The potent Oakland Roots attack sputtered against a resolute Colorado Springs Switchbacks defense, resulting in a 1-0 defeat at the Oakland Coliseum on Saturday.
Colorado came out on the forefront from the opening whistle and were rewarded in the 5th minute.
Switchback winger Yosuke Hanya delivered a cross to striker Khori Bennett. Although it appeared Bennett got a touch to redirect the shot, the official scorer said that Roots centerback Michael Edwards was responsible for the deflection that went past Oakland goalkeeper Kendall McIntosh and into the side netting.
“I think we were disappointed with our start to the game,” said Roots head coach Ryan Martin after the game. “I think we lacked a little energy, and it felt a little bit off. And I think it’s something we’ll look into, you know, everything from preparation to the plan, and you know, obviously it’s a good opponent as well, but it was just an off night, it felt like.
Beaming with confidence after the early goal, the Switchbacks continued to dominate possession for the first 25 minutes, with some nice combination play, but were unable to break down the Roots’ defense.
Oakland’s first sign of life on the attack was in the 27th minute when Faysal Bettache took the team’s first shot attempt that was off target.
The Roots’ best chance in the first half came in the 42nd minute, when Thomas McCabe took a shot from distance that went just over the bar.
In the second half, Colorado seemed content to try to protect their lead, allow Oakland possession in the middle of the field, and counterattack.
Four minutes into the half, Roots forward Peter Wilson had a half chance when, after a couple of passes in the air, he was able to flick a shot towards goal in the 49th minute. His header went just wide of the post by about a foot.
The battle between the two sides continued in the midfield, with Colorado limiting Oakland’s chances. In fact, the first and only shot on target for the whole game came from the Switchbacks in the 64th minute from Bennett, which Roots centerback Neval Hackshaw deflected out of bounds.
Oakland made a double change in the 65th minute with Tucker Lapley and Danny Trejo subbed in to reinforce the attack. Colorado countered with a triple substitution several minutes later to bring in even more defensive help to close out the match.
“I think they obviously did a really good job in terms of their scouting and figuring out where we want to get to, and I think that combined with us not being sharp and not being overly dynamic in our movements,” explained Martin. “It was a recipe for their first clean sheet.”
The best chance for the Roots came in the 85th minute when Wolfgang Prentice received the ball in the box but was unable to get his foot set to get a shot on the goal.
Oakland’s first corner kick of the game happened in the 90th minute, forcing a punch save from Switchback goalie Colin Shutler.
In close succession, the Roots had two more corner kick chances but were unable to take advantage of the set pieces.
Colorado had a chance in the 94th minute when Juan Tejada had a shot off a Roots turnover, but the ball hit off the framework and out of bounds.
With time running out, Oakland was left launching hopeful long passes up to Wilson, but none were on target. Soon after, referee Elton García blew the whistle to end the game.
Afterward, Martin hoped the game would be a building block on how to defeat a team content to kill off the game after getting an early goal.
“When you have zero shots on goal, you’ve got to look in the mirror into how we get consistency and find more of where we were last week,” said Martin. “We’ve always phrased this as we want to grow every week and every game, and you know, the best soccer is still in front of us, and we’re still chasing it, and this is a tremendous opportunity to find consistency.”
Unlike the MLS and NWSL, which are now going on a World Cup Break, the USL has decided to continue playing games during the international tournament.
Next Saturday, the Roots will travel to Las Vegas to take on the Lights in the USL Cup. They then return home to the Coliseum on June 13th to take on Miami FC at 7 p.m.
