Roots Look to Bounce Back in Birmingham for Meeting with Legion FC

After falling 0-1 on the road to Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC in their last contest, Roots are looking to bounce back this Saturday, June 21st at 5 PM PT as the club heads to Alabama for a battle with Birmingham Legion FC.

Following their most recent loss, Oakland sits in 11th place in the USL Championship Western Conference table holding a 3-2-8 record in 2025. Like Roots, Birmingham will enter Saturday’s contest with just three regular season wins under their belt, providing Oakland with decent odds for a bounceback game.

Recently, Roots’ struggles can be attributed mainly to a lack of offensive production — having been held scoreless in three straight regular season contests. The meeting with Birmingham, however, could be a prime opportunity to end the scoring drought, as Legion have conceded the fourth most goals in the league thus far in 2025 — and have only kept the sheet clean once.

But Oakland will have to overcome memories of their last meeting with Birmingham, an 0-5 home drubbing in their last regular season fixture of 2024 that marked their third 0-5 defeat of the season.

Roots will continue to lean on the stellar play of netminder Kendall McIntosh to keep those kinds of lopsided goal differentials from manifesting in 2025. With five saves against Colorado Springs in Oakland’s last match, McIntosh officially put his mark on the USL Championship history book, moving to 10th place on the league’s all-time saves leaderboard with 341.

With just one goal allowed across their last two regular season matchups, Oakland’s defense has been trending in the right direction. Continuing this trend, while reigniting the offense, will be essential to improving their slight edge in the all-time series with Birmingham, as Roots enter Saturday holding a 2-0-1 record versus Legion FC.

Oakland will be back at home for their next action following the trip to Birmingham, as Roots next host Monterey Bay FC for a Group Stage bout in the USL Jägermeister Cup at the Oakland Coliseum on Saturday, June 28th at 7 PM PT.