June 20, 2024 – United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Oakland Roots News Release
Oakland Roots on game night
(Oakland Roots)
Despite going down early in the match, Oakland Roots never lost their composure, looking like the superior team for the better part of 90 minutes in the East Bay on Wednesday night versus El Paso Locomotive FC in a 2-1 victory.
Just five minutes into the contest, the visitors found the back of the net when a poor clearance attempt from a Roots defender ricocheted off a Locomotive player and landed at the feet of El Paso’s Justin Dhillon, who buried a shot from inside the box to give his team a quick 1-0 lead.
El Paso was playing an aggressive style of soccer throughout the match, but Oakland’s defense never wavered again, and this risky attacking style led to breaks in the Locomotive back line.
In the waning moments of the first half Roots leveled the contest at 1-1 courtesy of Napo Matsoso, who corralled a deflection inside the box in the 45th minute and lasered a shot into the bottom left of the goal.
Looking to take the lead in the second half, Oakland made some key substitutions to try and build some offensive momentum.
This strategy paid off in the 72nd minute when Justin Rasmussen found space on the left side of the El Paso box and played a perfect pass across the face of the goal just out of reach of the Locomotive keeper. His pass found Ilya Alekseev who buried a one-timer into the top twine to give the home side a 2-1 lead.
Roots would find some more offensive chances before the end of the match, but were content to reach the final whistle still holding their 2-1 lead, giving the squad three straight victories – tying the team’s all time record.
Oakland now faces a quick turnaround, heading south to face Monterey Bay FC this Saturday, June 22 at 3 PM PT. Roots will return to the East Bay on July 6th to face Louisville City FC.
Talking with Head Coach Gavin Glinton
Three wins in a row. It’s the first time since July of last year. What went right today?
Not the start, that’s for sure. But everything after that went pretty well. It’s the guys’ commitment. Again, another tricky team – they’ve been doing well, under Wilmer. For us, we had to deal with a lot of their attacking talent. Made some rotations today, and the depth of this squad is fantastic. I thought the guys communicated well, I thought we held on and defended when we needed to. We were tough as nails tonight.
The culture has changed on this team. How far can you…
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