Get to know the Oakland Soul ahead of their maiden season

The Oakland Soul will premiere in the USL W League in 2023. (Courtesy Oakland Soul)

Like the Roots before them, the Oakland Soul have graduated from just a cool lifestyle brand to a full-fledged soccer team. 

It took almost one year to the date of their launch, but the new women’s team, started by the Roots, has since hired their first head coach, recruited an intriguing pool of players, and laid out their vision for what will eventually be a fully professional team. 

Soccer Bay Area caught up with Roots technical director Jordan Ferrell, Soul head coach Jessica Clinton, and three Soul players who will be playing major roles in the upcoming USL W League season. Here’s what they had to say. 

ON BUILDING A NEW TEAM

Since it is a “pre-professional” competition, W League rosters are made up mostly of out-of-season student-athletes (who won’t lose their college eligibility) and aspiring or former professionals. 

The USL is also planning to launch its own professional league called the “USL Super League,” but that isn’t slated to begin play until August 2024. So until that happens, the Soul will be navigating the pro-am circuit. 

While every front office and coaching staff member is open about their desire to make this team fully professional, they view their time in the W League as valuable in establishing credibility amongst players raised in a landscape where good-paying soccer opportunities are few and far between.

Oakland Soul train at the Roots practice facility. (Kevin V. Nguyen)

“Over half of the squad is under 20 years old,” Ferrell told Soccer Bay Area at a Soul training session. “We easily could have just loaded up on older players to try and win right away, but we wanted to lay down the foundation for a [Super League] roster down the road.” 

“If players have a couple of good seasons within our organization, we hope that they choose to continue with us when the time to go professional comes,” Ferrell said. “There are more opportunities on the horizon [like the World Cup or NWSL], but not everybody is necessarily ready or has the option to go to that level yet.” 

That’s what made joining the Soul a “no-brainer” for Clinton. Before she made the move to the west coast, she was associate head coach at Boston University and head coach at Fordham. 

After spending 15 years in the college and youth ranks, she was beginning to realize that these sorts of breaks [to coach pro] probably won’t come along at this stage of her career unless she took the initiative. 

“I’ve been a fan of the Roots since they launched,” Clinton said. “I told them I’d do anything to be a part of this.” 

“There haven’t been many ‘no’s’ [during recruitment], I’ll tell you that,” Clinton added. “The soccer part is easy. It’s all of the things outside of that—player safety, welfare, support, and resources that make this attractive to players.” 

Apart from the paycheck, players who make the Soul roster are treated as equals to their male counterparts on the professional Roots team. They use the same training facilities, share some assistant coaches and receive full medical treatment.

“And you can’t take those things for granted,” Clinton said. “Injuries will happen, and you can’t just wait until someone is put in a bad or inappropriate situation to react and come up with policies.”  (See: Investigation into abuse and sexual misconduct in NWSL.)

In a small but significant touch, the women even get their own home and away jerseys designed just for them.

WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN TO GO PRO

Ferrell says a couple of things:

  1. They need a new stadium. The team is trying to make progress on that. Last month, they put in an unsolicited bid to lease a parking lot near the Oakland Coliseum for a modular stadium. Earlier this year, The City of Oakland signed an exclusive development agreement for the wider Coliseum site with the African American Sports Entertainment Group. Anything the Roots intend to build on the lot will have to be negotiated with AASEG.
  1. A new stadium goes hand-in-hand with generating more revenue. By operating their own venue, the Roots not only could host more fans than they currently are (at Laney or CSU East Bay), but they could also host other entertainment events. 
  1. They need a solid base of players that will be ready to play professionally in two years. Ferrell and Clinton are hopeful that they provide such an environment that the bets on young players they’re making now pay off if/when they’re allowed into the USL Super League. 

MEET THE LEADERS

While the bulk of the team is young, as Ferrell and Clinton have intended, the three first-ever captains of the Soul have been around the block and have awesome stories to tell. 

Miranda Nild, who played overseas and was a member of the Thailand National Team in the 2019 World Cup, joins Oakland Soul in their premiere season. (Courtesy Oakland Soul)

Miranda Nild, 26, of Castro Valley, is probably the most well-known of the bunch. On top of being captain of the Cal Bears team during her time in college, she reached one of the pinnacles of the sport when she played in the 2019 Women’s World Cup, representing Thailand, her father’s birth country. 

After that, she had brief spells as a professional in the NWSL, in Sweden, and Iceland. But by late 2022, she was starting to wind down her career. Then, Clinton called. 

“I thought it was just going to be another summer league team, but I’ve been blown away since day one,” Nild said. “[The Soul] are more serious than some pro teams I’ve been on.”

“The Roots have developed such a solid foundation that we’re now getting a chance to grow off of,” Nild said. Against the famous USWNT in 2019, she started up top as a striker. Now, for the Soul, she said fans can find her anywhere from forward, to midfield, to wingback. 

“My role is that I’m here to entertain,” she said, flashing a smile. 

Oakland Soul’s Samantha Tran during a training session. (Courtesy Oakland Soul)

Forward Samantha Tran, 24, on the other hand, while as decorated of a player in college as Nild, where she starred for two-time NCAA champions Stanford, said she had to relearn some of the instincts she had left on the field nearly three years ago.

Tran told Soccer Bay Area that her college soccer career had taken a toll on her physically and mentally in ways she couldn’t comprehend at the time and that she graduated feeling completely burned out from the sport. So she stopped playing for a while.

“Women’s soccer can be a hard and unforgiving world, with a lot less grace,” Tran, who now works at Life Academy in Oakland, said. It wasn’t until she started coaching youth soccer, did a newfound appreciation for why she loved the game in the first place (the fun) returned. 

When the Soul opened their tryouts, she eagerly applied. 

“It has exceeded my expectations,” Tran said. “The Roots have done an awesome job of making this feel like ours. I’m at a place where I’m reclaiming my love for soccer again. It’s healing, especially for the inner child.” 

Oakland Soul’s Aliyah Jones. (Courtesy Oakland Soul)

Aliyah Jones, one of the few players born in Oakland, had thought her playing days had passed her by too. The four-time letter winner at San Jose State graduated in 2018 and went right into coaching and sports operations. 

One day, a friend working at the LA Galaxy actually sent her the announcement about the launch of Soul on Twitter. 

“[My friend] said, ‘Aliyah, oh my gosh, this is you. You’re from Oakland, and you’re all about soul and spirituality,’” Jones said. “So I guess I’ve been manifesting it ever since.” 

Jones said she trained all winter in preparation for Soul tryouts, rediscovering her old fitness and diet habits during her playing days. Now, as one of the eldest leaders on the team, she’s hoping to pass down lessons in the sport that have shaped her.

“I never thought I would be in this sort of environment again,” Jones said. “It’s very special, and I’m just trying to enjoy each day and not take it for granted.” 

The Soul will kick off their first-ever W League season on the road against Stockton Cargo on May 6. Their home opener will be at CSU East Bay on May 13 against San Francisco’s Olympic Club. Afterward, home games will be played at Merritt College.

About the Author: Kevin V. Nguyen has covered soccer for The Guardian, The Sacramento Bee, and The San Francisco Standard. Follow him on Twitter @KevinNguyen_89