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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...

The Oakland Roots fell 1-0 to Orange County SC under the lights of Laney. OCSC finishes 2021 with a 4-0-0 record in its season series with Roots, scoring seven goals to Oakland's one.  Roots SC's record now dips to 9-7-13 with three matches left. It's been a rough month for Oakland, going 2-1-4 over the last seven matches.  Technical director and interim head coach Jordan Ferrell's body language showed clear frustration in the postgame interview, seemingly relieved to voice a bit more displeasure once the mics and cameras were all shut off.   Oakland looks ahead to two more road matches at Tacoma (Oct. 20) and San Diego (Oct. 24) before turning home for the season finale on October 30 against Sporting KC II at Laney.  Here is a full transcript of Ferrell's postgame press conference: Initial reaction to the loss? "It's a tough one. We did it to ourselves. We had some good chances, Paul [Blanchette] even almost scored. Obviously, we were pretty stretched goin...

It was a rough night for the Oakland Roots in its 1-nil loss to Orange County SC at Laney College Stadium on Saturday, October 16, evident by coach Jordan Ferrell's postgame interview--voicing clear frustration that reflected with his body language. "It's a tough one. We did it to ourselves. We had some good chances, Paul [Blanchette] even almost scored. Obviously, we were pretty stretched going down to 10 men, but we're not just gonna pack it in. We're going to go after it and we had some chances. That was a tough one," said Ferrell after the loss.  The loss brings Oakland's record to 9-7-13, clinging onto fifth with 34 points. With eyes on the table, Los Dos faces El Paso while Sacramento squares off with Tacoma on Saturday. An El Paso wins keeps LA in striking distance of Oakland, while a Republic-Defiance draw would bring both clubs to 34 points--Roots hold the tiebreaker against both clubs.  Orange County scored in the 25th minute after Ronaldo Damus ...

Welcome to Saturday's edition of the blog's live coverage of the Oakland Roots' match with Orange County SC under the lights of Laney College, oh we've missed you.  Roots return from the desert after falling 1-0 to Phoenix Rising last Saturday, entering tonight's match in fifth-place with a 9-7-12 record, two points back of LA Galaxy II for a playoff spot and a point ahead of Sacramento Republic in sixth. For Oakland, that means it's all must-win matches over the remaining matches and table-watching along the way.  Provided is Bloom's official match preview for tonight, where he highlights the Pacific Division's slate of matches on Saturday. Here's an excerpt from Bloom's preview: If Oakland wins tonight, that OCSC-LA II match-up to end the season has huge potential to outright decide a playoff spot for both OCSC and LA II. If Oakland lose tonight, we are going to be desperate for OCSC to win that last one, almost certainly. Here is an updated g...