Roots Right Back to it, Hosting Birmingham Legion FC for Midweek Matinee

After playing to a 0-0 draw with Miami FC at the Oakland Coliseum on Saturday evening, Roots will go again just four days later, playing host to visiting Birmingham Legion FC in a midweek league fixture scheduled for 12 PM PT.

Despite the final result in Saturday’s contest winding up in a scoreless draw, It wasn’t for lack of Roots’ asking questions of the Miami defense. Oakland showed attacking prowess through all ninety minutes of that match.

Roots will look to continue that trend versus Legion on Wednesday afternoon, and hope that fortune finds them this time in the finishing department.

Coming off of short rest, Birmingham could be an ideal matchup for Oakland, who are 3-0-1 (W-D-L) versus Legion in the all-time series. 

Birmingham enters the match on a bit of a skid, having gone winless in their last four matches, and on the outside of the playoff picture looking in, currently sitting in 10th place in the Eastern Conference.

Following Roots’ draw on Saturday, head coach Ryan Martin said that defense has been a focus for them in practice in recent weeks, as evidenced by their back-to-back clean sheets in their last two matches.

Oakland will have a decent chance to bring that streak to three on Wednesday, as Legion enters the match sitting second-to-last in the USL Championship with 12 goals. Roots will also look to reignite their offense, having been one of the top-scoring teams in the league in the early going, but having been unable to find the back of the net in each of their last two league fixtures.

Still, sitting in third-place in the Western Conference, Oakland could move up to second-place with a win on Wednesday and continue what is one of the strongest starts in club history for Roots.

Following the match, Oakland will continue their June sprint on the road with another short turnaround league fixture versus Phoenix Rising FC on June 20th at 7:30 PM PT.