Sacramento Republic flashes newfound swagger in return from US Open Cup final

Jack Gurr was adamant Saturday night.

A teammate missed an assignment and the Sacramento Republic midfielder had to give away the ball to visiting Loudon. Gurr, a 26-year-old from England, shouted at his teammate, gesturing at where he should have been.

Nevermind that Sacramento was leading 3-0, on the way to a dominant 4-0 win. This is a team that lost a heartbreaker to Orlando on Wednesday night in the US Open Cup final. The Quails spent most of the day Thursday traveling back to Sacramento. After a light practice, a letdown would have been natural.

Except Gurr is too intense for anything resembling a letdown, even with many key players getting the night off Saturday.

“I just felt like we needed to, you know, to keep the voices going and it was just as important to get a clean sheet and to be good behind the ball,” Gurr said.

Coach Mark Briggs is a fan of Gurr’s intensity. He serves as a coach on the field, getting red in the face and holding teammates to a standard.

“That’s what it takes right?” Briggs said. “You’ve got to have standards and you’ve got to continue to meet those standards, no matter what the score. And that’s what you’ve got to love about Jack. You’re 3-0 up and he’s still demanding.”

Gurr’s performance exemplified the most interesting part of Sacramento’s thumping of Loudon. Republic outshot Loudon 23-5 and didn’t allow a single shot on goal. With the US Open Cup run in the past, the media contingent was down to its typical size – reporters from Telemundo and The Bee. The ESPN production crew was gone. There was no military flyover during the national anthem. The field is a little brown now; the turf was replaced and shiny green for a semifinal game with Sporting KC in late July.

The crowd gave several key players from Wednesday’s game a standing ovation as they walked over to the bench before the start of the game. Team captain Rodrigo Lopez and Matt LaGrassa walked in together; RoRo applauded back at the fans. In all, the Quails had five players on the bench who played in Wednesday night’s game against Orlando.

There was nothing resembling a dropoff against Loudon. It was impressive because Loudon, a cellar-dwelling Eastern Conference team, won three of its last six games entering Saturday’s contest. They had no chance Saturday.

Sacramento Republic hit the frame of the goal four times during the first half. Jamaican Deshorn Brown had an impressive first half, doinking the ball off the top of the crossbar on a shot from deep inside the box. But the score at halftime was 0-0 as Sacramento simply could not get past the goalkeeper.

At the break, Briggs told Sacramento to be ruthless in the second half. It worked.

In the 48th minute, Loudon keeper Luis Zamudio mishandled a pass. With no other defenders around, Brown fought for the ball one on one with the keeper and chipped it into the back of the net. The crowd erupted.

In the 56th, Gurr settled the ball at his feet just outside the penalty box and skirted toward the middle of the field. He set his feet and hammered a low lining shot into the bottom right of the net. The weight was off. He gave a jumping fistpump celebration to the crowd.

In the 65th, defender Dan Casey took a long pass from Damia Viader and hammered a header at Zamudio. Casey collected the rebound about 3 feet off the goal line and rocketed a shot into the top of the net. 3-0.

Substitute Luther Archimede got into the act in the 82nd minute, scoring on a one-on-one against the goalie.

The win puts Sacramento solidly in fourth place in the Western Conference, four points ahead of New Mexico and five points behind Colorado Springs. With six games left in the regular season, it’s clear the Quails are going to the playoffs. Instead of dejection coming out of the US Open Cup loss, Sacramento might have brought home something else: swagger and confidence from competing with the country’s best soccer teams.

“It’s obviously a grueling week after Wednesday, with all the travel and the disappointment,” Briggs said. “To then come back and produce a performance like that at home in front of our fans, it’s pleasing.”