In the past two weeks Sacramento Republic FC have lost two games against opponents from two separate leagues. The first loss came last weekend against the San Jose Earthquakes, their MLS affiliate. The second and most recent one came this past Saturday against the NASL’s storied New York Cosmos in front of a sold out crowd of just over 20,000 at Hughes Stadium.
The match was a tale of two halves if there ever was one.
In the first half the Republic played better than their opponents, creating some good chances that they just could not capitalize on. The Cosmos could barely get any real dangerous opportunities going in the final third, although that would change after the break.
A slew of substitutions at halftime saw many Republic starters head to the bench, with trialists taking their places on the field. Rodrigo Lopez, Justin Braun, and the central midfield duo of Octavio Guzman and Ivan Mirkovic came off with Gabe Gissie, Richie Cardozo, Ahmad Hatifie, and Augustin Cazarez replacing them.
These substitutions, along with the others that took place at halftime, led to a much weaker performance by the home team in the second half. While the difference in momentum was noticeable right away it still took until the 68th minute for the Cosmos to open the scoring when Raul got free from Sola Abolaji in the box for a free header. The visitors then proceeded to score two more goals in quick succession, bringing the score from 0-0 to 3-0 in the space of 13 minutes.
Trialist Joaquin Rivas pulled one back for the Republic in the 89th minute when his shot from 25 yards out curled around the Cosmos goalkeeper and into the net. When asked about his long range shot after the match, Rivas simply said “The moment I took my first touch my first instinct was to shoot it and luckily it went in.”
While his goal was a fantastic one it was too little too late and the Republic could not overcome the hole that they had dug for themselves.
After the match, Coach Preki echoed the tale of two halves idea, “I’m extremely happy with the first half performance. I thought the group played extremely well and created many opportunities and we were very unfortunate not to score a goal or two in the first half,” He said. “We made a lot of changes right away and it was a totally different game. And that helps us too because we have right here guys that we are looking at so that’s helping us right now to make decisions.”
Republic goalkeeper Patrick McLain also gave his thoughts on the performance after the match. “As a team, as an individual, there were definitely some mistakes and some moments where we’d like to improve,” he said. “Its unfortunate but I think this is a good way to grow as a team. Even though it’s not what we want, we always want to win. But sometimes you learn more in losses.”
The Republic’s next preseason friendly is against UC Davis on March 14th at Aggie Soccer Field in Davis. The team’s first USL league match is just a week later on March 21st against Seattle Sounders 2 at Starfire Sports Complex in Seattle.
