The 2024 Oakland Roots’ regular season will be remembered for its consistent inconsistency.
On Saturday night, as Roots fans were ready to celebrate the club’s upcoming playoff appearance, the team frustrated them by losing 5-0 at home to Birmingham Legion FC, in the kind of effort you’d normally see in a preseason friendly, not a league match with important seeding implications for the playoffs.
This was the fourth time this season that the Roots have given up 5 goals in a match. After the match, interim Head Coach Gavin Glinton pointed out that each of these embarrassing losses came after big wins, including the Roots’ victories over the USL Championship’s two division leaders (Louisville City FC and New Mexico United), as well as last week’s playoff clinching 2-1 win at Las Vegas.
These four matches largely account for Oakland having the worst goal difference of any team in the USL Championship playoffs, at minus 20.
“We have a lack of commitment and consistency in our mentality,” Glinton said. “The minute we have anything going right for us, we start to think that we’re Real Madrid and we don’t have to work. That team [Birmingham] has nothing to play for. We’re on top of them, they transition and we feel like we don’t have to run back. It’s embarrassing and it’s just about fight and commitment and and heart in a lot of these moments.”
“It’s unacceptable,” he added. “I don’t know what else we’re talking about. We’re talking about a game plan where we have to go and fight and we’re scrapping for points. We talk about preparing for the championship and then we come out and act like we don’t need to do the details. We didn’t respect the game, we didn’t respect our opponent. We didn’t respect ourselves. Yeah, not even close.”
“It’s about focusing on the details and staying locked in,” he said. “We said it from the very beginning, it’s attention to detail, fight and commitment, focus, and resiliency. And those things have not changed. It’s about maintaining that when you have a little bit of success as well as when you’re going through tough periods and that’s the only way we’ll be able to dig ourselves out. We dug ourselves out last week and we’ve got to go again.”
Four First Half Goals Put the Match Away
The Roots did produce the first chance of the match in the 11th minute, when Trayvone Reid had a one-on-one situation with Birmingham goalkeeper Trevor Spangenberg, but blasted his shot well over the crossbar.
Johnny Rodriguez also had a couple of early chances. His shot in the 17th minute sailed over the crossbar and his 27th minute shot hit the post, after Spangenberg was able to get a partial deflection on the ball.
But a four goal barrage by Birmingham in less than 20 minutes put the game out of reach.
In the 21st minute, Tabort Etaka Preston made a run down the right side, then cut back toward the middle and fired a curving shot that took goalkeeper Tim Syrel by surprised as it nestled in the far corner.
In the 31st minute, Syrel made a critical mistake after Birmingham’s Moses Mensah sent a long ball out of the back from the Birmingham penalty area to Stéfano Pinho just across midfield. Syrel rushed back to get into position, but Pinho’s soft chip shot took one bounce off the turf and into the net.
Four minutes later, Diba Nwegbo’s header off of Matthew Corcoran’s free kick beat Syrel at the far post.
In the 40th minute, Preston scored the fourth on a hopeful shot from 25 yards out that squirted through Syrel’s hands.
Oakland Surges Early in the Second Half, But No Goals
Oakland surged early in the second half, earning four corner kicks in the first 10 minutes, thanks in part to key substitutions, including Justin Rasmussen, Miche-Naider Chéry, and Niall Logue.
A shot by Reid in the 50th minute was tipped over the bar by Spangenberg for a corner.
In the 65th minute, Nwegbo nearly had his second goal of the match, but his curving shot bounced off the far post.
Birmingham’s inevitable fifth goal came in the 87th minute when Enzo Martínez dribbled into the box and took a shot that left Syrel standing flat-footed.
Martínez was later ejected from the match in stoppage time after receiving his second yellow card.
Ready for the Playoffs?
While the Roots are still in the playoffs, the loss enabled Orange County SC to jump into the sixth seed. And Oakland gets a tough first-round matchup with the Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC.
“They’re playing really well,” Glinton said. “They have a lot of pace, you know, the big field at altitude. So we’re gonna have to make sure that we do a good job minimizing space and make sure that we’re organized in transition and that we’re getting back for sure because they get forward quickly, so we need to be locked in. We know we can be, but to do that we have to bring our focus and commitment and have to be locked in and playing for more than ourselves right now.”
The possibility of this being Glinton’s last match as interim Head Coach left him in a retrospective mood.
“I do want to say thanks to the fans,” he said. “There was a really awesome moment after Phoenix when we got the standing ovation initially and then how it changed to ‘We want the playoffs.’ That was a really big moment for the group and the team just to show how connected Oakland is to the group. You know, I thought it was really special in that frustrating time period for them to come up and give us a standing ovation and let the demands be known. I want to say thank you and, you know, sorry for the night for sure.”
