In a winner-take-all match to decide the final playoff berth, El Paso Locomotive FC ended the Oakland Roots’ season with a 2-1 victory on Saturday night.
The match was played at Pioneer Stadium in Hayward in front of 6,135 spectators, the largest home crowd in Oakland Roots’ franchise history.
Oakland was missing two of its key players: Neveal Hackshaw and Bryan Tamacas, who were on national team duty with Trinidad & Tobago and El Salvador, respectively.
El Paso Takes Control Early in the First Half
The Roots got off to a strong start, with shots from Irakoze Donasiyano and Emrah Klimenta in the first five minutes of the match.
But disaster struck in the sixth minute, when El Paso’s Emmanuel Sonupe scored on a breakaway. Sonupe got behind a pair of Oakland defenders just as San Jose Earthquake Eric Calvillo sent in a through ball from near midfield. Sonupe dribbled to the edge of the penalty area and calmly slotted the ball between the legs of goalkeeper Paul Blanchette.
“We would say the first goal, he’s offside in the video we saw.” Roots Head Coach Noah Delgado said after the match. “So it’s this thing that is difficult to deal with. I thought we started all right for the first couple minutes getting down at their end and then one poor call from the ref and we’re down 1-0.”
Oakland responded with a scoring chance in the 10th minute, on shot by Jeciel Cedeño at the near post that El Paso goalkeeper Benny Díaz deflected over the endline for a corner kick. Díaz played in 13 matches for the Roots last season, on loan from Club Tijuana in Liga MX.
El Paso struck again in the 14th minute. Petar Petrovic took a free kick from near the right touch line. Noah Dollenmayer used every inch of his 6’6″ frame to get his head on the ball and power it into the net.
The rest of the first half became chippy, with El Paso receiving three yellow cards and Oakland two.
The Roots got a big break in the 38th minute, when they were awarded a penalty kick after Dollenmayer took down Cedeño in the penalty area. Johnny Rodriguez took the spot kick, but Díaz guessed correctly and made a diving save.
Roots Let It All Hang Out in the Second Half
Delgado said the team was emotional in the locker room while waiting to go out for the second half.
“At halftime, it was like it’s not fucking over, boys, we’re in this, let’s just go,” Delgado said. “And how they came out in the second half shows a little bit of their character.”
While the Roots turned up the intensity in the second half, El Paso was mostly satisfied to leave most of their players in the defensive half and watch the clock tick away.
Oakland finally got on the board one minute and 51 seconds into the second half, thanks to halftime substitute Anuar Peláez, who turned his back to the goal, booted the loose ball up in the air, and delivered a spectacular bicycle kick that gave Díaz no chance.
But Oakland still needed two more goals to secure a playoff berth. Trayvone Reid had a shot in the 50th minute, but it was an easy save for Díaz.
Baboucarr Njie attempted another bicycle kick in the 57th minute, but it sailed over the crossbar. He had three more shots before leaving the match in the 76th minute, but none were on target.
Eventually Oakland ran out of time in their attempt to extend their season. And Memo Diaz received his second yellow card in stoppage time, giving El Paso a man advantage for the final few minutes of the match.
Calvillo nearly gave El Paso an even bigger cushion on a free kick in the 4th minute of stoppage time, but Blanchette made a diving fingertip stop to direct the ball over the end line.
“Scoring early in the second half, I thought the second would come and then it’d be a just kind of a war the last 10 minutes of the game,” Delgado said. “We had a couple looks here and there. Another one where we can say that performance-wise, at the end of the day, some pretty good stuff but not good enough.”
And so the Oakland Roots failed to make the playoffs for the first time since joining the USL Championship in 2021.
“You know, this is gonna hurt us for a while,” Delgado said. “It’s gonna sting, there’s no way around it. I love them. Take a couple days and look at some stuff and you know, start having some meetings and do some training after the season and then they’ll be able to go home to their families wherever they’re going in the off season.”
