After playing one of their best games of the season, Oakland responded with one of their worst. A trio of errors in the first half sent the Roots to their fifth loss in a row, 3-1 versus the Tacoma Defiance.
The first mistake was from Roots goalkeeper Zeus de la Paz.
All season long, de la Paz has been impressive with his diving saves but just as unimpressive playing the ball with his feet. The adventure continued against the Defiance.
In the 25th minute, Roots midfield Danny Flores passed the ball back to de la Paz, who took a touch and then hit a line drive right into the back of Tacoma forward Samuel Adeniran. The ball bounced off him and into the net for the early lead.
De la Paz did make up for his mistake with his hands a minute later when Tacoma’s Tom Brewitt took a shot from distance that was heading to the upper corner until the Roots goalie pushed it out of bounds.
Just before the half, two more Roots mistakes dug the visitors a 3-0 hole. Oakland midfielder José Hernández, who tracked back to cover Tacoma’s Daniel Robles’s run, took him down in the penalty box. Adeniran stepped to the spot and converted.
Tacoma looked to put the game to bed a minute later.
Defiance midfielder Daniel Robles was taken down for a free-kick just outside the box. Tacoma’s initial ball into the box was softly cleared out but was hit back in by the Defiance to defender Jackson Ragen who’s header looked to be harmlessly tracking out of bounds.
Roots keeper de la Paz could’ve aggressively run over to pare the ball but instead jogged towards it and was outhustled to the ball by Tacoma’s Ray Serrano. He looped his pass over de la Paz’s head back to teammate Juan Alvarez in front of the unprotected net for a simple tap-in.
With nothing to lose, Oakland went full out on the attack to start the second half.
A minute in Tacoma’s Ragan lost the ball in his own box. It was picked up by the Roots Danny Flores, but Defiance keeper Andy Thomas saved his point-blank shot. Moments later, midfielder Wal Fall had another chance that went just left of the post.
Oakland’s pressure was rewarded In the 55th minute. Flores was foulded outside the box, and on the ensuing free-kick, Wal Fall blasted the ball around the wall and inside the near post to bring the Roots back to 3-1.
It was Oakland’s first goal in 391 minutes.
Nine minutes later, Chuy Enriquez found himself open about 25 yards from goal. He fired a shot that went just wide.
A few minutes later Tacoma almost iced the game off when Adeniran got behind the Roots defense. He passed to Randy Mendoza, whose shot hit off the left bar. Adeniran got onto the rebound but his shot went wide of the goal and out of bounds.
Adeniran had another chance in the 74th minute, but de la Paz saved the shot.
The Roots’ last good chance to pull back within a goal was in the 86th minute when a free-kick by Danny Flores forced a diving save from the Tacoma goalkeeper.
Oakland has now lost their fifth game in a row. They last won a game on May 23. Next up for the Roots is a home game versus local rival Sacramento Republic Wednesday night at Las Positas College in Livermore.
