They may have only been there for a few days, but the Socceroos are going to be many Oakland locals\u2019 second team at the World Cup as the city pro sports deserted welcomes its new guest.<\/p>\n
With a squad now decided upon, Australia\u2019s official World Cup preparations are underway and consigned to Oakland, across the bay from San Francisco.<\/p>\n
Training at the state-of-the-art Oakland Roots Sports Club \u2014 the former home of NFL\u2019s Oakland Raiders \u2014 the Socceroos have embraced the world-class facilities ahead of their final warm-up game against Switzerland on Sunday morning WST.<\/p>\n
And the feeling has been mutual among the Oakland community as politicians, officials from Oakland Roots and Soul (the local men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams who own the facility) and fans turned out to watch an open training session.<\/p>\n
The Roots and Soul, who compete in the second-tiers of American soccer, have even launched Australia \u00c0 La Carte, a community-driven food and storytelling initiative bringing a flavour of Australia to the streets of Oakland to celebrate the team\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n
In short, the red carpet has been rolled out by the club and the city alike and Oakland Roots and Soul president Lindsay Barenz said it was amazing to have been chosen by Football Australia as the best possible place to conduct their World Cup preparations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are so proud of our training facility. We\u2019ve worked so hard to perfect this pitch for them, to revise how our gym works, so it can be shared with the Socceroos and our Oakland Roots and Soul, and we\u2019re just really thrilled that the team selected us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
![\"ALAMEDA,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/33933ce00f0c7c90c2b4d2d0197be98e80994a9d.jpg\")
Camera IconALAMEDA, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 03: Cristian Volpato #20 of Australia poses for a photo with fans after a training session at Oakland Roots and Soul Sports Club on June 03, 2026 in Alameda, California. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham\/Getty Images) Credit: Lachlan Cunningham\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople in Oakland and Alameda and the East Bay are very loyal, and when you invest in the community, they want to return that love.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing selected by the Socceroos, seeing the Socceroos staying at hotels in our community, eating in our restaurants, giving back to our community, that builds loyalty, and they\u2019re going to feel that love back from our community when it comes to supporting them in our games.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard not to be romantic about the way the city is quickly embracing the team, but part of the reason the community are so welcoming may lie in Oakland being abandoned by professionals sports teams in droves.<\/p>\n
NBA\u2019s Golden State Warriors moved across the water to San Francisco in 2019, the famed Raiders packed up for Las Vegas in 2020 and Major League Baseball\u2019s Athletics \u2014 the focus of Oscar-nominated film Moneyball \u2014 followed the NFL side in leaving for Las Vegas in 2024.<\/p>\n
Alameda mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft said the city and its fans were still reeling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s the economic impact. But first and foremost, it was the fans; we have the most dedicated fans who would come out for these games,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have friends who are still flying to Las Vegas to follow the Raiders. They were such dedicated fans, and it did not feel like the teams, the once Oakland A\u2019s, the once Oakland Raiders, really thought too much about the fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey want lovely facilities to play in and other cities to lure them, I get that; but as a team, you\u2019re nothing without your fans, and when the fans lose hope in you and you betray them. That really says something about the organisation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hosting this World Cup team, we\u2019re hoping in a couple of years the women\u2019s soccer team is going to be coming and this is a dress rehearsal, will be ready for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lovely opportunity to show up our region, show up what we have to offer, and hopefully people will just keep coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They may have only been there for a few days, but the Socceroos are going to be many…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144,1083,7496,140571],"class_list":["post-347667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-soccer","tag-sport","tag-world-cup-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}