featured two lads we for sure will not see on Saturday (Danny Flores and the now-injured Brandon Allen), and was one of the few games in which both Matias Fissore and Chuy Enriquez were not even available.

You might recall that Oakland deserved much more out of their third clash with OCSC. A Quincy Amarikwa goal was erased by an absolutely awful offsides call, and a WWE-style takedown of Jose Hernandez in the box went uncalled....

Scroll down for all the latest updates:

Key Events

Jordan Ferrell postgame:

Can you reflect on this team and their character throughout this season?

It’s been monstrous, I can’t say enough about the character of these individuals and how they come together as a team. We had some really low lows, but we also had some incredible highs.
Inside the locker room, after the first 12 games of the season, there were questions but I don’t think there was doubt, and that’s what got us here. Once the wheels started turning, with some incredible fight from the team week in and week out, I can’t say enough about these guys. 
Not just the players but also the staff. It’s not just the players but everybody that was behind them. The fans weren’t able to be with us much for those first 12 games but once they were there, everybody started to see the work they were doing and the players were able to see the support that they had. Tonight the support was equally incredible to cap off the first year. It’s a great jumping off point for us and the second season can’t start soon enough.

The fans, they brought it tonight and showed up when it mattered most. Is it the best atmosphere from fans traveling that you’ve seen all year?

I think what we’ve tried to build as a team that has the character, the quality, the personality of Oakland, the fans see that. It’s one thing to come down for a playoff game, it’s another to come in full voice like they did. 
There were moments of the game where they were far louder than any OC fans and that shows how much the entire support off the field believes that the group on the field is fighting as much as they can. 
We’ve been lucky to build this not just this year in the USL but I think this year you see that on the stage is where we belong. The fans, they have a stronger connection to their team than teams that have been here for longer. 
To start that in year one and give them what we’ve given them down the stretch has built a strong foundation for what’s to come.

Difficult game, you shutdown a lot of what they had to offer and even had some of the better chances, but the game goes to PKs. Can you reflect on that for us a bit?

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 Wester Conference Final but that’s knockout football. You play to PKs and it’s a guessing game, everything is up for grabs and we did well on most of our PKs. 

It’s tough to lose on that but I think we showed a lot of character in the 120 minutes to really give them nothing and create some good chances for ourselves. It’s a tough way to cap off the season but only one team is happy at the end of the season and we hope to be that team next year.

Penalties

Damus makes second attempt, 6-5.

Damus stuffed on first attempt, Blanchette called for encroachment. 

Ward stuffed, 5-5. 

OC's Okili make, 5-5.

Harish converts, 5-4.

OC's Enevoldsen in, 4-4.

Joseph Nane in, 4-3.

OC Caspile goal, 3-3. 

Mbumba scores, 3-2.

OC's Dillin Powers, 2-2. 

Bokila converts, 2-1.

OC's Kuningas in, 1-1. 

Morad starts things, 1-0. 

Orange County Starting 11


Roots Starting 11



Timeline

Penalties

Damus makes second attempt. 
Damus stuffed on first attempt, Blanchette called for encroachment. 
Ward stuffed. 
OC in.
Nane in. 
OC in. 
Mbumba in.
OC in
Bokila in. 
Kuningas in. 
Morad in.

OC set piece - 119'

Long ball skips around in the area. Blanchette grabs safely

Ward shot high - 118'

Mbumba on - 106'

OC goal whiped, offside - 105+2'

OC goal whiped. Damus offside for 6th time tonight. He's been locked up all night. 

OC corner - 105+1'

Blanchette spills high claim, leads to nothing. 

OC set piece  - 105'

Yellow OC bench - 104'

Roots set - 102'

Long set piece from Jose. 

Oloski shot at Blanchette - 98'

Oloski with a shot straight to Blanchette. Didn't challenge him. 

Roots sub - 98'

Max Ornstil on for Mati. Sousa on for Memo. 

Akeem Ward yellow - 98'

Roots long set - 96'

Extra Time

Blanchette easy grab - 90+2'

 OC sub - 90+1'

Roots set piece - 86'

Long set, ball drops but a foul whipes the play. 

Roots sub - 80'

Morad on for Johnny. Defensive move. 

OC record crowd, 5218, thanks to Oakland. 

OC sub - 76'

Kuningas and Okoli on. Aggressive move. 

Roots corner - 66'

Leads to nothing. Ball skips around in the area. 

OC sub - 59'

Mines off, Enevoldsen on. 

Roots Sub - 57'

Bokila for Chuy.

Chuy shot wide - 52'

Chuy with the first look of the second half. His shot trails wide. 

First half notes:

Very even game, Memo with the best chance that skipped off the far post in the 30th. 

Roots holding 47 percent possession with four shots and one on target. Both teams with three chances created. 

OC draws foul - 45'

Foul by Mati, long ball in batted away by Blanchette. 

OC corner - 40'

Damus gets a head on it. Ball skips around, cleared out. 

OC draws foul near - 37'

Damus draws a foul near right corner flag. Easy claim by Blanchette

Memo shot off post - 30'

Emrah feeds Memo, his shot skips past keeper on off the post. 

Akeem draws foul - 28'

About 25 yards on the left edge. Mati shot on the volley goes high. 

OC ball in - 21'

Blanchette jumps on a cross. 

Memo block - 18'

Cross in was a near chance for OC. Memo skips it high, Blanchette up for the high claim. Contact on the way down.

Emrah tackle - 14'

Emrah 1-o-1 with Damus, nice tackle. Roots supporters loud applause. 

Roots corner - 13'

Chuy ball to Johnny, headed out for corner. Ball skips around, Mati with a shot blocked. 

OC attempt wide - 9'

Quincy attempt on target - 8'

Quincy steals high, low shot straight to the keeper.

Roots corner - 7'

Leads to nothing.

OC set piece - 4'

Damus draws foul, play short leads to ball into side. 

Roots' away attendance estimated over 250. 😯



Talking Points

  • Orange County talking big doo-doo

These people in Orange County have clearly never heard of this hyphy movement we got going in the Bay.  

On Nov. 9, OCSC's social media team took a shot at Oakland fans after getting word of visiting supporters groups traveling down (expected to be +100). Although a lighthearted joke, they apparently think the Town revolves only around Marshawn Lynch and Stephen Curry. 

What takes the cake is OCSC's president, Jeff Garner, pompously hopping on Roots' Twitter to call Oakland "losers" after posting a recap of their playoff win in El Paso, egging on supporters about USL standards for only possessing one drum on visiting grounds. 

Perhaps Orange County isn't aware of Oakland's reputation for side shows, getting hyphy, the Black Hole, and the Roaracle Warriors. Garner is playing with fire; the Function quickly responded:

It's interesting to see an opposing owner rile up a visiting crowd given Orange County's games have been more akin to a library than a professional soccer match. You'd think their focus would best placed on hyping up their own fanbase.

As if the playoffs weren't reason enough for hyped crowd, Garner just did Roots a huge favor. It's going to be loud in Section 1 tonight. 

Up the Roots. 

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