Morey Doner excelled against his longtime former team as the Oakland Roots defeated Monterey Bay FC 2-1 on Saturday night, June 28, at the Coliseum. It was the club’s first win of the 2025 USL Jägermeister Cup.
The Roots looked like a team hungry to find the back of the net from the very start, playing a high press and maintaining possession while completing smart and decisive passes to move the ball into the attacking third early and often. They nearly found the back of the net in a bizarre 16th minute play which saw a turnover by the Monterey Bay keeper on a clearance attempt that bounced hard off of a charging José Luis Sinisterra and just outside the right post.
But the Roots would be rewarded for their early work regardless. Just a minute later, Doner found a soft spot in the right side of the penalty area and took a shot that was headed wide left, but took a friendly bounce off of Monterey Bay’s Jacob Muir and into the top left corner, giving the Roots a 1-0 lead.
The pitch continued to tilt in Oakland’s favor as Monterey Bay struggled to find any meaningful possession outside of a 26th-minute chance that saw Roots keeper Raphael Spiegel sprint off of his line to beat a charging Monterey attacker and clear away the danger.
In the 30th minute of the match it was nearly déjà vu, as Doner again fired a shot from the very same spot that took a deflection off a Monterey Bay defender—but this time it pinged off the left post.
The Roots began to slow down late in the first half, but certainly didn’t stop. Their high pressure in the early portion of the match led to some tired legs, but they remained able to limit Monterey Bay’s scoring chances, and continued to put together a few dangerous attempts of their own.
It was as dominant a first half as Oakland has seen in 2025, and perhaps the best 45 minutes of play under new coach Benny Feilhaber.
The second half began much as the first half ended—with the Roots playing a bit more conservatively, but still earning the lion’s share of scoring opportunities. In an unbelievable twist of fate, they scored their second goal in a carbon copy of Doner’s two earlier chances.
In the 58th minute Panos Armenakas played a through ball into the box to Doner who found the same spot once again, this time earning his goal by sending a strike that glanced off the keeper’s fingertips and inside the left post to make it 2-0 Oakland.
The game never looked like it was heading for trouble, as Oakland continued to look like the better side until late in the contest. But they weren’t perfect. In the 86th minute Monterey pulled one back when a failed clearance off the back line landed at the feet of Xavi Gnaulati just outside the box. Gnaulati played it quickly to Luke Ivanovic just to his right. Ivanovic sent a rocket towards the right side, which beat Spiegel clean to make it 2-1.
Despite some nervous moments in added time, Oakland held on until the final whistle to earn all three points in the Group 1 table and keep their razor-thin chances of escaping into the next round alive.
The Roots will continue an extended homestand this weekend as the club returns to USL Championship action to host Detroit City FC at the Coliseum on Saturday, July 5, at 7 p.m.
Talking with the Head Coach
After the match, new Head Coach Benny Feilhaber was asked what his overall thoughts were about the Roots’ performance and winning at home.
“I think it’s incredibly important for our fans to see us win,” Feilhaber said. “I think we have massive untapped potential here. We could have a 12th man that nobody in the USL Championship has. So the ability to win at home, be entertaining, give fans what they want to see, make them go home happy is important.” (See video for full interview.)
Feilhaber noted that the win was accomplished “in a very positive way. …There were a lot of good attacking moments today. We could have had three, four, or five goals. And I don’t think that’s an overstatement. The one thing that I told the guys is, ‘Can we find ways to win without suffering at the end?’ We could have won that game, three or four to zero, as opposed to suffering the last five minutes in a 2-1 win.”
Prior to Feilhaber’s arrival, the Roots had conceded the most goals in the league. Since the new head coach came on board, the ream has allowed just two goals. How did he accomplish that defensive turnaround?
“The players are the ones that deserve most of the credit,” the coach said. “These guys have been bought in since before I even walked through the door. They’ve given me everything and more that I’ve asked for.”
Feilhaber said relationships out on the field that were constructed before he got here, saying that he just gave them “a little bit of direction organizationally and ideas from the defensive perspective.”
Defense, he said, “is about two things: It’s the coach providing a clear message to what everybody’s roles and responsibilities are within the team, and then it’s the ability for players to have the right attitude and the right mentality to do the extra run when it’s necessary, to clean up a play that somebody else made a mistake on.” He said the team has been “exceptional” at that.
Finally, he said, “I think everybody wants to win. I think everybody wants to be a better individual player. I think we want to be a better collective team. And that goes a long way when it comes to not giving up goals.”
Summary
Scoring:
- OAK: Jacob Muir (OG) 17’
- OAK: Morey Doner 58’
- MB: Luke Ivanovic 86’
Discipline:
- OAK: Camden Riley 15’ (yellow card)
- MB: Diego Gutierrez 40’ (yellow card)
- OAK: Ali Elmasnaouy 52’ (yellow card)
- MB: Miles Lyons 57’ (yellow card)
- MB: Sami Guediri 62’ (yellow card)
- OAK: José Luis Sinisterra 72’ (yellow card)
- OAK: EJ Johnson 90’+ (yellow card)
Oakland Roots SC
Lineup: Julian Bravo, Gagi Margvelashvili, Camden Riley (Ilya Alekseev), Daniel Gomez, Wolfgang Prentice (Bobosi Byaruhanga), Panos Armenakas (EJ Johnson), José Luis Sinisterra (Tyler Gibson), Neveal Hackshaw, Morey Doner, Raphael Spiegel, Ali Elmasnaouy (Peter Wilson)
Unused subs: Abdi Mohamed, Emilio Martinez, Julio Martinez, Timothy Syrel
Line: 8 | Shots On Goal: 6 | Corner Kicks: 3 | Fouls: 16 | Offside: 0
Monterey Bay FC
Lineup: Jacob Muir, Carlos Guzman Fonseca, Adrian Rebollar-Cortes, Ethan Bryant (Xavi Gnaulati), Adam Larsson (Luke Ivanovic), Mobi Fehr, Pierce Gallaway (Wesley Fonguck), Miles Lyons (Grant Robinson), Diego Gutierrez (Maylee Malango), Samuel Gomez, Sami Guediri
Unused subs: Nicolas Campuzano Jimenez, Alejandro Lara
Line: Shots: 9 | Shots on Goal: 3 | Corner Kicks: 6 | Fouls: 16 | Offside: 3
