Sacramento Republic FC coach Mark Briggs watching his team move on to the next round (Photo From Sacramento Republic FC Twitter)

By Troy Ewers

On a night where another NorCal battle between the Warriors and Kings is taking place in California’s capital, they have a similar battle between the Oakland Roots and Sacramento Republic FC in the third round of the U.S. Open Cup that ended up in a 1-0 Sacramento Republic FC win. This game started with a complete defensive stalemate of a first half, no shots on goal recorded for either team.

The only major moment of the first half was Roots forward Hacksaw. First half ending at 0-0. The second half was different strategy for Sacramento, where it was clear they had one move, attack the back line of Oakland and shoot the ball, but the only shot on goal was from Nicholas Ross of Sacramento where he scored a deep shot to the center of the goal past Blanchette and that would break the stalemate and would be the only goal of the game.

Sacramento the whole second half was changing out their players and slowing the pace which lessened any chance of a comeback for Oakland. While this was a loss for the Roots, their sites are set on Saturday against Miami for another USL Championship matchup.

This loss may mean Roots are out of U.S. Open Cup, but it should be a wake up call to the Oakland dressing room, that the way they won games so far this season was by attacking early and making the opposing team have to play at Oakland’s pace, which is fast and the passes are deep. Still a long season, but the adjustments need to be made now or it will be a long season for other reasons.