Lindo Mfeka dribbling before his goal Photo From Oakland Roots Instagram

By Troy Ewers

Indianapolis is the home for today’s contest between the Oakland Roots and Indy XI and the Roots’ fire hasn’t cooled down from its last game, it only got hotter. This game was complete domination from whistle to whistle and the domination was led by two guys. Lindo Mfeka and Dariusz Formella. Indianapolis would end up shutting out the Roots 3-0 on Saturday.

The first goal was Formella sending a risky pass to Mfeka, but with risk comes reward sometimes and Mfeka challenged the goalie who left the box to contest the pass and Mfeka beat him out, receiving the ball past the goalkeeper, and finishing the play off with a wide open goal. 1-0 Roots.

The second goal was a result of sloppy play from Indy XI’s back line and a bad pass got intercepted by Mfeka. His shot would get blocked by the goalkeeper, but it was quickly cleaned up by Formella as he had a wide open shot of his own. 2-0 Roots.

The game was in the hands of Oakland the whole way through, but in the closing minutes, Joseph Nane made a risky pass of his own that was received beautifully by Edgardo Rito who would do a brilliant chip in shot over the goalkeeper and that was the nail in Indy XI’s coffin, the final whistle blew, and the Oakland Roots win.

This game was a clear statement to the USL that if you want to compete against this Roots team, you can’t be sloppy, because the attack in this game was apparent. It was a total 180 to the season opener and that’s great, because if you have that fast of growth in three games, hopes should be high for this season.

The next match for Oakland is April 15th in Hayward at CSU East Bay against Hartford and this momentum for the Roots is only going to ignite the die hard fans that show up to the Oakland games.