Roots fans, it’s game day! Your Roots travel to Tulsa, Oklahoma for a 5:30 p.m. Pacific time kickoff ONEOK Field. The match will be available on ESPN+ and KTVU Plus, and there will be an official watch party at Seawolf, continuing the Roots’ streak of watch parties at bars where the vibe is less “ROOTS BAY BAY” and more “let’s quietly discuss politics and philosophy.”
Anyway, this post is going to be quite brief. Amy and I welcomed our son, Samuel, in the early hours Tuesday morning. He and Amy are both doing very well. We are a little so-so on putting pictures of him on the internet, especially the even-less-secure-than-private-instagram internet, so I am not putting a picture here. He’s perfect, though, fwiw. I should be watching the game tonight, but it might be some time before my posts are quite as lengthy as they have been. Please rest assured that the utter lack of quality will not change.
FC Tulsa
On paper, it seems like Tulsa should be reasonably good. By that I mean, they have two players who I’ve heard of and I think are pretty good: Phillip Goodrum and Justin Portillo. However, their record is 2-4-3, with a very similar GF and GA to the Roots, although in two fewer games. When asked for comment on how the season is going so far, the FC Tulsa ombudsman responded:
Tulsa started the season with a win over Las Vegas Lights in Las Vegas, which is a tougher result than usual, and picked up a 3-3 home draw against Phoenix and a 1-1 away draw again Sacramento, both solid results. They have only one other win, away over El Paso, which it seems like everyone is doing this season. Since then, they have a 2-2 draw away to Birmingham, a 2-2 draw at home to Pittsburgh, and they are coming off of a 5-0 shellacking in Tampa.
Like the Roots, Tulsa spreads the goals around, with only one player at three goals–Stefan Stojanovic. Goodrum has two, though, and unless this team has completely fallen off a cliff, his goals will come eventually.1
Roots’ Form
We won a game!
Amang’s opener was a better bit of attacking play than I realized live, and I am not sure how much blame to put anywhere on defense. The ball finds Amang in an extremely tight window and he finishes very well.
Orange County fans have been griping about the refereeing, and I think they have some case, having gotten the short end of the worst calls. Overall I think there were a lot of ticky-tack fouls, and from the stands it felt like the weird calls did more to upset Roots’ rhythm than County’s. No defense on that penalty, though, that was a baffling call. Good for Reid for getting in a dangerous position, though, a thing he has been improving on. His elusiveness also means if he can get there, he has a decent chance of drawing an unwise challenge.
The winner was a thing of beauty, and given the opponent and the Roots’ current situation, feels like it will go down as a classic. Throwing everyone forward, Justin Rasmussen put in a decent cross that County managed to clear out of play. Rasmussen ran over to get the ball back, and some utter fool in the expensive seats had gotten the ball and turned to take a selfie and mug for the crowd. Rasmussen looked like he might kill him, and the supporters in the cheap seats, who understand the rules, were all prepared to testify in Rasmussen’s defense. A ballboy managed to get one to “Tin,” as they are calling him now, and he tossed the ball back towards Cedeño about 10 yards into the attacking half. Cedeño gave himself a little run up, under no pressure, and leathered a curling cross into the box, finding Gagi’s chest dead-on, about 15 yards out of the center of the goal. Gagi doesn’t field the ball perfectly, but he cannily chested the ball down and away from the only defender with him, and from there he calmly guided the ball past the keeper on the half-volley.
Like I said, his reception of the ball was not perfect–but for a centerback in the attacking penalty box, it would compare favorably with guys making a lot more money than him. I am more impressed with the finish, which you’d understand if he had skied over the cross-bar or if he had limply played into the keeper’s feet (which he was still sorta close to, but y’know, scoreboard). He stayed so, so calm. Roots have a mixed record with bringing in guys you’ve never heard of from unheralded leagues, but Gagi has had moments. This was not the moment he was signed for, but god damn I’m glad he got it.
Lineup and Score Predictions
Bloom
This is a pretty defensive lineup, but I think it gets a lot of our best players on the field. While Riley and Hack are both defense-first midfielders, Rasmussen and Tamacas both have things to offer in the attack, and Memo can cover for Tamacas if he goes buccaneering off down the flanks. Reid is less reliable cover on defense, but I think that imbalance is okay. I would really like to see Dwyer, but I don’t know if we’re going to. We needed a goal against County and he did not make it off the bench. Tulsa are not great, and we have embers, if not flames.
2-1 Roots.
Jon
I only have a couple of changes from the previous game. Johnny Rodriguez was officially ruled out, so I’m starting Chéry up top and my other change is Bryan Tamacas at right wingback . I like the call to put Baboucarr Njie higher up the field and think we see it again. Reid also had a good game against Orange County, so let’s see if he can do it agian.
I’m going 2-0 Roots, first clean sheet in nearly 10 months.
Aaron
I know what I saw at the end of the last match: one guy curling in a beautiful cross from a deep position, and another guy expertly* taking the ball down and finishing. If I’m the Roots, one thing I notice about my season is that that scenario isn’t happening too often. The solution? Put those two guys in a position to do the same thing again. Jon tells us that Johnny is unavailable for this one, but I think that’s fine because Margvelashvili has earned his chance to show us what he can do in the striker spot. I have been saying for weeks now that Oakland needs to get some of its talented center backs further forward, but Gagi showed me that I was still too limited in my thinking. Let’s put that man up top and see what happens. Also, we’ve been relying on Cedeno for intricate build-up play in the final third, but what if that’s all wrong, too? I enjoyed his cross, let’s give him a chance to do more of that. It’s all about finding solutions until (what I presume will be) late July, when they’ll finally let Dom Dwyer play. Roots 3-2.
- Goodrum was the Golden Boot runner up in 2022 with 22 goals. ↩︎
