The Oakland Roots struggled to find their offensive footing at Weidner Field in Colorado Springs on Saturday evening, June 14, and despite controlling most of the possession in the match, eventually fell to the Switchbacks FC by a final score of 1-0.
The match started slow for both sides as early attacking prowess was noticeably absent from the contest.
The first shot on target for either club didn’t come until the 35th minute when Colorado Springs found space inside the Oakland area, leading to a wide-open shot just on top of the penalty spot. Roots’ keeper Kendall McIntosh made a phenomenal one-on-one save to keep the match scoreless.
But the Switchbacks broke the deadlock just moments later.
In the 38th minute, the Switchbacks were awarded a free kick just outside the top corner on the left-hand side of the Roots penalty area, earning Jürgen Damm Oakland’s first booking of the match. On the resulting free kick, Switchbacks forward Marco Micaletto scored an absolute worldie, bending it around the wall and into the top left corner of the goal to give his side a 1-0 lead at the 39-minute mark.
The Roots found a bit of life coming out of the halftime break, finally earning a bit of playing time in the attacking third. In the 62nd minute, Oakland nearly leveled the contest when a Panos Armenakas free kick found José Luis Sinisterra in front of the net. Sinisterra put a touch on it to give Kai Greene a wide open look on goal, but the pass went just beyond Greene’s reach and he failed to put a shot on target.
The first and only shot on target for Oakland didn’t come until the waning moments of the second half, as the Roots could not find an equalizer before the final whistle.
The Roots have now failed to score in their last three regular season contests, and will look to revive their offense this Saturday, June 21, as they head to Alabama for a showdown with Birmingham Legion FC at Protective Stadium at 5 p.m. Pacific time.
Summary
Scoring
- COS: Marco Micaletto 39’
Discipline
- COS: Yosuke Hanya 35’ (yellow card)
- OAK: Jürgen Damm 38’ (yellow card)
- OAK: Julian Bravo 71’ (yellow card)
- COS: Tyler Clegg 74’ (yellow card)
Oakland Roots SC
Lineup: Kendall Mcintosh, Gagi Margvelashvili, Wolfgang Prentice, Peter Wilson (Julian Bravo), Panos Armenakas (Ilya Alekseev), José Luis Sinisterra (EJ Johnson), Tyler Gibson, Neveal Hackshaw, Jürgen Damm (Morey Doner), Kai Greene, Ali Elmasnaouy (Daniel Gomez)
Unused subs: Camden Riley, Timothy Syrel
Line: Shots: 5 | Shots On Goal: 1 | Corner Kicks: 0 | Fouls: 11 | Offside: 1
Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC
Lineup: Christian Herrera, Tyler Clegg, Akeem Ward, Steven Echevarria (Aidan Rocha), Marco Micaletto, Mathew Mahoney, Yosuke Hanya (Levonte Johnson), Anthony Fontana (Marco Rios), Isaiah Foster (Matthew Real), Quenzi Huerman (Jonas Fjellberg), Juan Tejada
Unused subs: Charlie Adams, Henry Weston, Jonathan Burke, Chase Gozdieski
Line: Shots: 17 | Shots On Goal: 6 | Corner Kicks: 5 | Fouls: 14 | Offside: 2
