Oakland Roots 0–2 Rio Grande Valley: No Gas, All Breaks
Gas Pedal by Bay Area legend Sage the Gemini played as the final minutes ticked before kick off and that’s the energy I wanted to see the Oakland Roots replicate ahead of this game at home against a team near the bottom of the West. Instead, this performance could be best described as “No Gas, All Breaks”.
Oakland Roots XI (Noah Delgado, 5th West, 3–4–3): 20 Paul Blanchette; 4 Joseph Nane, 14 Danny Barbir, 6 Tarek Morad; 23 Memo Diaz, 15 Daniel Gomez, 22 Jeciel Cedeño, 19 Wolfgang Prentice; 10 Lindo Mfeka, 17 Johnny Rodriguez, 9 Dariusz Formella
66’ 11 Trayvone Reid for Prentice
66’ 18 Anuar Pelaez for Rodriguez
82’ 16 Ryan Her for Cedeño
Unused Bench: GK 47 Taylor Bailey, DF 21 Emrah Klimenta, DF 3 Kevin Wright, FW 38 Etsgar Cruz
Rio Grande Valley XI (Wilmer Cabrera, 11th West, 4–3–3): 1 Tyler Deric; 15 Frank Nodarse, 3 Wahab Ackwei (GHA), 4 Erik Pimentel (MEX), 19 Eric Kinzner; 29 Gabriel Benitez (VEN), 22 Taylor Davila, 16 Robert Coronado; 10 Christian Pinzon, 17 Ian Cerro, 23 Christiano Francois
46’ 2 Jonathan Ricketts for Kinzner
58’ 9 Frank López for Francois
59’ 13 Wilmer Cabrera Jr. for Cerro
Unused Bench: GK 21 Carlos Merancio, DF 20 Tomas Ritendale, FW 11 Juan Galindrez, FW 12 Ricardo Ruiz
Oakland Roots got off to a great start with Wolfgang Prentice getting the first shot on target and forcing a corner and Barbir had a dangerous attempt as well. Prentice’s energy was apparent going both ways as he also picked up a yellow card early on.
What concerned me were the two dangerous giveaways within the first 20 minutes, one by Gomez and one by Nfeka. Nane had a third at the very end of the first half that forced Paul Blanchette to intervene.
Danny Barbir had a good first half putting out fires and pushing the attack forward although he got a little frustrated with Prentice perhaps because he didn’t pass to him right away. In Prentice’s defense he was dealing with two defenders trying to retain possession. It was a rare indicator of some cracks between players as this team usually gets along very well.
Rio Grande Valley began growing into the game after the half hour mark as Christiano Francois hit the side netting and had that been on target that would’ve been a goal. Taylor Davila had a curling effort go just wide as well.
Another problematic sign foreshadowing second half events was when Prentice had options in the box but he tried to chip it from a tight angle and Tyler Deric caught it no problem. The decision making when it came time to attempt to score would haunt the Oakland Roots.
Wilmer Cabrera turned the game on its head with his substitutes in the second half as both goals would be set up by Frank López and scored by Wilmer Cabrera Jr. The center back trio of Danny Barbir, Tarek Morad, and Joseph Nane got picked apart on both occasions. Neveal Hackshaw (Trinidad and Tobago) and Bryan Tamacas (El Salvador) are integral to how this team plays both ways and Emrah Klimenta was rotated out, but still these are players Oakland Roots need to rely on and they’ve come good before. It just wasn’t their night.
As the second half raged on, the crowd grew frustrated with too much passing in and around the box. Players were running out of gas and were overthinking the attack. Noah Delgado explained this phenomenon, “The defense was tough to break down. We aren’t just going to shoot for the sake of shooting,” and while that is understandable, it did feel a little too passive at times.
The game ended on one last sour note when Memo Diaz picked up a second yellow, getting sent off and will be suspended for the away game against Tampa Bay Rowdies on Saturday.
The most recent Oakland Roots win was June 2nd on the road to Colorado Springs Switchbacks and even that was only a 1–0 score. Since then it’s been two draws at home and a loss. I’m less concerned about playoffs at this point and more concerned about damage control at this point. Away to Tampa is going to be tough and then a much needed break.
Despite the disappointment, I do want to acknowledge the 2,838 fans in attendance on a Wednesday night preceding a weekend of soccer in the Bay Area that offers the California Clasico on Saturday and Mexico vs Qatar on Sunday.
“The fans are incredible. It doesn’t matter what day it is, they give us the lift we need and we are thankful for them”-Noah Delgado acknowledging how passionate the fans are.
There’s no doubt the Oakland Roots have given us fans a lot to cheer for in our 2.5 years of USL Championship play, reaching the quarterfinals of the playoffs in 2021 and 2022. What comes next is up in the air.
“We have a great group of guys that will put their hands up and acknowledge it wasn’t their best outing. We’ll continue to work and get better”-Noah Delgado on bouncing back after a loss.
Win or lose, the city of Oakland has teams worthy of our support in the Roots and Soul. This is a rough patch and there are more questions than answers, but we stand by this group. Even after a no gas, all breaks performance, this group of players is giving it their all and hopefully they’ll come out of this a better team.
