Oakland Soul 3–1 SF Glens: Finishing the Season Strong
It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. It seems harsh because the Soul got off to an incredible start in 2023. But it all came down to one final game on Sunday, July 2nd in a hot afternoon in Merritt College. They finished strong and their reward will be playoff soccer, coincidentally a rematch against the team they played today. But before we get into that, let’s review how Sunday’s game transpired.
Coming off of a 2–1 win in Marin, Oakland Soul had their fate in their own control. They were missing some key players but the squad still was strong enough even if their opponents SF Glens were formidable as well. SF had the stronger game plan in the first half. Their through balls were breaking Soul’s defensive line, Soul’s weren’t doing the same to them. The counter attack strategy yielded early results as the Glens went into halftime up 1–0. For whatever reason, be it the “Soul’d” out crowd’s energy or the positive and determined body language on the Soul players, I did not feel worried. Then it clicked once the first of three goals from Manaka “Mana” Hayashi hit the back of the net: Soul’s collective will was strong and that was emblematic through their depth on the bench. The triple halftime substitution featuring Hayashi alongside Aaliyah Schinaman and Sydney Shephard changed the game.
Shepherd aided Henar Urteaga in marshaling the backline as Soul would keep the Glens scoreless in the second half. Schinaman’s blazing speed was causing chaos for the opposition. When it came time to turn the score on its head, Hayashi was up to the task. The rest of Oakland Soul followed suit and the energy from the stands that was loud and vibrant from minute 1 raised to a fever pitch. The sun tried its best to drain the players’ and fans’ energy as hydration breaks were needed, but there was no cooling off the inferno that the Soul were playing with to finish the regular season on a high note.
“I would love to keep Mana forever and I would love to coach 100 Manas”-Coach Jessica Clinton was full of praise for the MVP of this game. Furthermore when I asked Clinton about the game changers (the term used on Oakland Soul’s Twitter for their bench), she gave them glowing reviews too, “Everyone is bought in as a collective”.
We also had a chance to talk to Mana Hayashi and my colleague Kevin Nguyen asked if she would recommend her friends to play in the USL W League when she goes home to Japan. “I loved my time here and I would recommend them. This is a good, competitive league”. It’s incredible to see how each of these players, including Hayashi, have made such a positive impact in such a short amount of time.
This really feels like the beginning of a beautiful era of soccer in the Bay Area, and I told Coach Clinton what I will happily tell anyone: The Oakland Soul are an integral part of this Bay Area sporting community. They’ve given an incredible group of women the opportunity to play and the fans have supported and embraced them since the beginning. They packed Merritt College for every home game and a good core of them will be there this Friday, July 7th at 12:30 pm in this rematch between Oakland Soul and SF Glens at Skyline College.
No matter what happens, Oakland Soul have made everyone proud. Who’s to say they can’t go on and win it all? The sky’s the limit!
