Key Performers in Defiance’s Open Cup win over Oakland Roots
Tacoma Defiance took 120 minutes plus stoppage time to do it, but they beat Oakland Roots 2-1 in the third round of the US Open Cup. A 28th minute free kick banger from Peter Kingston and a 108th minute finish from Osaze De Rosario proved enough to overcome a 75th minute penalty for the Roots from Neveal Hackshaw and a 117th minute red card for Cody Baker, as Defiance now await the outcome of the draw to learn their opponents for the 4th round of the U.S. Open Cup.
Defiance came close to finding an opener in the 3rd minute when De Rosario cut centrally at the top of the box and hit a shot that took a heavy deflection before coming back off the post. They would find their opener through Kingston in the 28th minute, when he smashed a free kick from about 25 yards out near the left side line into the top corner. Shortly after, Defiance had a couple more threatening moments, first in the 31st when Travian Sousa drove down the left sideline and found Joonmo Kang at the far post with a dangerous cross. Kang attempted to swing his left foot around but couldn’t redirect his effort on frame. Then in the 34th, Kingston nearly added a second free kick goal, but was denied by goalkeeper Raphael Spiegel and the post.
Despite a few chances, Defiance were largely riding the waves of a pretty chaotic game following their goal. That was especially true in the second half when they were out-shot 7 to 1. Andrew Thomas came up with a number of good plays to keep them in the lead, coming out well to control his area and making some impressive saves. The most notable came in the 66th minute when Defiance attempted to play out of pressure at the back and Thomas went to send the ball long but instead hit it off of the face of an Oakland player. The ball would have fallen to an attacker in a very dangerous position, but Thomas recovered well and dove to swat the ball away. Unfortunately just 8 minutes later Kaito Yamada was called for a handball in the box and the Roots were awarded a penalty kick. Centerback Neveal Hackshaw stepped up to the spot and with Thomas diving the wrong way he leveled the score.
The first half of extra time was largely unremarkable aside from what appeared to be a pretty blatant foul in the box as a Roots defender smashed into the back of Jackson Khoury as he attempted to go for a header. No foul was called and play continued. Early in the second half of extra time things got a little more lively. Khoury applied pressure on the ball deep in Oakland’s half, won it and found De Rosario in the box. De Rosario took a touch to set up his shot, and although a defender got in front of it, his shot still had enough on it to bounce into the back of the net and give Defiance a 2-1 lead in the 108th minute. Cody Baker was sent off in the 117th minute for a second yellow after what seemed like a pretty obviously incorrect throw-in/non-foul call when Baker attempted to grab the ball from a Roots player and delay or stop the ensuing throw, meaning Defiance had to play with 10 players for the final few minutes of the match. Thanks to some stout defending, a few saves and some good old fashioned time wasting from Thomas, the home side was able to see it out as they advance to the next round.
Key players
Cody Baker: Baker’s night will most likely be remembered for his early trip to the showers after being shown a second yellow card in the 117th minute. Even that was somewhat emblematic of the gritty performance he put in to make sure that Oakland didn’t get anything more than their penalty. Referee Dion Cox and his crew had what could generously be described as a rough night, and positioned out at the right wingback spot Baker got the rough bit on both sides of an uneven officiating performance as he was penalized for fairly soft fouls while consistently being hacked throughout the game, as he was the most fouled player in the game with 6 drawn fouls and many more that went uncalled. Still he completed 52 of 67 passes with 3 of 4 long passes completed, had one successful dribble on one attempt, and won 11 of 19 duels, which was the most of any player in the game. This was not only a crucial performance for the result, but exactly the kind of performance you would want out of a first team player.
Andrew Thomas: Thomas was another of the first team players involved in this game, and he was as important as anyone to the result. He guessed wrong on the penalty and had some other plays you’d like to see him do better or be cleaner on, but he consistently made up for mistakes with good plays to make sure they didn’t come back to haunt him. His distribution was rough, but at least some of that is simply a product of how chaotic the game was. Thomas controlled the box well, and was a reliable option to release pressure for his defenders so that instead of possibly losing a ball in their own end, if Oakland gained possession it happened in areas much less likely to hurt Defiance. He was credited with 7 saves, 6 high claims, 25 recoveries, and earned one yellow card for time wasting as he helped see out the final minutes of the game.
Peter Kingston: Kingston’s opening goal was simply a thing of beauty. His perfectly placed free kick was nearly given a sibling, but the dastardly goalkeeper and the diabolical post refused to let joy live in these trying times. Kingston played the full 120 minutes and put up mostly clean passing numbers, as he went 60 for 68 with 11 passes into the final third, and won his lone tackle of the night. Apart from that Kingston was active if not always effective as Defiance fought for control of the field, winning 3 of 11 duels (3/7 ground duels, 0/4 aerial duels), but you can’t simply put aside a goal of that caliber. Defiance don’t advance from this game without Kingston’s performance tonight.
MATCH SUMMARY
Tacoma Defiance 2 - Oakland Roots 1
Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Venue: Starfire Stadium
Referee: Dion Cox
Weather: 62 degrees and clear
SCORING SUMMARY
TAC – Peter Kingston 28
OAK – Neveal Hackshaw (penalty) 76’
TAC – Osaze De Rosario (Jackson Khoury) 108'
MISCONDUCT SUMMARY
TAC – Snyder Brunell 29'
TAC – Peter Kingston 42’
TAC – Cody Baker 45'
OAK – Luis Saldana 54'
TAC – Travian Sousa 71'
OAK – Peter Wilson 76'
TAC – Elias Katsaros 87'
OAK – Tyler Gibson 93'
TAC – Cody Baker (second yellow) 117'
TAC – Andrew Thomas 120'
LINEUPS & STATS
Tacoma Defiance – Andrew Thomas; Leo Burney (Jackson Khoury 60’), Kaito Yamada, Stuart Hawkins; Cody Baker, Peter Kingston, Snyder Brunell – Captain (Charles Dodzi 110’), Travian Sousa; Joonmo Kang (Elias Katsaros 81’), Osaze De Rosario, Sebastian Gomez (Danny Robles 91’)
Substitutes not used: Birame Diaw, Lars Helleren, Rafferty Pedder
Total shots: 8
Shots on goal: 3
Fouls: 24
Offside: 0
Corner-kicks: 3
Saves: 7
Oakland Roots – Raphael Spiegel; Abdi Mohamed, Neveal Hackshaw, Gagi Margvelashvili (Julian Bravo 83’); Ilya Alekseev (Jurgen Damm 101’), Tyler Gibson – Captain, Daniel Gomez (Bobosi Byaruhanga 65’), Justin Rasmussen; Ali Elmasnaouy (Jose Sinisterra 64’); Emmanuel Johnson (Wolfgang Prentice 57’), Luis Saldana (Peter Wilson 57’)
Substitutes not used: Kendall McIntosh
Total shots: 22
Shots on goal: 8
Fouls: 26
Offside: 0
Corner-kicks: 9
Saves: 1