Roots Earn a Point in Gritty 1-1 Draw at Home Versus FC Tulsa

Oakland started hot and clawed to the finish line in a gritty 1-1 draw at home versus visiting FC Tulsa on Saturday night at the Oakland Coliseum.

Roots began the match with one of the best plays of their young season when a referee restart near the Oakland penalty area led to a nearly full field hail mary lob from Michael Edwards to the other end which found a sprinting Wolfgang Prentice alone in the back. Prentice beat the keeper to the ball and put a chip header on it that fluttered into the net for his team-leading fourth goal of the season to make it 1-0 Oakland in the 4th minute.

Following the goal, Roots continued to dominate the pitch, finding creative ways to attack the Tulsa back line and putting together scoring chances in frequent succession.

The pitch began to tilt back in Tulsa’s favor after injury substitutions left Roots without two of their starting defenders, and an added time red card shown to Neveal Hackshaw following a tackle attempt to stop a breakaway reduced them to 10 men for the rest of the match.

Dropping back into a defensive position to begin the second half, Roots were able to thwart many of Tulsa’s advances despite two Tulsa shots pinging the frame of the goal less than ten minutes into the second half.

Tulsa finally capitalized on their steady second half pressure up a man in the 70th minute when a cross from the right side into the box from Owen Damm found Bailey Sparks who headed it home to level the match at 1-1.

Oakland refused to break however, continuing to play relentless defense and leaning on goalkeeper Raphael Spiegel who made save after save worthy of the highlight reel in order to ensure Roots would leave the pitch up a point despite being down a man on the pitch for the majority of the night.

Roots will be back at home in just four days time as the club faces a quick turnaround, readying to host Las Vegas Lights FC at the Oakland Coliseum on Wednesday night at 7 PM PT.

Talking with Head Coach Ryan Martin

Coach, just start with your overall thoughts on the match, and how the boys fought to come away with a point.

Yeah, I think when you look at it I think even last week stemming into this week the resilience of the group is incredible. I just told them I was incredibly proud of the way they fought for over half of the game a man down. Got a point, and we actually had some pretty good spells even a man down. We thought we maybe could have played more, but I think fatigue obviously came into it.

I think when you start throwing in two injuries, two substitutions in the first half, plus the red card situation, and to come away with a point against the defending Western Conference champions, I think when you zoom out, it’s a good night at the office. 

But what’s really, really good is the performance in terms of the start of the match was really good, the resiliency of man down was incredible, and the fight to get something was impressive.

All of those changes have an impact on the game. Two injuries are hard to overcome, then you have a red card. Just talk about all those system changes that you were forced to make. You know, what changes you made, and how it all played a factor?

Yeah, I think we counted, between Bobo, Jesus, Mikey, you know, played at least four different positions or sides at some point throughout the night. And so for us it’s difficult to do that in the middle of a game, but it’s even more impressive that the guys, you know, I think a lot of people in life, everybody knows this, you can piss and moan or ‘woe is me’ when things start happening, but they didn’t. 

And you know I would shift them left, right, we’d go into five in the back to start the second half. And it was, ‘let’s just get on with it and keep going.’ And I think it shows the mentality of the group, of where we are, and they’re disappointed we didn’t get three points, quite frankly. And when you’re in that mindset and you compete like that, it’s a recipe for good things, we hope, going forward.

Oakland Roots SC vs FC Tulsa

USL Championship | April 18, 2026

Venue: Oakland Coliseum | Oakland, CA

Kickoff: 7:00 PM PT

Weather: 66°F, Cloudy Skies

SCORELINE: 

OAK: 1

TUL: 1

SCORING SUMMARY:

OAK: Wolfgang Prentice 4’

TUL: Bailey Sparks 70’

DISCIPLINE SUMMARY:

OAK: Neveal Hackshaw 28’ (yellow card)

TUL: Lucas Stauffer 29’ (yellow card)

OAK: Neveal Hackshaw 45’+ (straight red card)

OAK: Jesus De Vicente 62’ (yellow card)

TUL: Abdoulaye Cissoko 68’ (yellow card)

TUL: Alonzo Clarke 90’+ (yellow card)

OAKLAND ROOTS LINEUP: Tommy McCabe, David Garcia (Faysal Bettache), Bobosi Byaruhanga, Wolfgang Prentice, Peter Wilson, Jesus De Vicente, Julian Bravo (Neveal Hackshaw), Bertin Jacquesson (Florian Valot), Raphael Spiegel, Michael Edwards, Danny Trejo (Jackson Kiil)

Unused subs: Kendall McIntosh, Ali Elmasnaouy, Jesse Maldonado Jr., Bradley Roberson, Alejandro Caracheo Luna

Shots: 7 | Shots On Goal: 4 | Corner Kicks: 1 | Fouls: 8 | Offside: 0 | 

TULSA LINEUP: Owen Damm, Delentz Pierre, Remi Cabral, Jamie Webber (Raheem Somersall), Kalil ElMedkhar (Bruno Serbena Lapa), Lucas Stauffer (Bailey Sparks), Jeorgio Kocevski, Lamar Batista, Dane Jacomen, Harvey St. Clair (Stefan Lukic) (Alonzo Clarke), Abdoulaye Cissoko

Unused subs: Ian Carlo Souza Daniel, Alexander Tambakis

Shots: 20 | Shots On Goal: 8 | Corner Kicks: 4 | Fouls: 14 | Offside: 1 |