Oakland Roots traveled down to Southern California for the Western Conference Semifinal and their fifth game against Orange County SC in the 2021 season. Roots had lost the four previous meetings but coming off their win against the top seed in the Mountain Division last week, anything is possible. Both sides played somewhat conservative in the first half for fear of conceding the opening goal. Chances were slim, but Memo Diaz had a great strike in the thirtieth minute that was just off target. Orange County led in possession going into the half, certainly something Head Coach Jordan Ferrell would look to change to start the second half. The second half was a much different story as Roots came out looking to control the game and found themselves constantly in the attacking third and more than doubling their shots on goal. This forced Orange County to sit back and play more conservatively, midway through the half they looked to bring on some more offensive firepower but it wasn’t enough against the strong defensive front of Oakland. Even with four minutes of stoppage time, both teams were unable to find the game-changing goal, forcing the Western Conference Semifinal into extra time. The first half of stoppage saw both teams doing their best to keep the pressure up and attack the ball. In the 97th minute the game saw its first yellow card of the game off a tackle from Akeem Ward. The intensity continued to grow and just a few minutes later tempers flared as both Roots and Orange County players got into a short shoving match after a foul from Orange County. Fatigue started to set in at the start of the second half of extra time as the teams exchanged fouls and free kicks without much cohesion from either side. After 120 minutes of play, the season was on the line with a penalty shootout. This was to be the first penalty shootout in Oakland Roots history. Yohannes Harish was subbed on with just seconds left to play in extra time, surely he was to be one of the selected few to take a kick. Roots were first to shoot, with Tarek Morad easily finding the back of the net. On their next turn, Jeremy Bokila did the same. Throughout the shootout, goalkeeper Paul Blanchette would guess the correct side but was unable to come up with a stop. Veteran Joseph Nane, as well as Ariel Mbumba and Yohannes Harish all would score, bringing things to sudden death. Akeem Ward took the sixth shot and was blocked by OC goalkeeper Patrick Rakovsky. OC striker Ronaldo Damus was up next, he pulled a classic stutter step but was blocked by Paul Blanchette. Unfortunately Blanchette was called for coming off his line too early. On the rekick, Damus would score, ending the Roots inaugural season in the USL Championship.