you can read here<\/a>. <\/p>\nThe story is incredibly unique in the way the community has been robbed of its Golden State Warriors, Oakland Athletics and Oakland Raiders sides \u2013 world famous franchises in basketball, baseball and NFL respectively \u2013 and inspiring in how they\u2019ve filled a void in the community; but the success they\u2019ve had in connecting with that community is a great case study for clubs in Australia to look at.<\/p>\n
While enjoying our time in the sun, we did catch an unexpectedly familiar-sounding accent. The Facility and Groundskeeper Marc Logan still has his Australian accent after 27 years in the States and he has produced a FIFA-standard, world class pitch that the Socceroos are using for now, but will be a legacy for the Roots once the World Cup moves on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a little bit of Australia in this field,\u201d Logan proudly told us, explaining how he\u2019d won the lottery when he saw the World Cup draw in December.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe use a product that I import out of Australia called Mineral Magic, so a little bit of Australia is actually in the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe magic is there. Hopefully the magic translates up through the boots and into the players and they do extremely well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Logan is an award-winning leader of golf course construction & restoration projects but has had a long association with the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Oakland Roots & Soul have done so much for this community,\u201d he explained. \u201cThey\u2019re for underprivileged kids, for juniors, also seniors in this community; they\u2019ve got a great diversity program. So I really am excited to have worked with these guys for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n
The club have genuinely opened their arms to the Socceroos. They haven\u2019t had a lot of exchange of ideas yet, but have mostly played the role of hosts as the side knuckles down for the opening game.<\/p>\n
The idea of becoming a FIFA base inspired them to buy the Oakland Raiders\u2019 old NFL headquarters knowing that FIFA funding would help establish their facility for the club\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
Now, they are lapping up the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s world class, man,\u201d said Co-Founder and CMO Edreece Arghandiwal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a a dream come true of mine. My family came from Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion as refugees, found refuge in Oakland, California. I was five years old when I experienced my first World Cup in 1994 when it happened here and I will say it left a resounding effect on me, my family, my community.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have the Socceroos here now at the training grounds that we call home is truly one of the most profound things to happen in my life and honestly couldn\u2019t have been a better nation to have come to Oakland.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have so many similar ideologies and philosophies. our approach to life and connectivity is very similar, so it\u2019s been very natural and and amazing to experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
It also threw up one of the many quirks that this very small football world inevitably does.<\/p>\n
25-year-old Oakland player Jes\u00fas De Vicente got to say hi to Mat Ryan over the past week, someone he met in Valencia as a fan, while his mother works at Levante, the club Ryan performed heroics with this season to keep them in LaLiga.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo she takes care of them when they have to do the testing during the preseason or if they get injured or they need anything, my mom\u2019s always involved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy family tends to go to the games quite often.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI actually played with Levante\u2019s affiliate team, which is called Patacona. We were promoted to the third division\u2026 they (Levante) had a hell of an end of the year. Mathew specifically, he had a top end of the season. I spoke to him quite a bit after one of their training sessions so he seemed to be very happy and obviously Valencia is a great place to live. So I\u2019m happy that a player like him, he seems to be an excellent professional, excellent person.\u201d<\/p>\n
The club\u2019s coach Ryan Martin hails from extraordinary coaching pedigree, with his father the record holder for most wins in US College Soccer history.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s worked with the likes of former USMNT coach Greg Berhalter at Columbus Crew, as well as at FC Cincinnati with John Harkes, \u201cstarting it over a kitchen table with the present\u201d, where he fielded Aussie Harrison Delbridge in their squad and was at DC United before Oakland got their man.<\/p>\n
As hospitable as the Roots & Soul been, that\u2019ll end next weekend when the US national team take on the Socceroos in Seattle. But, the last couple of weeks has inspired an affinity for the green and gold and Martin hopes both the States and Australia get out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the States will qualify,\u201d Martin said. \u201cI think we\u2019ll get through the group and I think they looked better\u2026 (in) the last two friendlies and I think they\u2019re in a decent place with where they want to go. Obviously you need the ball to bounce your way a little bit, you need to stay a little bit healthy, but I think they have a chance to get out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this group will be interesting with the four teams. I think they\u2019re all four different but very good teams.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Socceroos had a day off on Tuesday but Football360 did not \u2013 spending a couple of hours…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144,8450],"class_list":["post-354708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-oakland-roots"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354708","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=354708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}