The Oakland Roots SC struggled in their second fixture of the 2026 Prinx Tires USL Cup on Saturday night, May 16, at the Coliseum, falling 1-0 to rivals Sacramento Republic FC. As a result, Oakland dropped to 0-1-1 (W-D-L) in the Group 1 Table.
The first half came and went with little fanfare, as both clubs traded stints of attacking momentum but exited the first 45 with nothing to show for it as the halftime whistle blew with the score sheet still unaltered.
After another quiet start in the second half, Sacramento broke the deadlock in the 56th minute when Mayele Malango took a good touch in the top left corner of the Oakland box to shake a defender before curling a shot into the top right twine to give Republic a 1-0 lead.
The Roots fought for the remainder of the match, trying to claw their way back and earn at least a point in the Cup table, but fell 1-0 to Sacramento.
Oakland will now return to USL Championship play as the Roots head south to face Orange County SC at Championship Soccer Stadium in Irvine on Saturday, May 23, at 7 p.m.
Talking with the head coach
After the match with Sacramento Republic, Head Coach Martin Ryan was asked for his thoughts, including how he mixed up the lineup for the Cup game.
“We obviously made a handful of changes to continue to give guys minutes, and opportunities to grow and become better. I thought in the first half we we didn’t create enough, we had a lot of control and possession, but we weren’t able to get in behind and stretch enough, which is why we made the subs at halftime to get Wolfie and Peter in to see if we could get in behind, because we felt like there was a lot of space to be had, which there was,” Ryan said.
“In the second half, I think we just lacked a little bit of final execution,” the coach continued. “The final pass was a little bit rushed and forced. I think some of that’s obviously (due to) new people playing. … We’re just continuing to build, but overall I’m proud of the guys that gave everything. I think we controlled a lot of the game, but we just needed to be more decisive, have more composure, and some of those chances turned. But you can see we can score at any minute, Trejo almost had one at the end.”
Summary
Scoring:
- SAC: Mayele Malango 56’
Discipline:
- SAC: Daniel Crisostomo 85’
Oakland Roots SC
Lineup: Kendall McIntosh, Tommy McCabe, Ali Elmasnaouy (Wolfgang Prentice), Florian Valot (Danny Trejo), Tyler Gibson, Neveal Hackshaw, Keegan Tingey, Jackson Kiil (Peter Wilson), Tucker Lepley, Michael Edwards (Charlie Wachs), Faysal Bettache (Jesus De Vicente)
Unused subs: Julian Bravo, Raphael Spiegel, Bradley Roberson, Jonathan Polio
Line: Shots: 5 | Shots On Goal: 2 | Corner Kicks: 1 | Fouls: 9 | Offside: 0
Sacramento Republic FC
Lineup: Forster Ajago, Michelle Benitez Valenzuela, Jose Casa De Abadal (Mark-Anthony Kaye), Lee Desmond, Aaron Essel, Jack Gurr, Mayele Malango (Dominik Wanner), Arturo Rodriguez Uribe (Ryan Spaulding), Jared Timmer (Blake Willey), Daniel Vitiello, Tyler Wolff (Daniel Crisostomo)
Unused subs: Rohan Chivukula, Kyle Edwards, Jacob Randolph, Chibuike Ukaegbu
Line: Shots: 11 | Shots On Goal: 2 | Corner Kicks: 2 | Fouls: 11 | Offside: 2
