Despite controlling over 70 percent of possession during Saturday evening’s matchup at the Oakland Coliseum, Roots conceded the night’s lone goal as visiting Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC retained their undefeated record versus Oakland in the five-game all-time series, eventually defeating Roots 0-1.
The match began as much of the rest of the contest would follow, with Oakland dominating the possession game and spending much of their time on the attacking buildup, but failing to generate scoring chances.
Pittsburgh opened the scoring, however, when a few missed clearance opportunities in Roots’ defensive third led to a point blank volley from Eliot Goldthorp in the 20th minute that made it 0-1 Riverhounds.
Oakland picked up right where they left off after conceding, playing keepaway from Pittsburgh who began to park the bus after gaining the lead, and continued to stifle Roots’ attacking hopes. When all was said and done, Oakland failed to register a shot on target, and now have a combined one shot on goal across their last two matches.
Roots will have to retool in short order as their next match comes in just four days time when the club hits the road to face Las Vegas Lights FC this Wednesday, August 5th at 7:30 PM PT.
Talking with Head Coach Ryan Martin
What are your initial thoughts on tonight’s result?
I thought we started the match well, and then I think we made a few errors leading into the the goal, and I haven’t had a chance to look back at if it was interference or not, but I think it’s important that we make our own luck, and you know I think we could have defended the box significantly better in that action, which is something we’ve been really pressing around training, and then it changes once you go down a goal, and they are a very good defensive team.
You’ve got to break down a low block, and then it becomes execution. It becomes commitment to score and get in the box, and it becomes playing with more tempo and assertiveness to try to get in behind and create chances.
And so, you know, frustrated with the result. Think we did a lot of things really well. Think there’s a lot of things we need to continue to hammer and clean up, and we keep going.
