Roots Earn Their First Point of 2025 in 0-0 Draw at Home Versus Las Vegas Lights FC
It was a defensive showcase on Saturday night at the Oakland Coliseum, as Oakland Roots SC earned their first point of the season by playing to a 0-0 draw with visiting Las Vegas Lights FC.
In the opening moments of the match it was clear that the Las Vegas midfield would be a tough obstacle to overcome, as the Lights pressed the Oakland attack and limited Roots’ ability to find an opening into the attacking third of the pitch.
But Oakland’s defense looked up to the task at hand as well, mirroring the stifling defense of the Lights on their own defensive end as well.
Las Vegas started putting pressure on the Oakland defense to begin the second half, spending prolonged periods set up in front of Roots’ goal. But while the Oakland defense began to bend, it never broke.
Roots started to put together some attacking pressure of their own late in the match, nearly taking the lead in the 69th minute when an Oakland corner kick found Kai Greene who took an acrobatic strike from mid-air which rang the top right corner of the crossbar.
In the 81st minute of the contest Oakland did find the back of the Las Vegas net when EJ Johnson redirected a ball past the Lights keeper — but the linesman determined the play to be offside and disallowed the goal.
Neither side came truly close to scoring again, and the final whistle ended the match at 0-0.
Roots will remain at home this week, as they prepare to host Rhode Island FC in a matinee fixture at the Coliseum next Saturday, April 5th at 1 PM PT.
Talking with Head Coach Gavin Glinton
What were your overall thoughts on the game?
Yeah, I thought in the first half we were good with the ball, if not a little too cautious. I thought there were some moments that we could have been more aggressive in the first half, but I thought that we executed the game plan to kind of pin them back and get into their end well. I don’t think as we got into the high block that we created enough chances on the day. Really happy with our ability to defend and keep a clean sheet. So you know, to finish with zero is a positive. You know, I thought the guys put in a hell of an effort and a shift. I thought they showed a commitment to work on both sides of the ball, very frustrated not to come out with what was, I think, a blatant penalty two weeks in a row now, and that no-goal call was a shocking offsides. It’s a shocking miss. He’s five yards onside. And, you know, we get any of those over the past two weekends, and we’re looking at 2-2 and 1-0 as opposed to where we’re at. So, you know, happy with the improvement, happy with the shutout, happy with the guys’ effort. Very unhappy with what seems to be a lack of quality and some certain moments from stuff we can’t control.
Like you mentioned, there were good moments in the build up. It creates these dangerous moments, close foul calls, but still somewhat struggling to find the shooting lanes. What’s your assessment of the attack?
I think we’ve gotten to some moments where we’ve just missed passes and had some real clear opportunities where they haven’t come off. I think there’s moments when we get into serving positions, and we need to be a little bit more aggressive in getting numbers into the box, especially as we start to break through. And I think that there’s times when we can get forward and support a little bit more in the high block. There are times we’ve got too many people on the ball when we’re able to possess, and then we’re able to kind of change tempo and get into the attacking half, and we need those support options to be able to have some consistent possession. So, yeah, happy with what we did in kind of zones 1-2-3, but still a bit missing in zone four.
Oakland Roots SC vs Las Vegas Lights FC
USL Championship | March 29, 2025
Venue: Oakland Coliseum
Kickoff: 7:00 PM PT
Weather: 55 degrees, cloudy skies
SCORELINE:
OAK: 0
LV: 0
DISCIPLINE SUMMARY:
LV: Elias Gartig 16’ (yellow card)
OAK: Baboucarr Njie 34’ (yellow card)
OAK: Daniel Gomez 72’ (yellow card)
OAK: Jürgen Damm 78’ (yellow card)
OAKLAND ROOTS LINEUP: Kendall McIntosh, Baboucarr Njie (Justin Rasmussen), Daniel Gomez, Wolfgang Prentice, Peter Wilson (Julian Bravo), Panos Armenakas (Jürgen Damm), José Luis Sinisterra (EJ Johnson), Tyler Gibson (Ali Elmasnaouy), Neveal Hackshaw, Abdirizak Mohamed, Kai Greene
Unused subs: Gagi Margvelashvili, Luis Saldaña, Raphael Spiegel, Ilya Alekseev
Shots: 6 | Shots On Goal: 1 | Corner Kicks: 6 | Fouls: 17 | Offside: 1 |
LAS VEGAS LINEUP: Nathaniel Jones (Rory O’Driscoll), Elias Gartig, Joseph-Claude Gyau, Christian Pinzon, Johnny Rodriguez, Patrick Leal, Jack Singer (Maliek Howell), Shawn Smart, Valentin Noel, Gennaro Nigro, Raiko Arozarena Gonzalez
Unused subs: Nicholas Ammeter, Christopher Pearson, Nighte Pickering, Shaft Brewer Jr., Vaughn Covil
Shots: 13 | Shots On Goal: 5 | Corner Kicks: 3 | Fouls: 15 | Offside: 1 |
