Roots Earn a Point Versus Western Leaders FC Tulsa in 1-1 Draw at Home
USL Oakland Roots

Roots Earn a Point Versus Western Leaders FC Tulsa in 1-1 Draw at Home

Published on September 20, 2025 under United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Oakland Roots News Release


Oakland Roots' EJ Johnson in action
Oakland Roots' EJ Johnson in action
(Oakland Roots)

Roots played up to their competition once again on Saturday at the Coliseum, as Oakland played to a 1-1 draw versus Western Conference leaders FC Tulsa to earn an all-important point in the standings as the end of the season draws near and the playoff push intensifies.

Oakland started the match looking like they understood the importance of the outcome for their playoff aspirations.

Roots moved the ball quickly and decisively in the initial phases of the match, making good runs and attempting to use burst speed down the wings to create space for their attack. This gameplan worked well for Oakland who created a number of truly dangerous scoring chances early in the match.

Roots capitalized on their hot start 23 minutes into the contest when Peter Wilson continued his hot scoring streak by putting Roots up 1-0 when he found room in the Tulsa box to receive a cross from Wolfgang Prentice. Wilson finished the tap in for his club-leading 10th goal of the season.

Only one of Tulsa's 12 first-half shot attempts found their way to Raphael Spiegel, while two rang the crossbar. Roots looked willing to allow volume offense from Tulsa while limiting the quality of those chances in order to open their own offense by allowing their wingbacks to push up.

Tulsa opened the second half looking better than they did in the first, and leveled the match in the 51st minute when Taylor Calheira forced a turnover on the left side of Oakland's defensive third, taking the ball into the box himself before firing a low strike to the opposite side to beat Spiegel and make it 1-1.

Roots struggled to repeat their offensive push from the first half, but found a groove late in the second, putting some balls in dangerous areas as time dwindled - and limited Tulsa's chances as well.

At the final whistle, both sides were still deadlocked at 1-1, giving Roots their second straight draw versus two top-tier opponents. While the draw isn't as flashy as a win, it does push Roots in the right direction for their late playoff run, and provides an opportunity to make their next match extremely consequential.

Oakland will now head on the road to face current eighth place Western Conference side Phoenix Rising in a huge six-point swing game which could go a long way in determining the playoff picture in the West. That game is scheduled for September 27th at 7 PM PT.

Talking with Head Coach Benny Feilhaber

What are your thoughts on the performance from the team tonight, and the end result?

Look, I thought the performance was pretty good. I thought we started well. Hell of a first goal, really good ball from Wolfie, and unbelievable run and finish from Peter, man. He's been on one recently. So it's good to see that.

I thought we had some moments in the first half, even before the goal, that we looked like a very dangerous side, the aggressor in the game for the most part. And then, you know, I do think that the goal changes the game a little bit. And this is something that takes time, it takes work, it takes confidence. And we're a team that's still, you know, teetering. I think we've had some good results, and we've looked like a better team as of late, but at the end of the day, results go a long way into making a group of guys believe that they can continue to go after a second goal and not necessarily, you know, give up a tying one.

And I thought we became a little bit more defensive minded, and we had to suffer through the end of that first half, which I didn't think was necessary. And look, the conversation at halftime was 'we're not going to win this game 1-0. We need to go and get a second goal and a third goal. And we've got to, you know, play the way that we want to play regardless of the score right now.'

Unfortunately, I felt like we were still a bit tentative in the first few minutes. I'm not exactly sure what minute the goal was, but I know it was in the first five minutes of the second half. And it's just, it's one of those where, again, it's one thing to say something and obviously ask the team to play a certain way. It's a much harder thing to be able to follow through on the field when the other team is imposing their will, and they're one of the top teams in the league, and they're there for a reason.

And so that's one thing that we're missing, is the ability to continue to play on the front foot, which we've seen from our group at times, but not necessarily enough, especially when we're winning the game.

We give up the goal, and I'd say in the last 25-30 minutes of the game we, again, started going on the front foot. We know how important the points are right now. Had some chances, didn't hit the target on a couple. Panos had that big one, there's a couple other ones that I remember, I think good cross from Morey to Peter, some half chances, nothing, you know, fantastic. I think they had one header as well that that Rapha makes a good save, but at the end of the day, not clean enough.

And, you know I think it was one of the fairest results based on what both teams gave it. So, you know, it doesn't help us much in the table, but I do think it's a really good progression from our group. And I told them at the end, I think that we're headed in the direction that we want to be. We're headed towards our goal. I just don't know if we have enough runway anymore. So it'll be interesting to see how we react in these two games that we have on the road, you know, back to back, and that that will play a big part in where we're at.

Oakland Roots SC vs FC Tulsa

USL Championship | September 20, 2025

Venue: Oakland Coliseum

Kickoff: 7:00 PM PT

Weather: 66 degrees, Clear Skies

SCORELINE:

OAK: 1

TUL: 1

SCORING SUMMARY:

OAK: Peter Wilson 23'

TUL: Taylor Calheria 54'

DISCIPLINE SUMMARY:

TUL: Owen Damm 42' (yellow card)

TUL: Boubacar Diallo 59' (yellow card)

TUL: Delentz Pierre 82' (yellow card)

TUL: Eliot Goldthorp 89' (yellow card)

OAKLAND ROOTS LINEUP: Gagi Margvelashvili, Daniel Gomez, Wolfgang Prentice (EJ Johnson), Peter Wilson, Panos Armenakas, Neveal Hackshaw, Bobosi Byaruhanga, Morey Doner (Jürgen Damm), Raphael Spiegel, Ali Elmasnaouy (Tyler Gibson), Faysal Bettache (Danny Trejo)

Unused subs: Kendall Mcintosh, Julian Bravo, Camden Riley

Shots: 12 | Shots On Goal: 3 | Corner Kicks: 5 | Fouls: 9 | Offsides: 1

TULSA LINEUP: Owen Damm (Eliot Goldthorp), Travian Sousa (Harvey St. Clair), Delentz Pierre, Boubacar Diallo, Jamie Webber (Trevor Amann), Taylor Calheira, Lucas Stauffer, Alexander Dalou (Stefan Lukic), Giordano Colli, Abdoulaye Cissoko (Lamar Batista), Johan Penarada

Unused subs: Andrew Booth, Cole Johnson

Shots: 18 | Shots On Goal: 3 | Corner Kicks: 11 | Fouls: 18 | Offsides: 0

Check out the Oakland Roots Statistics

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Images from this story

Oakland Roots' EJ Johnson in action
Oakland Roots' EJ Johnson in action
   



United Soccer League Championship Stories from September 20, 2025


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