A strong first half for Oakland led to a second half meltdown in the East Bay as visiting Las Vegas Lights FC earned all three points in a 3-0 shutout.
Roots started out the match strong, earning prime scoring chances seemingly one after another. This pressure continued for nearly the entire first frame, but Oakland could not convert any of their attacks and headed into the half still deadlocked at 0-0.
As good as the home side looked in the first half, they were lost in the second. Las Vegas opened the scoring just moments after the second half kickoff when Coleman Gannon struck a ball that deflected off a Roots defender, just escaping the reach of Paul Blanchette and finding space under the crossbar.
Only minutes later the Lights doubled their lead on a placed shot, this time off the foot of Gaoussou Samake.
To put the game away for good, Las Vegas scored their third of the second half in the 66th minute courtesy of Valentin Noël.
Oakland continued to battle, but the field remained tilted in favor of the Lights for the remainder of the match.
Oakland will return to the East Bay for their next match of the USL Championship season looking for redemption when they host visiting Monterey Bay FC on April 6th. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. PT.
Talking with Head Coach Noah Delgado
Okay, Noah, tough loss there. Things were looking strong in the first half, better chances, and then the wheels came off in the second. What was it? What made the difference?
Yeah, difficult to say — to point to one thing. I think having to make a change at half with Justin injured, had to change some things up and make a couple changes throughout the lineup. We’re going to have to look at the film, but some individual mistakes and some collective mistakes. There were chances that we shouldn’t have given up, and some we should have capitalized on. After creating some nice stuff we thought we were pretty good in the first half. We knew the second half was going to be tough. Them getting that early goal I think really put us on our heels.
You mentioned Rasmussen’s injury. What did that do to the system? How’d that change?
Yeah, we just had to move a couple players around. A couple changes that maybe took us a couple of minutes to adjust to. And it hurt us.
Oakland Roots SC vs Las Vegas Lights
USL Championship | March 30, 2024
Venue: Cal State University, East Bay
Kickoff: 7:00 PM PT
Weather: Partly Cloudy
SCORELINE:
OAK: 0
LV: 3
SCORING SUMMARY:
LV: Coleman Gannon 46’
LV: Gaoussou Samake 50’
LV: Valentin Noël 66’
DISCIPLINE SUMMARY:
OAK: Baboucarr Njie 21’ (yellow card)
LV: Emrah Klimenta 30’ (yellow card)
LV: Coleman Gannon 63’ (yellow card)
LV: Valentin Noël 69’ (yellow card)
LV: Shawn Smart 76’ (yellow card)
LV: Gennaro Michael Nigro 90’+ (yellow card)
OAKLAND ROOTS LINEUP: Paul Blanchette, Justin Rasmussen (Miche-Naider Chéry), Niall Logue, Gagi Margvelashvili, Neveal Hackshaw, Daniel Gomez, Memo Diaz, Baboucarr Njie (Ilya Alekseev), Napo Matsoso (Etsgar Cruz), Jeciel Cedeño, Trayvone Reid (Lindo Mfeka)
Unused subs: Irakoze Donasiyano, Bryan Tamacas, Javier Bedolla-Vera, Thomas Camier, Tim Syrel
Shots: 13 | Shots On Goal: 4 | Corner Kicks: 4 | Fouls: 17 | Offside: 2 |
LAS VEGAS LIGHTS LINEUP: Raiko Arozarena, Fabien Garcia, Emrah Klimenta, Shawn Smart (Maliek Howell), Gaoussou Samake (Gennaro Michael Nigro), Hayden Sargis, Jean-Claude Ngando, Valentin Noël, Coleman Gannon, Riki Alba (Khori Bennett), Solomon Asante (Edison Azcona)
Unused subs: Nicholas Ammeter, All Gue, Alexander Romero
Shots: 7 | Shots On Goal: 4| Corner Kicks: 5| Fouls: 20| Offside: 1|
