Sunday seemed like the perfect day for the Oakland Roots to make their debut on the CBS television network. It was a sunny day in Hayward, 65 degrees at kickoff, and a capacity crowd of 5,446 had come to Pioneer Stadium to watch them take on their closest rival, Sacramento Republic FC.
But Sacramento spoiled the occasion, staking themselves to a 4-0 lead early in the second half and settling for a 5-2 victory. The visitors seemed to be energized by the chance to avenge their 3-2 loss to Oakland on June 15.
And as it turned out, the match was not broadcast on CBS, pre-empted by coverage of President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race for re-election.
But more importantly for Oakland, suddenly the Roots defense is in crisis, having given up 5 goals in each of the past two games.
“Just nowhere near an acceptable level of effort, to be honest, in both games, unacceptable, it’s embarrassing, the lack of effort and commitment,” Interim Head Coach Gavin Glinton said after the match. “Today, not even close. You know, it’s a derby, and it looked like one team realized it, and one team didn’t realize it until maybe halftime. Just hasn’t been anywhere near close to acceptable in terms of effort, commitment, attention, all the things that we’ve been focusing on over the last 12 weeks.”
Glinton was asked if the team’s formation was causing them to give up breakaways.
“It’s the same formation we have,” he said. “We’re not tracking, we’re not just getting back. Folks are getting behind us and we’re not hungry enough to come back and defend like we have been and defend like our lives depend on it. So, you know, we’re asking a lot from our goalkeepers and our back line. Everything you can do to be bad defensively, we’re finding a way of doing it.”
First Half Miscues Seal Roots’ Fate
The visitors jumped out into the lead in the 5th minute, when Kieran Phillips intercepted a lazy pass from Jeciel Cedeno near midfield, dribbled the ball into the penalty area, and beat goalkeeper Timothy Syrel with a soft shot that trickled into the open net at the far post.
The second one came in the 27th minute, when a free kick from 30 yards out found an unmarked Jared Timmer who headed the ball into the path of Shane Wiedt for the finish at close range.
And then the third, in the 45th minute, when Jack Gurr stole a pass in the Sacramento half, and immediately shuttled the ball to Cristian Parano, who funneled the ball to an overlapping Nick Ross for a one-timer that was out of reach for Syrel.
The fourth came less than a minute into the second half. Parano made a run down the right side and sent in a cross that bounced off of Camden Riley’s leg and into the path of Phillips for the finish from point blank range.
Johnny Rodriguez Gives the Home Crowd Hope
Oakland finally got on the board in the 55th minute. Memo Diaz stole a pass from Sacramento’s Damia Viader. Diaz immediately shuttled the ball to Dom Dwyer, who drew several defenders to him, then returned the ball to Diaz as he made his run into the box. Diaz found an unmarked Johnny Rodriguez at the far post. Rodriguez paused and launched his shot into the the net.
Rodriguez gave the Oakland fans even greater reason for hope in the 71st minute, when he chased down a long ball from Gagi Margvelashvili. Rodriguez let the ball bounce on the turf as the ball reached the penalty arc, then hit a one-timer that sailed over the head of goalkeeper Danny Vitiello and into the unguarded net.
Sacramento put the match away in the 85th minute. Ross stole the ball and crossed it to Trevor Amann for the finish from close range, as Gagi and Daniel Gomez tried in vain to chase him down.
Time to Re-Evaluate
And now Glinton is faced with re-evaluating his team’s performance before their next match at Miami on Saturday.
“I mean it’s almost not starting over from scratch,” he said. “But it is definitely re-breaking down, because I think we’ve got ahead of ourselves and started to think that we don’t have to do some of the things that got us here over the last few matches, for sure. So it’s going to be breaking that back down and making sure that we dig into the details.”
