RootsBlog

  Oh hell yes. Roots are back, baby! Under the lights Saturday night in Las Vegas, Roots bagged 3 second-half goals. It was the second time this season Roots have scored 3 in the second half, and they are now 2-0-0 in those games. Roots’ shape against Las Vegas looked like their shape against New Mexico: A sort of 4-1-4-1. The interesting changes were among the attacking 5 in this one: Quincy Amarikwa occupied the #9 role, Yohannes Harish and Chuy Enriquez were the wingers, and Jose Hernandez paired with Lindo Mfeka inside. Oakland had control of the game from the off. They found plenty of joy down the left hand side, with Harish moving centrally and Soya Takahashi making overlapping runs. We also saw what Amarikwa brings to the #9 role, as he used his strength to get and retain possession on a few occasions. Oakland were able to generate a few half-chances in the early going, but were unable to capitalize on their early momentum. Las Vegas eventually grew into the game. It looked ...

Photo courtesy of Oakland Roots SC The Roots put together perhaps the strongest performance of its season thus far, beating Las Vegas Lights 3-1 in comeback fashion on Saturday night. Oakland continues its unbeaten run to four matches and eight points during that span, improving its record to 3-5-8 and 14 points.  Oakland is building a reputation for being comeback kids after going down in the 48th minute. The club has now trailed in three straight contests only to equalize later on.  Technical director and interim head coach Jordan Ferrell has keyed in postgame talks time and again that the team is coming together; Saturday's win was another testament of that.  "I’ve been saying that the momentum is building. Last game, we had a tough start but we managed to fight back into it and get a point. Tonight was difficult with the heat and the travel, all those factors. In the first half, we were the better team. I don't think they created much, but it was unfortunate to go do...

Roots travel to Las Vegas to face the Lights at 7:30 p.m. on August 21, 2021, a game that will be broadcast on ESPN+ and theoretically KOFY TV (was the last game on there? I checked and it wasn’t…). The Roots also announced that they would broadcast in Spanish on TeleXitos. Bon Voyage Danny Oakland Roots legend Danny Flores has gotten called up to the ACC, departing the team for the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Flores has the third most minutes of any Roots player this season, which is pretty incredible, since he has missed two full games in a row. Flores scored the Oakland Roots first goal in the USL, this absolute beauty: Best of luck to our guy Danny Flores as he heads to college at @virginia_tech . Forever part of our history scoring the first goal for Roots in @USLChampionship . Go on young one. #KnowYourRoots pic.twitter.com/gM4FVFm046 — Oakland Roots (@oaklandrootssc) August 20, 2021 Flores’s name has come up regularly at the Blog’s daily editorial...

The Roots head to Las Vegas for Saturday night’s game with the LAFC Development Academy… I mean Lights FC… touting a three-match unbeaten run with five points during the span.  Oakland comes in after its 1-1 draw with New Mexico United. Technical director/interim head coach  Jordan Ferrell  said after the match that the team is increasingly building synergy.  "It’s a decent result, but I think tonight we feel like we dropped two. It’s not a good feeling, but it’s a better feeling than we’ve had recently where we’ve been happy to get one point. I think it shows how this group is coming together,”  said Ferrell.  The Lights defeated Oakland 2-1 back on July 10 at Las Positas, which was the start of the Roots’ COVID-19 spell when just  Matias Fissore   and  Saalih Muhammad   were available subs.  The Roots are a much different team since then and are able to deploy its favored systems with better fluidity.  Here are some things to...

  A few weeks back I think we were all a little disappointed when Oakland made no discernible attempt to sign free agent Leonel Messi, who would have been perfect in Oakland’s attack. Well, Wal Fall has done his best to forget we ever wanted to see Messi in Roots colors. I mean, who needs Messi when you’re making free kicks like this: Sorry, wrong highlight. WAL FALL FROM CENTER FIELD! #NMvOAK @WalFall17 pic.twitter.com/kgpJRKfQHv — Oakland Roots (@oaklandrootssc) August 19, 2021 I mean, what the hell. How are you supposed to just go on about your life after a kick like that? Yeah, I don't know either While we’re here, I’d like to invite anyone with the appropriate credentials to edit Mr. Fall’s wikipedia page, which at the time of publication, looks like this: That’s three sentences, one describing his current gig, a second asserting that he has a famous cousin with a “citation needed” tag, and a third which is not about Wal at all, but is instead a complete non-sequitur. Whil...

Photo courtesy of Oakland Roots SC It wasn’t pretty, but no matter how you cut it, a points’ a point. NMU certainly looked the better side of the 1-1 draw after holding 60 percent possession, 16 shots, six on target, and 14 chances created. Roots' head coach and technical director  Jordan Ferrell  feels they walked out with two points lost and thinks the system is  "coming together." "It’s a decent result, but I think tonight we feel like we dropped two. It’s not a good feeling, but it’s a better feeling than we’ve had recently where we’ve been happy to get one point. I think it shows how this group is coming together. This is a difficult place to play with the elevation and this is a very good team that doesn’t concede many goals. I think we want to keep building, the momentum we have right now is very important with where we’re at this season,"  said Ferrell.  Oakland Roots’ captain  Wal Fall  scored a Goal of the Year candidate from a free-kick near...

Oakland Roots play away to New Mexico United on Wednesday, August 18, 2021 at 6:30 p.m. Pacific Time, and will be broadcast on KOFY TV and ESPN+. The Roots' injury report this morning confirmed that Tarek Morad and Tarn Weir remain out with "lower extremity" injuries.    The Club New Mexico United is a relatively new team, founded June 6, 2018. Per Wikipedia, professional soccer came to New Mexico in the 1990s in the form of the player-owned New Mexico Chiles. The team folded in 1996 , and the following season was replaced by the even-more-MLS-namey Albuquerque Geckos The actual badge of New Mexico United is yellow, for the state flag of New Mexico, black for no obvious reason, and includes four diagonal stripes in reference to the Zia symbol used on the New Mexico state flag. The club say that they received permission from the folks at the Zia Pueblo to use the symbol. [Source: NM United Website via Wikipedia] Cool as hell. Less cool and more weird is that one of their...