Best in the West? Sacramento Republic shows skills in win over Colorado Springs

Throughout their Cinderella run this season, it was obvious Sacramento Republic could defend. And while pitching shutouts has drastically improved their fortunes, finding an offensive groove has been elusive.

But on Wednesday at Heart Health Park, they finally turned in one of their most complete performances of the year, dominating the Colorado Springs Switchbacks 3-0 behind first-half goals by Maalique Foster, Matt LaGrassa and Keko.

It’s not like they out-talented their opponents either — the Switchbacks are above them in the Western Conference standings and have scored the second-most goals in USL, while Sacramento ranks 15th out of 27 in that department. But what they do have is the next best thing, which is: a clear idea about how to play.

All night, Republic players played as if they knew exactly what they wanted to do before they did it. On the ball, they routinely broke the Colorado press by switching the play at the perfect times, finding the open man. And off of it, they didn’t give their opponents much of a chance to breathe, winning back possession multiple times in front of the Colorado goal.

“I think we saw the fluidity of the group tonight when everybody was locked in,” head coach Mark Briggs said after the game. In training last week, The Bee observed his staff drilling players on how to keep possession while assessing what openings a defense might present based on their positioning.

The exercises are starting to pay off.

“To be fair to them, they’ve been doing this all year,” Briggs said. “But tonight, they stepped up and showed that extra bit of quality. I keep saying that there’s more to come from this group and I think we saw a little bit of that tonight.”

Starting midfielder and Elk Grove native Matt LaGrassa echoed his coach’s sentiment. In the 31st minute, he scored Republic’s second goal by rifling home a shot from nearly 25 yards out.

“We spend a lot of time together and we train these things,” LaGrassa said when asked how the Republic managed to execute so decisively. “Mark gave us some great ideas before the game and I think we had a pretty clear picture of what (Colorado) was going to look like and what they like to do.”

When Sacramento last played Colorado Springs on the road in July, they were on the wrong side of a 3-0 beating. Wednesday’s win provided some sweet satisfaction.

“We came in with blood in our eyes because of what they did to us last time,” forward Maalique Foster said. He added that he believed this was the club’s most complete performance of the season.

If there was anything to nitpick, it was that Sacramento easily could have added one or two more to the final score. In the 60th minute, Keko drew a penalty that captain Rodrigo “RoRo” Lopez stepped up to take but missed. In the 88th, LaGrassa had another look on goal after making a late run into the box that he missed when he slipped during the shot.

Nevertheless, the win puts Republic within two points of Colorado for the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference. Briggs said the team’s objective is to finish higher in the standings.

“We want to play at home in the playoffs,” Briggs said.

Beating a higher-ranked team in USL also couldn’t have come at a better time. Republic are ramping up towards one of the most important games in team history on Sept. 7, when they meet Orlando City in the U.S. Open Cup Final.

In the previous round, they couldn’t score a goal in 120 minutes and relied on penalties to sneak by Sporting Kansas City. Briggs hopes that maybe now, his team’s continuity will keep paying off.

“For us, it’s about consistency and making sure we’re at this level every game,” Briggs said. “When we’re playing at this level, not many teams can compete with us.”

Game Notes

▪ Briggs said that starting defender Lee Desmond remains out with a sore achilles. The Irish defender who normally occupies the left spot of Sacramento’s back-three has been out since exiting the game against New Mexico on Aug. 3.

▪ Stepping into Desmond’s place has been Josh Bauer, who Sacramento acquired on loan from Nashville SC at the end of July. Briggs said the new defender has been a “breath of fresh air” and that “he’s fitting into the group like he’s been here all year.” In the 13th minute, Bauer had his head heavily bandaged when he suffered a cut from an opposing elbow.

▪ Briggs’ preferred formation resembles a 5-4-1 in defense and turns into a 3-4-2-1 in attack. Maalique Foster has situated himself well in the spot up top and underneath him are Keko and RoRo, whom he described as two “roving number 10s.” As the game went on, the duo were interchangeable in their positioning and caused the Colorado defense a lot of problems. One could say this was Keko’s best performance in a Quails uniform.

Up Next

Sacramento at Las Vegas Lights on Saturday

Oakland Roots at Sacramento on Aug. 27

This story was originally published August 18, 2022 at 5:00 AM.