Preseason is all about new beginnings. For this year’s edition of the Oakland Roots, that means moving past last season’s disappointing finish and returning to the USL Championship postseason once again.
After saying goodbye to a number of players, the Roots have reinvented their defensive line, bringing in the San Diego Loyal’s Camden Riley, Hartford Athletic’s Niall Logue, Georgian center back Gagi Margvelashvili, and ex-Portland Timbers defender Justin Rasmussen.
The team’s midfield will be reinforced by the addition of Nevel Hackshaw, who is returning to his preferred position on the pitch. Oakland is also changing its attacking line again with its third new starting striker in three years, with Haitian forward Miche-Naider Chéry, coming on board.
To kick off the upcoming season, the Roots held its annual media day with interviews of the club’s technical staff and several players. Some of the highlights are below.
Roots Technical Director Jordan Ferrell
Q: What was the philosophy with roster-building this off-season?
Ferrell: We needed to add some younger players and go from an average age that was a little bit closer to twenty eight and dip down closer to twenty five where we’d like to be in terms of overall average. There are some promotions in there where Tim [Syrel] finished the year on a professional contract and returned, and Etsgar Cruz from 510, two younger guys that we’re really excited about.
But then also, if you look at our defensive line, we got guys with both league experience and high-level international experience and guys that are kind of in that peak age range, right?
It’s a new core at the defensive line where the last few years we’ve had one or two younger guys, but a lot of the kind of older veterans that have allowed us to become established in the league. I think it was time for us to take that step forward and then obviously push Hack [Neveal Hackshaw] into the midfield; you know, our midfield is really strong, and that’s kind of the line that connects the dots.
Miche [Naider Chéry] is a new addition as a forward, and he’s not a new addition to us because he was in training with us for the latter half of the year and so excited to get the ball rolling with some of those guys added too.
Roots Head Coach Noah Delgado
Q: Last season, obviously, ended less than desired. What are some things you’re pulling from last year or you learned from last year?
Delgado: We hit a lot of highs last year, ultimately ended roughly, but the biggest win, I believe, getting up to third place. But ultimately, we have to stay even physically and mentally throughout the whole season.
Q: What do you feel you learned from your first season being in charge and what do you feel might carry forward to this season?
Delgado: The first full year, you know, where it’s ten games real quick was just a kind of a blur getting it going, managing things. Now it’s working with thinking about the whole season and not a month or a couple of months ahead. It’s really just being able to plan out and work of just different scenarios that possible it could happen. When do we have moves that need to be made and really building a foundation during preseason of hard work, grinding games out.
Q: On Attack, the big intriguing addition, no pun intended on big, is Miche. Not just from size but his background coming from Haiti. Not a lot of exposure for him there. Talk about him, what you see from him, and just your thoughts.
Delgado: Yes, he was with us a little bit last year for training and towards the end of the season. In my time in the Caribbean, there’s a lot of good players in Haiti, a lot of untapped talent in Haiti. He came with us and we knew, you know, scoring four goals in CONCACAF Champions League is a big thing. That’s a career for most players. Very good in the air. He’s adapting and transforming with the language and being in the US full-time, so it’s a bit of a transition for him. But he’s slowly going up this way and I expect big things for him. But in the air, I don’t think we’ve had someone at that level before.
Q: How has the vibe been so far with the team? How do you feel they’re coming together?
Delgado: Good. I think the players and staff came in with unfinished business where it’s a little bit like there’s a chip on our shoulder. We have stuff we want to prove. It’s important that we grind out this preseason, make it difficult at times, play good competition and be ready for the season, and be patient during the season.
Roots goalkeeper Paul Blanchette
Q: Just based off how last season ended, less than desired. Talk about the mentality players are coming in with?
Blanchette: Definitely a chip on the shoulder, you know. It’s very disappointing not to make the playoffs at the end of last year. But it’s definitely somewhere to grow on and we can improve and learn from our failures in the past and grow from them to make the playoffs this year. So it’s definitely very motivating.
Q: When you think about how last season went down, you know, a great start and obviously rough second half. In your point of view, what needed to change this offseason or what do you guys need to get better at?
Blanchette: I think there’s a lot of room for improvement in every aspect of our team. You know, like me having the most saves in the league is a good thing for me, but it’s not a good thing for the club. I don’t want to be the save leader in the league. I want us to be the least goals against. I want us to have the most goals for. So just improving those statistics here and there and yeah, just keep on, keep on keeping on, you know, working hard.
Roots defender/midfielder Camden Riley
Q: What do you feel your role is gonna be this year in the team?
Riley: I think my goal is to come in and provide a lot of leadership in whatever position I’m going to play. I’ve played every position on the field just about except for striker, and I know I can, and I think that along with that, stepping into some sort of leadership role to help lead the team forward.
Q: What kind of dynamics will come into play when you come to a new team, and you get used to playing with different players?
Riley: The good thing about coming here is they have a lot of core guys that have stayed, and you know, that foundation is there. So I can just kind of plug and go, right? I think that’s the benefit, and I think the good thing is the guys have been really receptive to me. I’ve been able to then step into more of a leadership role and help drive, you know, that winning culture and everything like that.
