For just the second time in the 17-game history between the two clubs, Roots played visiting Orange County SC to a draw on Saturday evening at the Oakland Coliseum in a 1-1 final.
Roots began the match picking up where they left off in their victory versus San Antonio last weekend, dictating pace and looking aggressive with their intent to push the ball up the field.
Their aggression was exemplified by their earning three corner kicks within the first 12 minutes of the match, finding space in the attacking third and putting the Orange County defense under constant pressure.
In the 20th minute of the match, this aggression paid off as Florian Valot put Oakland up 1-0 with a long distance rocket from the right side that OC keeper Alexander Rando misjudged on the entry, allowing it to float over his fingertips and into the twine.
Orange County began to push back a bit after Roots’ opening goal, building an attack of their own and nearly equalizing in the 35th minute when a second chance shot after a Kendall McIntosh save found the back of the net but was ruled offsides by the official.
Coming into the second half, Orange County began to hunt desperately for an equalizer, putting Oakland’s backline under immense pressure until finally breaking through in the 60th minute when a corner service led to a point blank shot on the far post. McIntosh made the initial save but the rebound found the foot of Yaniv Bazini who capitalized on the opportunity to make it 1-1.
Both clubs turned up the heat for the final third of the match, earning solid scoring chances until the final whistle, but failing to find another goal as the match ended in a 1-1 draw.
Roots will now get a break before returning to the Oakland Coliseum on September 12th at 7 PM PT to host Lexington SC.
Talking with Head Coach Ryan Martin
What are your overall thoughts on tonight’s performance and the 1-1 result in the end?
Yeah, I felt like the first half we were really good, and we created a couple good looks. They cleared one off the line, and then we scored a really good goal. I felt like the start of the second half was a bit sluggish, which we were disappointed about.
If you don’t finish games like that and find the second goal, and teams hang around and hang around and look to catch you on the counter or look to try to get restarts, you let them back into the game.
And so for us, I was disappointed that we didn’t finish that one off because I felt like it was there for the taking, even all the way to the 94th minute. I thought we created enough to get the win, and obviously it didn’t happen. We have to continue to keep pushing forward.
