RootsBlog

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 ...

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...

Against all odds, the Oakland Roots will travel to El Paso to face the Locomotive on November 5, 2021 at 6:30 p.m. PST.  The match will be broadcast on ESPN+. The Club El Paso Locomotive F.C. made their USL debut in the 2019 season.  Locomotive play at Southwest University Park, which is called (at least by the people on the Seriously Loco Podcast ) the "Swup."  Locomotive share the Swup with the El Paso Chihuahuas the San Diego Padres Triple-A affiliate (Tatis Jr. never played there, he jumped from AA to the majors). The Locomotive website claims that their colors are "West Texas Sky" and "Desert Dusk" and "High Noon Sun."  Oakland Roots' gear gets worn on Blindspotting.  Per their site, "the Locomotive is the engine that drives the train.  It is strong, loud and its booming sounds can be heard from miles away."   Anyway, their logo is pretty dope, but the color names are incredibly lame. Interestingly (I will not be reading the co...

Sun Tzu So here’s the thing about El Paso Locomotive: They’re really good. And they’re even better at home. Locomotive are 13-3-0 in El Paso this season, having scored 36 goals in those matches while surrendering 10. They are a thoroughly pedestrian 5-7-4 on the road, with only 20 goals for and 24 against. Unfortunately, Friday’s match will be in El Paso. El Paso's seriously dope  culture flag Roots enter the match at 11-8-13, though that record is somewhat deceiving. They are 10-5-5 over the final 20 matches of the season. If they had gotten results at that pace from the beginning, they’d have 56 points, and be hosting Colorado Springs Switchbacks this coming weekend. At the same time, during that 20-match run, Roots are “only” 3-2-3 on the road, with 10 goals for and 11 against. Their only road win in the “non-Las Vegas Lights” category was the 4-3 barnburner against San Diego Loyal. Locomotive play at a slightly faster tempo than Roots. Their general shape to start the season w...

Oakland Roots host Sporting Kansas City II on October 30 at 7:00 p.m. at Laney College for the final match of the Roots’ regular season campaign. The match will be broadcast on ESPN+ and KOFYTV. The Roots must win this game to make the playoffs, but they will also need LA Galaxy to drop points to Orange County SC (in a match that starts at 7:30). For the first time September 3, the Roots are playing a team they haven’t faced before. And you know what that means, right? The Club Sporting Kansas City II were founded in the fall of 2015 as Swope Park Rangers. Swope Park Rangers were the third incarnation of Sporting KC’s youth set-up, following Orlando City SC and Oklahoma City Energy FC. Sporting KC were a founding member of MLS in 1996, founded by Lamar Hunt (named after the competition) as the KC Wiz, but had to change their name to “Wizards” because they lost an IP action brought by electronics retailer “The Wiz.” (“Which will last longer, this American soccer franchise or this e...