Monterey Bay began the match playing a high press defense that initially stymied Roots, as the eye test would say the the visitors were in command of the contest early. But with that high pressure style, Oakland was frequently able to find wide open spaces in the counter attack leading to a few decent early scoring chances.
Roots were able to capitalize on one of those opportunities in the 34th minute when a throw-in from the left side of the final third was played into Faysal Bettache. Bettache delivered a well placed pass to Morey Doner just beyond the center circle, who weaved around a defender to find space before depositing a low strike to the left side from outside the top of the box, giving Roots a 1-0 lead.
Following the goal, Roots took control of the momentum, nearly doubling their lead just moments later on a tap-in from Peter Wilson on a play that was deemed to be offside.
Oakland dominated possession in the first half, controlling nearly 70% when the halftime whistle blew. Roots also held Monterey Bay without a shot on target through the first 45, while delivering three of their own, including the eventual game-winner.
The match became a grind in the second half, as both teams fought desperately to be the next side to score.
But despite good chances from both clubs, and a late push from Monterey Bay, Roots were able to fend off a comeback, reaching the final whistle with their lead intact and three points in the table secured.
Talking with Head Coach Benny Feilhaber
What are your thoughts on tonight’s action, and the performance from the team?
Yeah, I’ll start with the result being the most important right now in this part of the season. Obviously, we talk about growing along the course of the season, and along the course of the 19 games that I’ll be in charge of during the league. But today was a massive three pointer for us. You know, it’s almost less about the six point game against Monterey, but it’s more so about who are the four teams that we have to surpass to get into the playoffs. And right now, I haven’t seen any of the results yet, but we’re above Vegas, and now we’re tied with Monterey Bay with a couple games in hand, right? So that’s two. We’ve got to skip a couple more. And obviously we’ve got to get those points.
From the perspective of the performance, I thought that we did a lot of good things in the first half. We wanted to make sure that we kind of came back to the way that we want to play. I thought that we became a little bit prisoners of the moment against Lexington, where we scored an early goal, which was the case against Sacramento, and then we defended for our lives for a long period of time, and we didn’t want to do that in the first half.
I thought we did a pretty good job of still being proactive, still trying to go for it, you know, finding opportunities to try and get the second goal. Second half, I think it started kind of similarly, but at some point there, and I’m not sure exactly of what minute that was, but it felt kind of early on where they started getting a little bit more of the game. You know, it’s not what we really wanted to do, but unfortunately we had to defend more than we would have wanted.
But I do think that the subs that came in did an exceptional job today of knowing their role, being influential, and preserving that result. I think from the 80th minute on, so 15-20 minutes, I thought we actually were able to kind of get a grasp on things, not give up too many opportunities, keep possession in their end, kill time, kill clock, find some fouls, which is all a big part of seeing results out.
So an incredibly professional performance in the second half, although I would love to find us a different way of keeping a 1-0 result and maybe turning that into two, as opposed to suffering for as much as we did in moments in that second half.
Oakland Roots SC vs Monterey Bay FC
USL Championship | August 30, 2025
Venue: Oakland Coliseum
Kickoff: 7:00 PM PT
Weather: 81 degrees, Clear Skies
SCORELINE:
OAK: 1
MB: 0
SCORING SUMMARY:
OAK: Morey Doner 34’
DISCIPLINE SUMMARY:
OAK: Morey Doner 23’ (yellow card)
OAK: Julian Bravo 25’ (yellow card)
MB: Pierce Gallaway 51’ (yellow card)
MB: Tarik Scott 73’ (yellow card)
OAK: Bobosi Byaruhanga 86’ (yellow card)
OAK: Daniel Gomez 88’ (yellow card)
MB: Joel Garcia Jr. 90’+ (yellow card)
OAK: Panos Armenakas 90’+ (yellow card)
OAKLAND ROOTS LINEUP: Kendall Mcintosh, Julian Bravo (Bobosi Byaruhanga), Gagi Margvelashvili, Daniel Gomez, Peter Wilson (EJ Johnson), Panos Armenakas, Neveal Hackshaw, Jürgen Damm (Wolfgang Prentice), Morey Doner (Camden Riley), Kai Greene, Faysal Bettache (Tyler Gibson)
Unused subs: Raphael Spiegel, Ali Elmasnaouy
Shots: 11 | Shots On Goal: 5 | Corner Kicks: 4 | Fouls: 15 | Offsides: 2
MONTEREY BAY LINEUP: Nicolas Campuzano Jimenez, Nicholas Gordon, Carlos Guzman Fonesca, Adrian Rebollar-Cortes (Anton Horup), Mobi Fehr (Xavi Gnaulati), Pierce Gallaway (Wesley Fonguck), Joel Garcia Jr., Tarik Scott (Diego Gutierrez), Sami Guediri, Luke Ivanovic (Paul Paul Gindiri), John Klein
Unused subs: Alejandro Lara, Dallas Odle
Shots: 15 | Shots On Goal: 2 | Corner Kicks: 6 | Fouls: 17 | Offsides: 2
