Takeaways from Roots’ 1-2 Loss at Home to Phoenix Rising FC

Oakland’s three-game winning streak met a hard stop Saturday night at the Coliseum, as Phoenix Rising flipped a 1-0 halftime deficit into a 2-1 road victory. The setback keeps Roots on 17 points in the Western Conference table, luckily still just two shy of the current playoff line.

Roots will look to move on from the loss when they hit the road this weekend for a USL Championship matchup with Loudon United FC on Saturday, July 19th. Until then we take a look back at the tough loss versus Rising FC:

Dominant Start

For the first 45 minutes of the match, Roots were in complete command of the contest. Oakland were spending an inordinate amount of time in the attacking third, didn’t allow Phoenix a shot on target, and put up seven shot attempts —  one of which was rewarded with a stellar goal from Morey Doner who is quickly rising in the club’s scoring leaderboard.

It was one of Oakland’s most complete halves of soccer all season, and one if watched on its own a spectator might assume eventually led to a lopsided Roots victory.

Final Touches

On more than one occasion in Saturday’s match, Roots were just one quality touch away from running up the score. Wide open looks in front of goal set up by tremendous ball movement far too frequently ended up without a shot on target, or even a shot attempt altogether.

It has been the one area in Oakland’s recent stretch of matches that has not seen much improvement since Benny Feilhaber took the reins as head coach. Three straight victories had somewhat masked the issue, but Saturday marked back-to-back matches in which Roots found only a single shot on target. That number will have to improve if winning streaks are to become sustainable.

Nine Minutes of Mayhem

Oakland had boasted a stalwart defense in their last four matches ahead of Saturday’s contest, and it looked as if that trend would continue when the clubs headed into the locker room at halftime. But around the last third of the match, the momentum took a heavy swing in Phoenix’s favor. Back-to-back goals from Rising in the 60th and 69th minute snapped Roots’ 400+ minute regular season streak of not allowing a goal from open play. The goals were no gimmes, and Oakland’s defense still had a fairly good outing, but the result is even more evidence that the backline cannot be expected to produce perfection in every match, and the offense needs to start pulling a bit more weight.