Sacramento left steaming as bad blood with Phoenix simmers in debut of Quails uniforms
Mark Briggs was irritated.
The Sacramento Republic coach had just talked to his players after a 1-0 loss to Phoenix Rising on Saturday night. It was supposed to be a revenge game. Instead, it was more of the same as conference-leading Phoenix looked comfortable most of the night in taking the win.
“Yeah, disappointing night from start to finish,” Briggs said. “I just said to the players we will have to be better. The basics have to be better. We have to have courage, we have to have guts to get on the ball and play, and to retain possession and to keep the ball and to want it again. I didn’t think we did that well enough tonight.”
Phoenix knocked Sacramento out of the USL playoffs last fall when Solomon Asante scored on what should have been ruled a hand ball. Though no fans were at that game, Republic FC’s crowd clearly had vivid memories of the goal.
Fans held up a huge “Asante is a cheater” sign behind the Republic goal, when the offensive midfielder was sure to see it. Asante was booed as he left the field in the 88th minute. He pumped his fists as he came off the field, a lead in hand, and slapped hands with coaches and teammates. The crowd, meanwhile, was singing “Asante is a cheat.” At halftime, a team promotion featured a fan trying to punch soccer balls into a goal with his hands to win a pack of prizes (he went 5-for-5).
Despite the bad blood — Sacramento goalie Tomas Gomez said before the game “We just don’t like them” — the game never got unusually chippy. In the first half, Republic’s Shannon Gomez gave a love tap to the back of a Phoenix player’s calf, earning a quick whistle in the process but no card. Gomez came out of the net to loudly discuss the play after Phoenix’s Rufat Dadashov smacked Sacramento’s Andrew Wheeler-Omiunu to the ground outside the penalty box in the first half.
But matters remained civil, despite a score that was tied until the 62nd minute, when Phoenix’s Santi Moar picked up a loose ball and netted the game-winner on a broken play.
It was otherwise a solid defensive outing. Phoenix averaged more than three goals a game coming into the contest, but Briggs still wasn’t in the mood for compliments to his defense.
“We’re hard to break down but when we’re in our shape and when everybody’s in the correct spots we’re hard to break down,” he said, “but it’s quite frankly it’s like individual errors, individual basic errors, which is hurting us right now and we have to get better. I have to get better, the staff has to get better, and the players have to get better. But I guess it’s pleasing that we are hard to break down.”
The loss broke up a festive atmosphere at Heart Health Park.
The team unveiled its Quail kit Saturday night, with a long line at the main merchandise stand near the front gate about 45 minutes before the game started. On the other side of the stadium, Sacramento fan Neil Forester found an empty line at the second merchandise stand. He inspected the gear before walking away with a new Quails hat.
“That’s the name of the team as far as I’m concerned,” Forester said. “They’re Sac Republic, but their name is ‘Quails.’ That’s just the way it is.”
As Forester walked away, every worker at the stand was busy and a line of six more people waited for their chance. The team featured grey hoodies, T-shirts, hats and shorts with quail-like feathers strewn across the front. The quail is the state bird of California and has been an in-joke for years among fans. Online sales were brisk all week. The stadium had quail hoots during intermission and quail trivia; players wore jerseys with subtle quail references.
Republic’s Shannon Gomez smiled when he was asked after the game about his new uniform.
“I definitely love the kit,” he said. “It’s probably one of the best kits in the league that I’ve seen so far. The material, the design, the marketing side of it — it’s a beautiful kit. I love it. I wish I could play in it every game.”
He will have to wait a while to put on another Republic uniform. Gomez will be playing in World Cup qualifiers with Trinidad and Tobago for the next 10 days. In that span, Republic FC will play another pair of games, starting Wednesday when they host Oakland.
This story was originally published May 30, 2021 at 7:24 AM.