The Oakland Roots’ offensive struggles continued, but they earned a crucial point in the Western Conference standings with a 1-1 draw with Memphis 901 FC at Pioneer Stadium on Saturday night.
In the battle between the third and fourth place clubs in the Western Conference, Memphis led in every major statistical category, including 63% of the possession and a 6-2 advantage in shots on target. But the Roots got a point, and denied a conference rival the chance to earn three.
Oakland’s goal came on a corner kick in the 62nd minute, when Baboucarr Njie found an opening and headed home the cross from Memo Diaz. The goal was Njie’s second of the season; the first came in the Roots’ previous August home game, vs. Loudon United.
After the game, interim Head Coach Gavin Glinton said that his club’s ability to deliver excellent set pieces is very helpful when the club’s offense is struggling.
“You always want to be able to have that in in your back pocket, especially when things aren’t going well for you,” Glinton said. “I think we’ve had two great goals. The goal in Rhode Island was fantastically executed in terms of the spaces that we were we were looking to attack. I’ll go back and look at [Njie’s goal] tonight. When we’re not clicking, it’s important to be able to be dangerous through set pieces.”
An Even First Half, Until Memphis Scores
Oakland had the first significant scoring opportunity in the 15th minute, when Trayvone Reid stole the ball away from Memphis defender Abdoulaye Cissoko. Reid dribbled to the edge of the six-yard box and tried to beat goalkeeper Triston Henry at the near post, but Henry blocked the shot and did not allow a rebound.
Memphis took the lead in the 33rd minute when Panos Armenakas intercepted an attempted clearance by Oakland’s Niall Logue. He trapped the ball with his left foot, moved a couple of steps closer, and took a shot from the edge of the box that curled into the bottom right corner of the net.
The visitors nearly added a second six minutes later, thanks to an unsuccessful offside trap by the Roots. Three Memphis players got behind the Oakland backline, but Brazilian forward Marlon chose to take the shot himself, and Oakland goalkeeper Paul Blanchette was able to smother it.
Chances for Memphis in the Second Half, But Oakland Gets the Goal
Memphis continued on the attack early in the second half. Armenakas had a pair of chances in the 52nd and 55th minutes, but in both cases Blanchette was well positioned to make the save.
Memphis had a chance to retake the lead in the 78th minute, when Zach Duncan’s shot from just outside the box took a couple of bounces on the turf, but was pushed over the endline by a diving Blanchette.
There were 10 minutes of stoppage time added on to the end of the match, and Memphis nearly took advantage of the opportunity to claim the three points. The first chance came in the first minute of stoppage time, when Careaga blasted a shot from the right edge of the box that Blanchette was able to punch away.
The second was set up by a cross from former Roots fullback Akeem O’Connor-Ward, but Nighte Pickering’s one-timer sailed over the bar. O’Connor-Ward made 32 appearances for the Roots over the 2021 and 2022 seasons, and served as Memphis’s captain in Saturday’s match.
Glinton said that his club was eager to get the game-winning goal after Njie’s header, but struggled to regain meaningful possession.
“We weren’t really on the ball late in the game and again had to resort to a bit of counter attacking,” he said. “But we had some moments. We were trying to be aggressive. They’re a good team that moves the ball and they were able to pin us in a little bit late. But we were surely trying to go for a win tonight.”
The match was intense, with a total of 12 yellow cards handed out in the match, including one for Glinton in the 63rd minute and another for Memphis coach Stephen Glass in the 77th.
“I thought we started well, and then kind of got away from it a little bit,” Glinton said. “When we talked at halftime, we just said, ‘look, we just need to clean up some things, and it’ll come.’ Didn’t come as much as we’d like. We haven’t been clean, to be honest, with the ball, especially over the past two games. But, you know, another point. Good draw against a good team. Disappointed not to come away with three, but don’t know if we played well enough to earn them.”
