Three things we learned: Oakland Roots loss to Phoenix Rising

Oakland Roots did not have the debut in the USL Championship season they hoped for, losing on the road 3-0 against Phoenix Rising. Here are three things we learned from the game.

1) Roots Need to cut down on mistakes to get results

Playing against the defending USL Western Division champions, Oakland needed to play an error free game to earn a result.

Stats wise the Roots held their own against Rising. Oakland had more possession than Phoenix, matched up well with completed passes and tackles won.

However a trio of mistakes doomed Oakland to the loss.

An errant Roots backpass set up Phoenix’s first goal and two goalkeeping mistakes by keeper Zeus de la Paz dug too deep a hole for any team to recover from.

2) The USL Championship is not NISA

No disrespect to NISA, but Oakland’s first game in the USL showed the gap in quality between the second and third division in America.

Oakland made the NISA Championship game in 2020, but had to build up a new squad jumping up into the USL. Without a development academy, Oakland has had to search worldwide to assemble their squad.

With only an unsettled preseason that led to the departure of head coach Dario Pot before the season opener, it isn’t surprising that Oakland has not jelled as a squad and suffered a lopsided loss.

3) Team remains upbeat despite result

After the game players and interim coach Jordan Ferrell remained positive about how the team responded after falling behind by three goals.

“Only Positives only positives,” said USL vet and Oakland Roots forward Tyler Blackwood after the game. “The way the team has come together without a coach, I can only find positives. Look at Danny Flores. Local boy comes in when Wal gets hurt with a short warmup. I thought he was amazing today. What I saw today was heart and you can’t coach heart. It’s very hard to coach the heart but we had it. A lot of People give up three nil down and we didn’t. I’m proud of the boys and we will grow from here.”

“I thought there were a lot of good things,” added Ferrell. “Coming into the home of the champions last year a very quality squad to test ourselves off the bat and I think we did a good job of showing we have a clear way of playing, now we just got to work on it.”