Oakland Roots Talking Points: Jordan Ferrell's case for Coach of the Year

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 coach with San Antonio. And at 1-1-2, Sacramento's complaints about the Laney College turf on June 19 resulted in a downturn in morale and production. 

The squad found Kai Greene and Emrah Klimenta to man its back line on May 31 and June 6, and then landed its eventual starting keeper on July 6 in Paul Blanchette. All three signings proved to be mightily influential.  

At 1-3-3, the squad suffered an outbreak of COVID-19 tests leading into July 10's match against Las Vegas--resulting in a 2-1 loss with a front-three of Memo Diaz and Tarn Weir on the wings, while Lindo Mfeka manned the #9. 

From there; a 3-nil loss at LA on July 25, another 3-0 loss to Orange County six days later at Las Positas, a 1-0 loss to Phoenix for the Laney College home opener (coupled with the Radicals spur-of-the-moment protest of Puma) on August 4, and a 3-1 loss at Tacoma on August 8. 

Aug. 4's home opener at Laney felt like the demons beginning to leave. Much of the roster had yet to experience an Oakland crowd, meaning first-year players were waiting to feel the home support's energy. 

"It's a beautiful night at Laney. We've been telling everybody this is what it feels like; this is what real-life is like for us here. I thought it was an amazing opportunity to show the whole world what the magic of Laney is like," said Ferrell in August. 

At that point, Roots SC sat at 1-3-8 and dead-last in the USL Championship. Aug. 8 was Zeus de la Paz's last start at keeper when he committed two disastrous goals in the first half, down 3-0 through the opening 45 minutes. 

Fall scored in the 55th minute to make it 3-1, and the turnaround slowly began to build for the club. 

Roots then went on a six-match unbeaten run after the Tacoma blunder; a 1-1 tie with Sacramento on Aug. 11, broke the winless run with a 2-1 victory over Los Angeles at Merritt College on Aug. 14, tied 1-1 at New Mexico on Aug. 18, and then three consecutive 3-1 victories against Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Tacoma. 

"It's been a long time coming, number one; number two, there was a lot of factors in the early stages of the season that we not allowing us to gain a rhythm. You can point your finger at a bunch of different things but now we're in a stretch where we've been able to play games consistently and form some consistency to the lineup despite having a couple of changes in the game... We didn't start the season that way, but it's not how you start; it's how you finish," said Ferrell back on Aug. 28. 

Quincy Amarikwa, who was signed on Aug. 11, could sense the momentum building after just two weeks with the program. 

"They believe in themselves, they know they're capable of it, it was just a matter of getting all on the same page and getting a little more experience. Once the ball gets rolling, the confidence rolls with more confidence. Guys are curious, they're asking questions, they want to learn and get better. That shows in results on the field, I think people can feel that and can see it and it gets people more invested into what's going on." 

Oakland crept to 7-6-9 and fifth place after defeating Tacoma 3-1 a second time on Sep. 15 and then put itself in playoff position at 8-6-10 with a 2-1 win over San Diego in Livermore on Sep. 22. Then came a 2-1 victory over Sacramento on Oct. 6 to claim the season series against the NorCal rival. 

"It's a Derby match, everybody heard the comments they made about our turf, and tonight they came here and we showed them what our home turf is," said Ferrell after the 2-1 win.  

It came down to the wire after a 0-0 draw with Tacoma on October 20. The 4-3 win over San Diego sent shockwaves through the home support, leading to a home sellout of Laney in the 1-0 win over Kansas City. Roots averaged an attendance of 4,344 at Laney and Merritt. 

The 1-nil win over El Paso in the opening round of the USL playoffs was a legendary moment for the club. The club proved they belong in the limelight, and although the loss in PKs to OCSC ended the ride, it showed Oakland was a mere inches away from the Finals after Orange County progressed on another set of penalties. 

Ferrell found the combination for the playoff-berth by discovering new roles for veteran players, despite being in the latter stages of their career. Klimenta entered with experience as a defensive midfielder; Greene, meanwhile, appeared at right back at previous stops. Memo Diaz and Soya Takahashi were also natural midfielders before moving to wingback.

Ferrell plugged Mfeka into the #9 role, resulting in two goals and an assist against Tacoma on Sep. 15, and cycled through Bokila, Amarikwa, Johnny Rodriguez, and Brandon Allen at striker. Even Weir got useful time in the attack before suffering an injury. 

"There are some players there who are just some special human beings. Some players who have grown so much this year, many who have been injected midway through the season and have played big roles down the stretch, and other players who started for us who aren't here now. That's very different than Phoenix or Tampa Bay's situations where there's a consistent core of people.

"For us, it's a standard that we want to set. We've actually replaced Sacramento, they've been in the playoffs since they came into the league and that says a lot about our club. The type of resilience we want to have; a number of months ago we were out here when a game got canceled because Sac... was Sac. We're in the playoffs and they are at home, that's how we want to keep it," said Ferrell after defeating Kansas City.  

Players are already on the way out, evident by Wal Fall and Soya Takahashi's early declarations, along with Jeremy Bokila’s announcement, while expected departures of Tyler Blackwood, Allen, and De la Paz open up more valuable roster slots. 

Now able to put his full focus on building rosters for the Oakland Roots and Project 51O, Ferrell and co. have established a strong base for leaping into 2022. Although El Paso will want to give Ferrell a call, he'll be back to the front office on a full time basis. 

Moreover, Ferrell was the USL's only Black head coach in 2021, while being just one of two Black head coaches in professional U.S. soccer alongside Colorado Rapids' Robin Fraser. 

Ferrell reverting back to Technical Director means the USL will have no head coaches of African descent--a horrible misrepresentation.