Despite a disappointing run for the Oakland Roots in the USL Jägermeister Cup, which ended on Saturday at the Coliseum with a 1-0 loss to Orange County, the tournament inadvertently had a lasting positive impact on the team’s 2025 season.
A shootout loss for Oakland in the Jägermeister Cup two months ago to USL League One Club AV Alta FC was the final straw for Roots head coach Gavin Glinton’s rudderless tenure in charge this season. It led to the hiring of ex-USMNT player Benny Feilhaber as Oakland’s head coach for the remainder of the season. Since then, the Roots have steadily climbed up the USL Championship standings as the new coach systematically remade the team in his vision.
Feilheiber inherited a Roots side that easily conceded goals and struggled to possess and move the ball up the field consistently. He instituted a high-pressure, direct attacking style of play for the Roots, while also solidifying the team’s defense.
Oakland has achieved a 3-2-1 record in the league since the arrival of Feilhaber and earned as many points in his six games in charge as they did in their previous eleven games. Now with no more Jägermeister Cup games as a distraction, Oakland sits just outside the league playoffs with thirteen games to go, ready to continue moving up the standings, according to the Roots head coach.
“We’re in a spot that I consider it to be a great spot in American sports, because you’re in the ninth position, looking up at the rest of the table,” said Feilhaber in the post-game press conference. “You need to have at least a top-eight performance, probably for the last 13 games, to make it in the playoffs. And if you do that, if you do it the right way, then that means you’re trending in the right direction once you get there.”
Even with the positives from the past two months, it has taken time for Feilhaber and the team to jell as he instills his vision for the Roots.
“Two months ago, I was an outsider, right?” Feilhaber explained. “Getting to know the players, they’ve opened up. They’ve been honest, truthful, telling me about not only just soccer, but their lives, who they are, families, what motivates them, all those kinds of things. It’s exciting to build those relationships with them.”
While building those relationships, Felihaber discovered some gems that were sitting in plain sight. One is Project 51O midfielder Ali Elmasnaouy, who has started every game since Feilhaber took the helm. This week, the Roots signed him to a full pro contract.
“He’s a great footballer,” explained Feilhaber about Elmasnaouy. “Reads the game really well, has a very good touch on the ball, has a desire to play forward and find those vertical passes. He’s just got a lot of quality, and the sky’s the limit.”
Elmasnaouy’s technical skill, developed while playing futsal, and ability to keep possession and deliver the right pass have brought a sense of calm in the middle of the pitch for Oakland. He has also started developing a nice relationship between the defensive backline and the Roots forwards, especially with the help of his midfield partner, Panos Armenakas.
“I feel like we’ve handled the change [of coaches] well, and just trying to implement the coach’s vision and do what the coach wants us to do,” said Elmasnaouy. “Because we have trust in him, he has trust in us, so it’s like we’re just trying to do right by him.”
While nurturing the talent already on the Roots roster, the technical staff continues to scout new talent that can further strengthen the team. One of those players became available last week when Oakland acquired FC Tulsa attacking midfielder Faysal Bettache.
“I knew Faysal quite a bit from his time at St Louis City II and then at Tacoma,” said Feilhaber. “Obviously, seeing him firsthand up close makes a difference as well, but he’s got an innate quality to be able to hold the ball at his feet, find different passes that not everybody can find.”
Amid all the roster changes, Feilhaber noted there are bound to be setbacks, such as the club’s 1-0 loss to Orange County, especially a club that scored an early goal from Bryce Jamison and then decided to sit back and defend their lead.
But after the match, Feilhaber conveyed to his players that a loss is also an opportunity for the team to grow as a unit.
“It’s a step back in the sense that we didn’t do the things at as high of a level as we have in the past,” he said. “But those only emphasize and accentuate the need for us to continue to talk about those things, right? How do we become a better attacking team when we’re down, right? What kind of things do we have to evolve in and improve in?”
The Roots now sit on twenty points in the USL Championship, tied with Orange County, but out of a playoff spot due to their inferior goal differential to OC. They are also only four points behind fourth-place Sacramento and a potential home playoff game if they can secure a spot in the top half of the Western Conference.
Despite the lure of the playoffs, Feilhaber noted he wants his team to remain focused solely on the next game and achieving a positive result against Colorado Springs at the Coliseum on August 9th.
Elmasnaouy said he and his teammates have received that message loud and clear.
“I feel like we have clear ideas of what we want to do, and I feel like we’ve been implementing them pretty well,” said Elmasnaouy. “We have a lot of good moments in these games. I think now it’s just putting together a full performance defensively and offensively.”
