After a two-and-a-half-week break in the middle of the season, the Oakland Roots return to action on the road against Detroit City on Saturday afternoon.
During the long break, the Roots fell to tenth in the Western Conference standings, now four points out of a playoff position behind Las Vegas Lights. Phoenix Rising and LA Galaxy topped Oakland in the standings. Oakland is being closely chased by defending champions Orange County SC, starting to play well finally, and Monterey Bay which picked up 10 points in their last four games.
The Roots will face off against Detroit City FC, which currently stands in 6th place in the Eastern Conference. The last time Oakland and Detroit faced off was in the 2020 NISA finals, in which City pulled out a victory late in the match.
Oakland needs to get a result against Detroit. They will not play again until Aug. 24, when they travel to San Diego to take on the Loyal before heading to Sacramento on Aug. 27 to face the Republic.
Match Up: Oakland Roots SC at Detroit City FC
Competition: USL Championship
Date: August 13, 2022
Kick-off time: 4:30 PM PT
Weather Forecast: 77° degrees, partly cloudy
Venue: Keyworth Stadium, Hamtramck, Michigan
Roots Notes
Ariel Mbubma, the last original player from the Roots inaugural roster, was transferred to Columbus Crew 2, The MLS Next side.
“Ariel was a young player; we saw a lot of potential in here locally,” said Roots Technical Director Jordan Ferrell. “One of the goals of the club is to help nurture and bring young, local, high-potential talent into our professional environment. Ariel is an example of a young player taking advantage of the opportunity to grow exponentially with our first team, leading to this new challenge for himself with Columbus.”
The terms of the transfer were not disclosed.
