After delivering one of their best performances of the season so far in the first half, the Oakland Roots suffered a big letdown in the second half, enabling Phoenix Rising FC to rally for a pair of goals that propelled them to a 2-1 victory at the Oakland Coliseum on Saturday night.
Plenty of chances in the First Half
The two teams exchanged chances in the first 10 minutes of the match. Oakland’s came in the fourth minute, when Peter Wilson was unmarked in front of goal and whiffed on a cross from Julian Bravo.
In the 8th minute, Phoenix’s Jearl Margaritha chased down the ball behind Oakland’s defense, took a step into the box, cut over to his left foot, and blasted a shot that bounced off the intersection of the post and the turf.
The visitors had another chance one minute later on a free kick from distance, but Ihsan Sacko’s shot sailed over the bar.
Oakland’s Morey Doner had a chance with a run along the right side in the 12th minute, but he couldn’t sneak his shot past Phoenix goalkeeper Patrick Rakovsky at the near post.
But Doner was more successful in the 27th minute, as Oakland quickly moved the ball up the field on a counter attack. Julian Bravo received a pass from Danny Gomez just inside the Phoenix half. Bravo dribbled the ball along the edge of the box and almost to the endline. His cross appeared to be heading for Peter Wilson, but Wilson let it go to Doner, whose soft volley settled just inside the far post.
Doner tried to return the favor when Wilson was open in front of goal in the 31st minute, but the ball skipped off Wilson’s shoe and sailed wide.
After the match, Oakland’s Head Coach Benny Feilhaber was asked about Doner’s contributions to the club.
“He is high energy all the time,” Feilhaber said. “He helps the whole team have that kind of high energy as well. It’s infectious. He’s got the knack to get at the end of a cross coming from the left side, like he did. He has the knack of getting higher up the field to provide the final ball, which he provided quite a few of today. I told him he probably should have had a couple of assists. And he’s tenacious defensively, right? He works his tail off. He’s been great, and my expectation is that he just continues to do what he’s been doing. I think I think it’s something that’s vital for the way that we play that our wingbacks are able to produce in the way that he has and have the energy that he has for 90 plus.”
But in the Second Half, the Rising Rise Again
The Roots had a great chance in the 54th minute, when Doner played a give and go with Panos Armenakas. As Doner approached the goal line, he crossed the ball to a wide open José Sinisterra, who slid into the ball and blasted it over the bar.
Phoenix came close in the 56th minute, when Sacko headed a cross downward and toward the far post. Oakland goalkeeper Kendall McIntosh was just barely able to keep the whole ball from crossing the goal line.
But Sacko would not be denied in the 60th minute, as he took advantage of Oakland’s loose marking to take a couple of steps along the edge of the box and fire a shot that curled in at the far post, just out of the reach of a diving McIntosh.
The game-winner was scored by second half substitute Charlie Dennis, who played for the Roots during the 2022 season. Dennis’s shot came from 25 yards out and skipped along the turf and beat McIntosh at the near post.
The Roots had a man advantage for the seven minutes of second half stoppage time, after Hope Avayevu was red-carded for receiving a second yellow card.
Comments From Head Coach Benny Feilhaber
“Losing is always frustrating. I think the guys feel it, and the staff obviously feels it as well.
“Sometimes it’s a simple game. You go up, you create chances to go up more than one. We missed quite a few of those chances — and they’re 100% chances, right? And at the end of the day, I told the guys, ‘If you don’t score in soccer you’ll get scored on.’ And that’s just like the age old story, right? And so I think we’ve got to be cleaner in those moments.
“We created a ton in that first half, even in the beginning of the second and then, you know, you let a team stay in the game for as long as we did. And the one thing that I was a little bit more disappointed with more so than the missing of the chances — because that tends to happen from time to time — is I thought we were passive defensively. There were moments where their players, who are good one-on-one players, had time and space on the ball. In certain areas of the field that’s okay, but you can’t allow teams to have time and space with the ball close to your goal.
“The first goal, we’re a little bit passive. Second goal, we’re a little bit passive. Two shots from far away. The only goals that we’ve given up since I’ve been here have been shots from outside the box, I think. So we’ve got to do a better job in those areas to realize that you’ve got to go block the player. You’ve got to make them feel uncomfortable.
“I told those guys, even at 40 years old, if nobody’s going to come press me, I can still play the game. Any player on that field is going to feel really confident with the ball if there’s not somebody stepping to them, so we have to be more determined to close space, to be able to make people feel uncomfortable with the ball, and that’ll in turn make them make worse decisions and more mistakes, rather than what they did.
“And it wasn’t just the goals. It’s the 15-20 minutes that led to the goals. Moments in the midfield, moments higher up on the field that we just weren’t right with the pressing, weren’t right with closing down space, and they got more and more confident, and we struggled in that area of the field. So I think that led to the goals, and then obviously when you’re down 2-1 the game is completely different than it was in the first half. I thought we battled well at the end of the game, got close on a couple chances, but, yeah, obviously disappointing to be up 1-0 and concede twice.”
Comments From Defender Kai Greene
“It was clear we had a lot of opportunities, specifically after that first goal, we had opportunities to get the second, third, and maybe fourth. When teams are like that, their backs are against the wall. You have to make sure that you keep your foot on the neck, and you just kill them. Having said that, that’s how the game goes sometimes. But this is the team that we have, and we’re strong together. And we don’t pin it on one, two, or three guys, you know, because this is a team.
Like, I said, it’s a team, a sport that we’re playing in, you know, we have to get through everything together. We win together, we die together, you know, so that’s the mentality that we have. So it’s just one of those one-off games. Uh, we’ll just chalk it off as that. And, you know, move on.”
Next Week
Oakland takes on Loudon United FC on Saturday, July 19th before returning home to face Orange County SC in the USL Jägermeister Cup on July 26th.
