Johnny Rodriguez’s 63rd minute strike was all the Oakland Roots needed to earn a 1-0 victory over New Mexico United in their home opener on Saturday night.
Rodriguez had entered the match one minute earlier, substituting for Anuar Peláez. He had also scored the Roots’ only goal in their previous match, a 1-1 draw with the RGV Toros.
“He’s playing with some confidence right now,” Head Coach Noah Delgado said after the game. “The staff believes in him. He started game one, and then came off the bench and scored a goal and instead of feeling bad he has just proven that he [can come] off the bench since he scored two goals.”
Rodriguez began the goalscoring sequence by dribbling the ball over midfield and feeding the ball to Memo Diaz as he made his run along the left side. Diaz tapped the ball to Formella in the penalty area. Formella ran out of room as he attempted to dribble around goalkeeper Alex Tambakis, but he was able to leave the ball for Rodriguez for the finish from close range.
The match had started slowly, with few chances for either side. Darek Formella’s one-timer sailed over the bar in the 12th minute. The shot came off of a corner kick by Edgardo Rito, whose speed caused problems for the New Mexico defense all evening.
One of New Mexico’s few chances in the match came in the 19th minute, when Santi Moar’s shot from 25 yards out deflected off of the post and forced goalkeeper Paul Blanchette to chase it as it crossed through the goalmouth.
But Rodriguez’s goal changed everything. The Roots began generating more chances for themselves and largely shut down New Mexico’s offense.
New Mexico’s chances at a comeback dwindled even further in the 70th minute, when Justin Portillo pushed Napo Matsoso from behind, causing Portillo to receive his second yellow card of the match.
Tambakis made a couple of fine saves to keep the Roots from doubling their lead. In the 73rd minute, Tambakis was able to deflect away a shot that Rodriguez tried to sneak past the left post.
Tambakis was also able to get his hand on Lindo Mfeka’s shot in the 81st minute. New Mexico Midfielder Harry Swartz nearly scored an own goal, but was able to keep it from going over the line, and Mfeka’s second attempt hit the side netting.
“It’s important that we grind out games,” Delgado said. “I think we still could’ve gotten a goal to close and seal the game off. But I thought we did well to get the result at the end of the day. This is how win you a lot of games in this league, one-zero.”
Thriving at their new home away from home
In their first match at Pioneer Stadium, the Roots drew a crowd of 4,695 that nearly filled the 5,000-seat stadium, even though the venue change was only announced three days ago.
Delgado said his players had the right attitude about the venue change.
“They were very professional all week,” he said. “There wasn’t a lot of talk about it. They wanted to see the field; they trained here one day. I think this goes to the credit of the culture of the team that they’re up and they’re willing to deal with adversity. They come out and play for the club.”
