Oakland Roots battled Norcal rival Sacramento Republic to a third draw. Despite dominating possession throughout the match, Roots were unable to find the breakthrough goal. The debut of new signing Quincy Amarikwa and entrance of forward Jeremy Bokila in the second half provided the offensive spark the team needed, but it wasn’t enough to come away with the win. Bokila had the most promising chance of the match, but Sacramento’s goalkeeper came up with a big save. Moving into Saturday’s match against LA Galaxy II at Merritt College, Roots look to fine tune the attack.
Oakland Roots battled Norcal rival Sacramento Republic to a third draw. Despite dominating possession throughout the match, Roots were unable to find the breakthrough goal. The debut of new signing Quincy Amarikwa and entrance of forward Jeremy Bokila in the second half provided the offensive spark the team needed, but it wasn’t enough to come away with the win. Bokila had the most promising chance of the match, but Sacramento’s goalkeeper came up with a big save. Moving into Saturday’s match against LA Galaxy II at Merritt College, Roots look to fine tune the attack.
Head Coach Jordan Ferrell's thoughts on the game:
It was an interesting match, plenty of opportunities for us. They were organized and sat a little deeper than we thought they would. We thought they were going to come and press us a bit more like they did in the first two games and even our preseason friendly, and that caused some issues for us. It was good to welcome back a couple players and Quincy getting his debut with us, the squad is starting to come together. We just have to put those chances away, it was also nice for us to get that clean sheet.
How did the game plan progress with them sitting back more than expected?
Yeah we expected them to press high for moments, so when they sat deep like that, we tried to solve it by dropping Matias in to provide a little more security with the ball moving side to side. I think you’re seeing a relatively stable shape for us and there’s a couple pieces that are slightly different depending on the personnel. I think our back four did great tonight with Akeem getting a little rest tonight and then Soya and Memo doing great at outside back. The young guys playing mid in Mbumba and Flores did well in the beginning of the game and then we got to see the veterans in Wal and Lindo coming in a bit later on. We’re also seeing relationships between players start to form, like with Bokila, Quincy, and Brandon as they haven’t played many minutes together. Fortunately, there’s a lot of minutes to go around in the coming weeks (laughs).
Oakland Roots SC vs Sacramento Republic FC
USL Championship | August 11, 2021
Venue: Las Positas College, Livermore, California
Kickoff: 7:00 PM
Weather: 83 degrees, sunny
DISCIPLINE SUMMARY:
SAC: Fatai Alashe (Yellow 88’)
SAC: Julian Chavez (Yellow 90+4’)
OAKLAND ROOTS LINEUP:
Paul Blanchette, Ariel Mbumba (Wal Fall 63’), Soya Takahasi, Matias Fissore, Brandon Allen (Jeremy Bokila 63’), Jesus Enriquez, Emrah Klimenta, Danny Flores (Lindo Mfeka 78’), Memo Diaz, Kai Greene, Yohannes Harish (Quincy Amarikwa 59’)
Unused subs: Saalih Muhammed, Akeem O’Connor-Ward, Taylor Bailey
Shots: 7 | Shots On Goal: 3 | Corner Kicks: 4 | Fouls: 17 | Offside: 1 |
SACRAMENTO REPUBLIC LINEUP:
Tomas Gomez, Jordan McCrary, Dan Casey, Hayden Sargis, Duke Lacroix, Fatai Alashe, Petteri Pennanen, Luis Felipe Rodrigues, Dariusz Formella (Mario Penagos 73’), Kharlton Belmar, Cameron Iwasa (Julian Chavez 80’)
Unused subs: Rafael Diaz, Shannen Gomez, Mitchell Taintor, Jaime Villareal, Rafael Jaurequi
Shots: 4 | Shots On Goal: 0 | Corner Kicks: 2 | Fouls: 9 | Offside: 0 |
Head Coach Jordan Ferrell’s thoughts on the game:
It was an interesting match, plenty of opportunities for us. They were organized and sat a little deeper than we thought they would. We thought they were going to come and press us a bit more like they did in the first two games and even our preseason friendly, and that caused some issues for us. It was good to welcome back a couple players and Quincy getting his debut with us, the squad is starting to come together. We just have to put those chances away, it was also nice for us to get that clean sheet.
How did the game plan progress with them sitting back more than expected?
Yeah we expected them to press high for moments, so when they sat deep like that, we tried to solve it by dropping Matias in to provide a little more security with the ball moving side to side. I think you’re seeing a relatively stable shape for us and there’s a couple pieces that are slightly different depending on the personnel. I think our back four did great tonight with Akeem getting a little rest tonight and then Soya and Memo doing great at outside back. The young guys playing mid in Mbumba and Flores did well in the beginning of the game and then we got to see the veterans in Wal and Lindo coming in a bit later on. We’re also seeing relationships between players start to form, like with Bokila, Quincy, and Brandon as they haven’t played many minutes together. Fortunately, there’s a lot of minutes to go around in the coming weeks (laughs).
Oakland Roots SC vs Sacramento Republic FC
USL Championship | August 11, 2021
Venue: Las Positas College, Livermore, California
Kickoff: 7:00 PM
Weather: 83 degrees, sunny
DISCIPLINE SUMMARY:
SAC: Fatai Alashe (Yellow 88’)
SAC: Julian Chavez (Yellow 90+4’)
OAKLAND ROOTS LINEUP:
Paul Blanchette, Ariel Mbumba (Wal Fall 63’), Soya Takahasi, Matias Fissore, Brandon Allen (Jeremy Bokila 63’), Jesus Enriquez, Emrah Klimenta, Danny Flores (Lindo Mfeka 78’), Memo Diaz, Kai Greene, Yohannes Harish (Quincy Amarikwa 59’)
Unused subs: Saalih Muhammed, Akeem O’Connor-Ward, Taylor Bailey
Shots: 7 | Shots On Goal: 3 | Corner Kicks: 4 | Fouls: 17 | Offside: 1 |
SACRAMENTO REPUBLIC LINEUP:
Tomas Gomez, Jordan McCrary, Dan Casey, Hayden Sargis, Duke Lacroix, Fatai Alashe, Petteri Pennanen, Luis Felipe Rodrigues, Dariusz Formella (Mario Penagos 73’), Kharlton Belmar, Cameron Iwasa (Julian Chavez 80’)
Unused subs: Rafael Diaz, Shannen Gomez, Mitchell Taintor, Jaime Villareal, Rafael Jaurequi
Shots: 4 | Shots On Goal: 0 | Corner Kicks: 2 | Fouls: 9 | Offside: 0 |