Opponent: Oakland Roots SC
Match Date: November 2
Location: Weidner Field
Head-to-Head in 2024: Oakland 0, Switchbacks 2 (Juan Tejada 71’ and Aidan Rocha 84’) on April 27th , Pioneer Stadium in Hayward, California. Switchbacks 1 (Delentz Pierre 2’), Oakland 0 on June 1st, Weidner Field.
Doors Open: 5pm MT. Limited tickets remain available HERE!
How to Listen: XTRA Sports 1300am with the Voices of the Switchbacks, Ryan Kaufman and Roland Vargish. Coverage starts at 5:30pm MT.
Chambo’s Comments: “[Finishing second in the Western Conference] only puts [us] in the position to play a home game – it’s not like we achieved anything yet. The business end starts now. For us [Saturday is about] making sure that we’re able to manage games. I’m really pleased over the last two weeks with how we managed the games away from home after two difficult ones [at Weidner Field]. I don’t think performances were particularly poor in the Loudon and San Antonio games, but we didn’t manage [them] right. [That goes for] all of us – every single one of us in the building. So for us it’s a case of making sure that we’re able to manage whatever the game throws at us this weekend and, ultimately try and put on a performance that entertains these people who come out on Saturday. We’re excited. More often than not we’ve given [the home fans] value for money, but we let them down the last two times they were here, and we don’t like that feeling. We are happy that we get a game back here – absolutely – but that’s only the first part of it. Part two is to make sure that we entertain these people [and] put on a performance and give them value for money.”
Roots Roundup: “[Johnny Rodriguez] is the one who gets the goals [for the Roots],” continued Head Coach Chambers. “He plays primarily as the nine – and if you play as the nine, you’re probably the goal scorer, aren’t you? So realistically he’s one of them, but there’s a number of other players they could go with. [Trayvone] Reid, [Baboucarr] Njie, [Justin] Rasmussen [and] also on the other side [with José Luis] Sinisterra. They have a lot of attacking threats. “I think the games [against the Oakland Roots] have been so far in the past [that] it doesn’t really take into consideration what’s happened [this season]. Historically Oakland have been really good on the road in the playoffs, so you could look at it from that standpoint. They’ve also had two really good road results – gone to Memphis and drawn [and] went to Vegas and won. So I don’t take too much from the last two games [against Oakland]. [Interim Head Coach] Gavin [Glinton] was new in the position when they came here [on June 1st ] and then obviously he’s had a lot more time since then to embed what he wants to do. We haven’t seen them live in a long time, so it’ll be a completely different game. Ultimately, we have to make sure that we put on a performance that we haven’t done here [at Weidner Field] over the last number of weeks, so that’s been our focus.”
Vargish’s View: Scoring first on Saturday is undoubtedly the key for the Switchbacks. Oakland have not won a match after conceding the first goal since a 2-1 victory on June 19th over this season’s Western Conference cellar-dwellers, El Paso Locomotive. Oakland’s negative 20 goal differential is by far the worst of any team who made the 2024 USL Championship Playoffs. The Roots have suffered four shutout defeats by at least three goals this season, including last Saturday’s 5-0 loss at the hands of the Birmingham Legion at Pioneer Stadium in the East Bay. A silver lining for the Roots (can you say that after a 5-0 loss to a Birmingham team that had already been eliminated from playoff contention?) to emerge from last weekend was the fact some bigger name players were given minutes off. But Oakland have not responded well to lopsided defeats this season: a 5-2 loss to Sacramento Republic followed their 5-0 defeat at the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, and a 1-0 home loss to San Antonio came a week after their 5-0
humbling in North Carolina. The same things that have rung true all season for the Switchbacks remain on Saturday evening: pace of play, tempo, and aggression must all be dictated and pushed by the hosts.
