Another stellar defensive performance and a pair of Roots firsts propelled Oakland to their third straight victory in all competitions as Roots defeated visiting Detroit City FC 2-0 at the Oakland Coliseum on Saturday night.
Roots started the match as they have often in recent matches, outhustling the opposition and quickly dominating the possession game. Oakland spent close to the majority of the first 15 minutes of play in the attacking third, but despite this found trouble turning the possession advantage into scoring opportunities.
Detroit flipped the script around the 20 minute mark, as they began controlling possession themselves, working into Oakland’s territory and creating a few decent scoring chances, but nothing that troubled netminder Kendall McIntosh.
The remainder of the first half was a dogfight at midfield. Both sides were creating turnovers on a rapid basis as neither club could do much in the attacking portion of the pitch.
In the opening moments of the second half it looked like the battle at midfield would continue, as up to this point neither side had created a single shot on target.
But Oakland only needed one.
In the 55th minute Roots broke the deadlock when Panos Armenakas scored his first goal in a Roots kit, finally being rewarded after coming very close all season. A good set up pass from Ali Elmasnaouy found Armenakas at the top of the box who had time and space to unload one on goal and beat the keeper just inside the right post. Elmasnaouy’s assist earned him his first USL Championship point.
Following the goal, Roots stepped on the gas. Oakland looked hungry to double their lead as they continued working into the attacking third and threatening the Detroit defense over-and-over again.
Despite the pressure, Roots wouldn’t earn another shot on target for the remainder of the match.
But there are other ways to score. In the 86th minute Gagi Margvelashvili created Roots second of the night when a cross attempt from inside the box deflected off of Detroit’s Marcello Polisi and into his own twine to make it 2-0 Oakland late in the match.
Detroit didn’t earn their first shot on target until the 89th minute of the match, and by then it was too little too late as Roots continued to play solid defense and ran the clock out to secure their third straight win.
Roots will be back in action at the Coliseum next Saturday, July 12th at 7 PM PT for the final game of their three game homestand as they are set to host Phoenix Rising FC in a USL Championship fixture.
Talking With Head Coach Benny Feilhaber
What are your thoughts on the result tonight, the overall performance, and keeping it a clean sheet?
Result obviously very important. I think the work that the guys are putting into it, it doesn’t always come with a result, right? And it’s really nice when it does, because it gives you that added boost, that added confidence, that proof of concept that I’ve talked about before. So, yeah, it’s an important result. It puts us back within touching distance of the playoffs, which is the first goal. But more than that, I thought it was a resilient performance, because in the first half it wasn’t pretty.
I’ve talked to the guys. There’s more than one way to win games and keeping a clean sheet in that first half, when they kind of came at us for maybe 15-20 minutes in the middle of that first half, was important. And then we can make some changes in the second half, some ideas, guys looked really good that came in. I thought the two subs at halftime were pivotal, and kind of what changed us in the second half. And again, shutouts. If you get shutouts, more often than not you’re going to get results, and you’re going to get a lot of wins. And so the defense has been resilient, 11 guys working to make it tough to get to Kendall’s goal.
And at the end of the day, I think the biggest thing for us is just moving forward with the ideas, feeling more confident, more comfortable, the chemistry with the players, and I think we’re still seeing that. And there’s again, so much room for growth. So all in all, a very positive result with again, the best thing after a win is that there’s things to work for, so, still many things to get better at and improve in. But it was a really good performance in the second half.
Big team huddle there after the final whistle. I thought that was pretty cool. What was the message in there?
I love doing that. I actually got lost in the mix a couple of these games, not being able to have that conversation early. A lot of times, especially home games, guys have people that they want to see and whatnot, and then it takes a while to get everybody in the locker room. So it’s been something that I’ve enjoyed doing with the players on the field. One, I think it does have that kind of sense of a team huddle, whether it’s good, bad, or ugly, you know, getting together and being together and being one team and fighting for whatever it is that we just fought for for 90 minutes, and being on the same page.
So it’s obviously great when it’s a win, it’s an easier conversation, being able to have that conversation and kind of give the guys my feedback, my quick two cents, after the game, and how we’re moving forward from there, so that everybody’s in the same mindset. So it was great to have that and then go see the fans afterwards. It’s always an easier conversation after a win.
Oakland Roots SC vs Detroit City FC
USL Championship | July 5, 2025
Venue: Oakland Coliseum
Kickoff: 7:00 PM PT
Weather: 64 degrees, Clear Skies
SCORELINE:
OAK: 2
DET: 0
SCORING SUMMARY:
OAK: Panos Armenakas 55’
OAK: Marcello Polisi 86’ (OG)
DISCIPLINE SUMMARY:
OAK: Wolfgang Prentice 35’ (yellow card)
OAK: Ali Elmasnaouy 39’ (yellow card)
OAKLAND ROOTS LINEUP: Kendall Mcintosh, Julian Bravo, Gagi Margvelashvili, Wolfgang Prentice (Daniel Gomez), Peter Wilson (José Luis Sinisterra), Panos Armenakas (Ilya Alekseev), Tyler Gibson (Bobosi Byaruhanga), Neveal Hackshaw, Morey Doner, Kai Greene, Ali Elmasnaouy (EJ Johnson)
Unused subs: Camden Riley, Raphael Spiegel, Julio Martinez, Luis Saldaña
Shots: 2 | Shots On Goal: 1 | Corner Kicks: 3 | Fouls: 17 | Offsides: 1
DETROIT CITY LINEUP: Alexander Villanueva, Shane Wiedt, Darren Smith (Alassane Ates Diouf), Abdoulaye Diop (Haruki Yamazaki), Jeciel Cedeño (Marcello Polisi), Connor Rutz (Sebastian Guenzatti), Michael Bryant, Matthew Sheldon, Carlos Herrera, Devon Amoo-Mensah, Ryan Williams (Jay Chapman)
Unused subs: Dominic Gasso, Carlos Saldana
Shots: 4 | Shots On Goal: 1 | Corner Kicks: 4 | Fouls: 16 | Offsides: 0
