The Oakland Roots could not finish a handful of chances in the last ten minutes of the game to tie division-leading Phoenix Rising on the road Saturday evening.
In the 81st minute, Roots defender Soya Takahashi had a shot that was curling into the far post deflected smartly away by Phoenix keeper Andre Rawls.
One minute before the end of regulation, Jeremy Bokila poked a ball away from Rising center back Joseph Farrell and was one on one with the Phoenix keeper. Instead of dribbling in on goal, Bokila decided to try and chip Rawls, but his shot was not even close to being on target.
The best chance for Oakland was in the 92nd minute when a Wal Fall got onto the end of a Memo Diaz cross to fire a point-blank header that Rawls was once again up to stopping.
Phoenix took the lead early in the game off a 10th-minute goal from Darren Mattocks on a free-kick from Aodhan Quinn.
Oakland attempted to respond quickly. In the 20th minute, Kai Green missed by inches getting his head onto a José Hernández cross. Two minutes later, Lindo Mfeka hit a shot from the center of the box that ricochetted off the crossbar.
The Roots withstood several attempts on goal from Rising in the second half that required all of the skills of goalkeeper Paul Blanchette to give his side a chance for a valuable away point.
The Roots remained one point behind fourth-place LA Galaxy II with the loss, which defeated Las Vegas on Friday evening to jump into the last playoff spot in the Pacific Division.
They next face third-place Orange County FC on Saturday, Oct. 16, at Laney College.
