The Roots learned some hard lessons Saturday night in their first-ever USL Championship game. A trio of self-inflicted mistakes doomed Oakland to a 3-0 loss against Phoenix Rising.
“Young team make mistakes and not any one individual is responsible for them,” said interim head coach Jordan Ferrell after the game. “A ruckus crowd and people are a little hyped up and in both halves. It’s an early mistake, that we just tune out. The good thing is those are very fixable.”
Playing in front of their home fans, Phoenix was relentless with its pressure from the opening kick. They were rewarded ten minutes in thanks to some sloppy Roots defense.
Rising intercepted an Oakland pass in the midfield and immediately went on the attack. Roots defender Tarek Morad sniffed out the initial threat and passed it to teammate Lindo Mfeka upfield.
Sensing some pressure from behind, Mfeka hit a heavy back pass that sliced through two Roots defenders and fell to Rising forward Rufat Dadashov. His first time shot was well saved by Oakland keeper Zeus de la Paz, but the rebound went to his streaking attacking partner, Solomon Asante, who slammed the ball into the back of the net.
Mfeka tried to amend his mistake 10 minutes later when he fed Roots forward Jeremy Bokila in the box. Phoenix defender Tobi Adewoie intercepted the ball but slipped, gifting the ball to an unmarked Bokila.
The Congo international did a quick backheel to set up a clear shot on target, but his attempt went well wide of the goal.
Oakland was able to keep Phoenix off the scoreboard for the rest of the half, but two more mistakes in the second half dug too large a hole for the visiting team to overcome.
In the 47th minute, Phoenix left-winger Santi Moar ran in behind two Roots defenders and collect a long ball, leaving him one-on-one with the Roots goalkeeper. Moar blasted a low shot from a tight angle to the near post that bounced off the ground and nutmegged de la Paz to double Rising’s lead.
Then in the 68th minute, another de La Paz mistake gifted Phoenix a three-goal lead.
Substitute winger Soya Takahashi sent a back pass to de la Paz. The Roots keeper collected and tried to return the ball to Takahashi. His ground pass was smartly intercepted by the ever-aware Rising forward Asante, who calmly collected the ball and easily scored his second goal of the game.
“We gave up some cheap goals early in both halves,” noted Ferrell. “I think the response and personality we want the team to have was there. We need to get tighter on the defensive side for sure. Not just our defense, we can get tighter as a full unit.”
Oakland had a couple of chances off free kicks in the 80th and 85th minute to earn their first goal of the match. However, neither shot on target was struck well enough to get past Rising goalkeeper Ben Lundt.
Despite the result, Ferrell kept positive after the game.
“Coming into the home of the champions last year, a very quality squad, to test ourselves off the bat and I think we did a good job of showing we have a clear way of playing. Now we just got to work on it,” he said.
Roots forward Tyler Blackwood also looked on the bright side of Oakland’s first USL game.
“The way the team has come together without a coach, I can only find positives,” Blackwood said. “A lot of people give up three-nil down and we didn’t. I’m proud of the boys and we will grow from here.”
The Roots will have two weeks to lick their self-inflicted wounds before trying to score a goal and earn their first points in the USL on May 23 against LA Galaxy II.
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