Q: Jordan and Noah mentioned briefly how they envisioned the defense looking, pushing up, pressing, describe how we should expect things.
Riley: I think that one of my strengths and our strengths of the team is the ability to be aggressive defensively and try to win the ball high up the pitch, right? Why sit back and win the ball in your own half when you can win it in their half and score. You can create overloads, you can create imbalances in a team if you do that. I think you can see an aggressive behavior to try to win the ball back quickly. And keep the ball, because you can’t score without it.
Roots defender/midfielder Neveal Hackshaw
Q: You were part of last year’s team, which obviously ended less than desired. What does that do for the mentality of the players coming into this season?
Hackshaw: Guys are ready to work. I mean, what happened last year, it already happened. We can’t change that, but we could do our best this year and try to not finish where we finished and try to push for the stars.
Q: Last year you had a lot of games for your national team. Is it hard to have that many games to play in a year and was that difficult for you to get through the whole season?
Hackshaw: I won’t say it’s difficult. The only difficult part for me is leaving one team and seeing them lose a game. For me, I think that’s the biggest downfall for me. Leaving the Oakland Roots to go represent my country and then not seeing the team do good, that’s the only downfall for me.
Q: A lot of the coaches and the staff are talking about you in the midfield this year. Can you talk about where you see yourself on the field and how you’ve evolved as a player in the last couple of years?
Hackshaw: I am naturally a midfielder, but in my last year in Charleston, one of the guys got released, and I was the only left footer on the team, and they actually put me left center back. From there, my career grew big, so I’m not scared to play anywhere. But I like the midfield more. I like to take control of the game.
Q: When it’s clicking how do you expect things to be looking like on the field?
Hackshaw: It’s going to be great. It’s going to be lovely. We’re going to play to the best ability and come up with a victory as much as possible.
Roots forward Johnny Rodriguez
Q: We’re entering a big season but also a lot of not so much changes, but the team is really putting its footprint down with the training facility and getting a stadium. From your perspective, because you’ve been here longer than anyone, what has it been like?
Rodriguez: For me, it’s been a roller coaster. I mean, you guys know, I’ve been here since the very, I guess, the second year that Oakland was a team and given to what we have now where we came from. I mean, we started when I was here; we trained down in Newark. From Newark, we went down to Livermore, spent a little bit of time there, and then we came, spend a little bit of time there at the park here in Alameda [Estuary]. We spent a little bit of time there, and then we’re lucky enough to have this [the former Raiders training facility], and we came a long way. I mean, I’m just so blessed to be able to witness everything that’s came this way. Hopefully, more to come. I mean, we came so far. So why not, why stop here, shoot for the stars. You never know what will happen.
Q: You went from a player to a surefire starter in this league. Talk about your development personally and what its meant for you.
Rodriguez: I mean, for me, it’s just been a lot of hard work. The first couple of years here, I’ve had a play behind a lot of good strikers here: Jack McInerney, Matt Fondy, Ottar, all those guys, I kind of picked their brains and seen how they would work day in, day out, not just on the field, but off the field, how they would carry themselves. And I feel like those guys, they don’t know it, but they helped me more than they will ever know.
Q: What do you feel like your role is now as maybe a leader?
Rodriguez: For me this year, I want to be more of a leader. I feel like I bring some leadership to the team now that I’ve been here for the time that I’ve been here. Now that we have some younger guys now with us, I feel like I can show them a little bit of what it takes to be, not just a player on the roster, but someone that can play on the weekend and contribute to the team this year. I want to take more of a leap in the leadership. I want to challenge myself and see what else I can bring to the team, not just on the field because I feel like off the field matters just as much as being on the field because you got to be ok off the field to be able to go and perform on the field.
Q: It seems not just last season but pretty much every season on the Roots social channels, it’s just videos of you scoring banger after banger. If the ball bounced right, and it wasn’t too difficult, would you consider scoring a simple goal?
Rodriguez: [Laughs] So that’s funny, you mentioned that. We have the end of the year meetings, and we’re talking about ‘You had twelve goals last year, and a few of them were like you said, kind of crazy goals or whatever. But now, can we add six, seven, eight, you know, simple goals with the front of the net?’ Just pass it in, or whatever the case is. And I feel like I’m gonna, I’ve personally taken that challenge in. Making the simple goals simple and just allowing the good flashy goals to happen whenever they happen. But I challenged myself this offseason to really focus on just passing the ball to the net because every goal counts the same at the end of the day. You know, it looks good, but it also looks good when you have twenty-plus goals in the season and the team’s winning and the team’s, you know, riding high. So I’m gonna, I’m gonna try to focus a lot on just putting the ball in the back of the net.
Q: What’s your early impression of your striking partner, Chere?
Rodriguez: He’s a big body. big, big body. He doesn’t know English too well. So the language barrier is kind of there, but I’m trying to learn as much French as possible. At least the key words that I’m gonna need. He’s a big, big guy. He likes to score goals, he likes to run behind, he likes to hold up the ball, which is good. I think me and him will have a great experience on the field.
