Oakland Roots Ready for 2025 U.S. Open Cup Debut at Tacoma Defiance

Coming off their best performance of the season in a 2-1 road victory at FC Tulsa, Oakland Roots SC will look to win their second straight as they head to Tukwila, Washington on Tuesday at 7:30 PM PT for a Third Round matchup in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup versus Tacoma Defiance.

While the two teams have faced each other before, Tuesday’s game will represent far different circumstances than any previous fixtures between the clubs. Roots’ last contest versus Tacoma was on Oct. 20th, 2021 when the Defiance were competing in the USL Championship. That season, Oakland faced Tacoma four times — going 2-1-1 in those matchups.

Since then Tacoma has begun competing as a Division III MLS Next Pro club. In the Open Cup this year the Defiance have advanced twice to reach this Third Round matchup, defeating Washington Athletic Club 3-1 and USL League One side Spokane Velocity 2-1 in the respective first and second rounds.

Roots will be playing their first Open Cup match since May 7th of last year, when they narrowly fell to MLS club San Jose Earthquakes by a final score of 0-1 on the road in the Round of 32.

Following Tuesday’s Open Cup competition, Roots will return home for USL Championship regular season action on Saturday, April 19th for a 1 PM PT day game as they set to host Orange County SC at the Oakland Coliseum.