Oakland’s struggles in the Pacific Northwest continued on Sunday afternoon at ONE Spokane Stadium, as the Roots were defeated 2-1 by USL League One side Spokane Velocity FC in their first fixture of the 2025 USL Jägermeister Cup.
Spokane started the match looking very dangerous, putting the ball in the back of Oakland’s net just two minutes into the contest, but doing so while playing offsides and negating the tally.
Both teams traded good offensive possessions for the first phase of the half, but it was Spokane that scored first. Velocity took a 1-0 lead in the 25th minute of the contest when Luis Gil headed one home towards the left side of goal off a long cross into the box from Derek Waldeck.
Spokane doubled their lead in the 42nd minute with a lightning-fast counterattack, moving the ball from box-to-box as former Roots player Anuar Peláez found space inside the Oakland penalty area, finishing an easy strike after receiving a pass in front from teammate Pierre Reedy, making it 2-0.
The Roots nearly took one back in the 46th minute when a rocket off the foot of Baboucarr Njie found space through traffic in front of the net, but a diving save from Spokane netminder Carlos Merancio kept Oakland off the board entering halftime.
In the beginning of the second half, the Roots dominated the initial phase of play, spending prolonged periods of possession in the attacking third. The Roots were rewarded for this pressure in the 52nd minute when a long throw-in into the box from Njie found Gagi Margvelashvili, who fought through the netfront scrum and put just enough on a shot to trickle it across the goal line and bring the score to 2-1.
Oakland continued to fight for an equalizer, but failed to find one before the final whistle.
The Roots will now return home to the Oakland Coliseum to resume USL Championship regular season play. Their next match is on Sunday, May 4, when they host NorCal rivals Sacramento Republic FC at 4 p.m.
Summary
Scoring:
- SPK: Luis Gil 25’
- SPK: Anuar Peláez 43’
- OAK: Gagi Margvelashvili 52’
Discipline:
- SPK: Anuar Peláez 44’ (yellow card)
- OAK: Kai Greene 45’+ (yellow card)
- SPK: Carlos Merancio 71’ (yellow card)
Oakland Roots SC
Lineup: Baboucarr Njie (Justin Rasmussen), Gagi Margvelashvili, Daniel Gomez (Tyler Gibson), Wolfgang Prentice (Panos Armenakas), Peter Wilson, José Luis Sinisterra (Ali Elmasnaouy), Neveal Hackshaw, Bobosi Byaruhanga, Jürgen Damm (Ilya Alekseev), Kai Greene, Raphael Spiegel
Unused subs: Kendall McIntosh, Abdirizak Mohamed
Line: Shots: 10 | Shots On Goal: 3 | Corner Kicks: 4 | Fouls: 16 | Offside: 2
Spokane Velocity
Lineup: Carlos Merancio, Camron Miller, David Garcia, Derek Waldeck, Lucky Opara, Luis Gil (Meredith Bryce), Jack Denton (Marcelo Lage), Andre Lewis, Anuar Peláez (Neco Brett), Pierre Reedy (Martin Gil), Ismaila Jome (Masango Akale)
Unused subs: Mark Hernández, Nil Vinyals
Line: Shots: 4 | Shots On Goal: 3 | Corner Kicks: 1 | Fouls: 9 | Offside: 1
