The Oakland Roots earned their first point of the season in a scoreless draw with Las Vegas Lights FC at the Oakland Coliseum on Saturday night, but it could’ve been a lot more.
In a match with few clear chances, Oakland had most of them, especially in the second half, when the Roots’ pressure defense seemed to wear down the Las Vegas players.
It began in the 69th minute, when Oakland’s Panos Armenakas took a free kick a few steps from the left sideline. Kai Greene’s swiveled his hips to pick the ball out of the air and deliver a one-timer that deflected off of the upper edge of crossbar.
In the 78th minute, Jürgen Damm was taken down in the penalty area. Damm not only did not receive a penalty kick, but also ended up with a yellow card for simulation.
Then the Roots put the ball in the net in the 80th minute. Wolfgang Prentice grabbed a loose ball and took a shot that deflected off of the head of Las Vegas’s Gennaro Michael Nigro. As the ball headed toward the far post, EJ Johnson rushed over and tapped it in to make sure. But the referee nullified the goal for offside.
After the match, Roots Head Coach Gavin Glifford was upset with the officiating, especially the offside call.
“Very frustrated not to come out with what was obviously what I think is a blatant penalty two weeks in a row now, and that goal call is a shocking miss,” Glinton said. “He’s five yards onside. If we get any of those over the past two weekends we’re looking at 2-2-1, as opposed to where we’re at now.”
“Happy with the improvement. Happy with the shutout. Happy with the guys’ effort. Very unhappy with what seems to be a lack of quality in some certain moments from stuff we can’t control. So very disappointing in that respect.”
The Roots’ First Clean Sheet of the Season
Glinton said he was very happy with the club’s defensive performance.
“I thought our guys did a very good job of limiting their quality chances, ability to play behind, and ability to hit us on the counter, which is something they’re very good at,” he said. “Obviously, they have quite a few talented players up in the front three, as well as some of their wing backs as they get forward.”
Roots’ captain Tyler Gibson agreed.
“First and foremost, we didn’t give up any weak goals,” Gibson said. “We’ve got to win our individual battles, not make it easy. It’s a 90-minute game, and things happen, like in a split second, and we can’t switch off. And I think we didn’t switch off tonight.”
A Quiet Return for Johnny
The Roots’ all-time leading scorer, Johnny Rodriguez, made his first appearance in Oakland as a member of the Las Vegas Lights. But Rodriguez was unable to have much of an impact on the match, except for a long ball over the top that set up Christian Pinzón in the 45th minute. Pinzón’s shot from the top of the penalty area went wide.
Gibson Recalls Winning a Championship in San Francisco
Gibson also spoke about his experience with the 2017 San Francisco Deltas, which won the NASL championship in its only season of existence.
“That was a special season, you know,” he said. “We had a very good team and we were very tough to play against. That was our identity, very tough to play against, got tons of clean sheets, and that ultimately ended up winning the whole thing.”
Second Biggest Attendance Ever
While the Roots were unable to equal last week’s crowd of more than 26,000, last night’s attendance of 7,077 is the second largest crowd in club history (a record certain to be broken many times this season).
