Akale shines in United's win over Oakland Roots SC

Mukwelle Akale had a monster Saturday night for New Mexico United, scoring one goal and setting up two more as NMU took a 3-0 road win over Oakland Roots SC.

Chris Gloster and Zico Bailey also scored for NMU, which won in California for a second straight week. Both victories came by decisive 3-0 scores.

Oakland seemed to have no answer for Akale, United’s speedy forward who created one scoring chance after another. His first goal of the season came in the waning minutes, long after Akale helped put New Mexico in the driver’s seat.

‘He had a great performance,” United coach Dennis Sanchez said of Akale in a postgame interview. “Not only the goal, which I thought was well-deserved, but creating chances and just forcing the action throughout the match.”

New Mexico (7-3-0) came out blazing in its first appearance at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, putting two goals on the board in the first six minutes. Akale figured heavily in both.

Gloster’s first goal of the season came off an Akale corner kick that he redirected past Roots SC goalkeeper Raphael Spiegel in the third minute. Akale picked up his third assist on the well-placed delivery.

Bailey’s goal came after Akale forced a takeaway on the right sideline and centered a pass that deflected off a defender and found Bailey who fired into the left-side net cords in the sixth minute.

“You can’t have a better start,” Sanchez said. “Getting the first off a set piece and the second off a nice finish by Zico, we really set the tone. We’d been talking about getting off to a fast start and being the aggressor. It was great to see us come out strong like that.”

It remained 2-0 through halftime and for most of the final 45 minutes as Oakland amped up its pressure in the second half. But the Roots could not get the ball past NMU goalkeeper Alex Tambakis, who recorded his fifth clean sheet of the season.

Back in the lineup after serving a one-game red-card suspension last week, Tambakis was tested occasionally by the Roots. Tambakis made a dazzling save on a one-on-one chance by Oakland’s Peter Wilson in the box in the first half. He also got a bit of help when a floating shot by Wolfgang Prentice bounced off the corner of the goal frame in the 52nd minute.

“Credit to Oakland, they were a lot more aggressive in the second half and made it a tight game,” Sanchez said. “But credit to our guys, too, making plays when they had to, and credit to Alex for posting another shutout.”

Fittingly, Akale sealed the victory in the 89th minute, hitting a transition shot home off a lead pass from Daniel Bruce. United outshot Oakland 10-9, 5-4 in shots on target, and held 55% of the possession.

New Mexico remained in first place in the USL Championship Western Conference and improved to 4-2-0 on the road. Still, Sanchez wasn’t entirely satisfied.

“It’s another good win,” he said, “but I told the guys afterward that I still think we can reach another level. The way we played in the first half, I want to see us do that for an entire match.”

New Mexico visits Phoenix Rising FC next Saturday for a Jagermeister Cup contest at 8 p.m.