Despite what was an otherwise magical night in Oakland, Roots were unable to earn a win on the field in their home opener at the Coliseum on Saturday night, falling 1-2 to visiting San Antonio FC.
The match started shaky for both clubs, as the nerves produced by a sold out crowd of 26,575 fans were evident on both sides of the ball.
San Antonio capitalized on the sloppiness first, opening the scoring in just the 5th minute when Oakland’s defense broke down, allowing San Antonio’s Alexander Greive to muscle his way in front of the net. Greive found just enough space to fire a shot on goal from in close that beat Roots’ keeper Kendall McIntosh to give the visitors an 0-1 lead.
But the most magical moment of the night on the field for Oakland came just moments later with an absolutely world class equalizer. In the 7th minute, a Roots corner kick sent into the area by Panos Armenakas found Justin Rasmussen who took to the sky and finished a gorgeous bicycle kick to level the match at 1-1.
Oakland looked strong for the remainder of the first half, earning a number of premium scoring chances, but were unable to find another before halftime.
The second half was less impressive for Roots, who seemed to lose a step during the break. The Roots backline finally broke once again in the 69th minute when Diogo Pacheco chipped a through ball into the Oakland box to find Luke Haakenson who lofted the ball over McIntosh to return the lead to San Antonio.
Roots came close to equalizing late in the contest, but couldn’t find the goal they needed before the final whistle.
Oakland will look to snap their three game skid to start the season and earn their first win of 2025 next Saturday March 29th when Las Vegas Lights FC visit the Coliseum at 7 PM PT.
Talking with Head Coach Gavin Glinton
Disappointing, obviously, to not get at least a point out of the match. Two goals we gave up, we were in control to play. We let a ball go over our head and the guy received the ball, taking a touch away from the goal really early on. I think we did a good job to fight back into the match, as we’ve kind of shown at a lot of moments throughout the year. You know, I think we weren’t good enough with the ball, until obviously after the second goal, where we started to circulate a little bit more, started to create chances. So, you know, getting us to be a little bit braver in moments before we go down and get the shackles off is something we’ve talked about and continue to work on. Obviously, we’re still integrating quite a few guys into the group, and so, you know, it’s a process. I thought we worked really hard today. I thought the guys embraced the moment, but we’ve got to get more quality out of our moments with the ball.
The organization has been thinking about this moment for a long time. How did you find the Coliseum atmosphere?
What an amazing atmosphere. I mean, I think it exceeded the expectations. I don’t think anybody could have expected it to be like this. You know, our crowd, and we’ve talked about it, is the best in the world. And tonight, they came out and really showed it, you know? So again, they give their energy, they give their love, and to be fair, they’ve done that in both of our road matches this year as well. So to be able to come home and pack the house, amazing. And, you know, gutted that we couldn’t give them three points tonight.
Oakland Roots SC vs San Antonio FC
USL Championship | March 22, 2025
Venue: Oakland Coliseum
Kickoff: 7:00 PM PT
Weather: 59 degrees, clear skies
SCORELINE:
OAK: 1
SA: 2
SCORING SUMMARY:
SA: Alexander Greive 5’
OAK: Justin Rasmussen 7’
SA: Luke Haakenson 69’
DISCIPLINE SUMMARY:
SA: Juan Osorio 15’ (yellow card)
OAK: Camden Riley 28’ (yellow card)
SA: Diogo Pacheco 38’ (yellow card)
OAK: Tyler Gibson 45’+ (yellow card)
SA: Alexander Crognale 62’ (yellow card)
OAK: José Luis Sinisterra 68’ (yellow card)
SA: Jorge Hernandez Zapien 75’ (yellow card)
OAK: EJ Johnson 83’ (yellow card)
SA: Richard Sanchez 88’ (yellow card)
OAKLAND ROOTS LINEUP: Kendall Mcintosh, Camden Riley (Abdirizak Mohamed), Daniel Gomez, Wolfgang Prentice (Jürgen Damm), Peter Wilson (EJ Johnson), Panos Armenakas, Tyler Gibson, Justin Rasmussen (Baboucarr Njie), Neveal Hackshaw, Kai Greene, Ilya Alekseev (José Luis Sinisterra)
Unused subs: Gagi Margvelashvili, Ali Elmasnaouy, Thomas Camier, Timothy Syrel
Shots: 6 | Shots On Goal: 2 | Corner Kicks: 4 | Fouls: 16 | Offside: 1 |
SAN ANTONIO LINEUP: Richard Sanchez, Mitchell Taintor, Luke Haakenson, Dominick Hernandez (Rece Buckmaster), Jake LaCava (Dmitrii Erofeev), Jorge Hernandez Zapien, Alexander Greive (Diogo Pacheco), Almir Soto Maldonado, Alexander Crognale, Juan Osorio (Alexis Souahy), Jimmy Medranda Obando (Lucio Berron)
Unused subs: Daniel Namani, Juan Agudelo
Shots: 9 | Shots On Goal: 5 | Corner Kicks: 7 | Fouls: 16 | Offside: 2 |
