Republic FC alone in first place after blasting Louisville City FC 5-0 to stay undefeated
Republic FC went into Saturday’s match against Louisville City FC hoping to get three points and a chance to build its confidence after an already-strong start to the season.
Check and check.
Sacramento dominated last year’s Eastern Conference champions with a 5-0 victory at Heart Health Park to improve to 3-0-1 a month into the 2023 campaign. The Republic is all alone in first place in the USL Championship’s Western Conference standings with 10 points.
“I asked (the players) to the be ruthless from the start, and tonight we were ruthless in both boxes,” Republic FC manager Mark Briggs said.
Sacramento scored three goals in the first 28 minutes and never looked back. Standout offseason addition Russell Cicerone continued his stellar start with the club, scoring a pair of goals while Keko added two off the bench. Cicerone has three goals in his first four matches and has been the scoring antidote after Republic FC struggled to find the net in key matches last season.
“I think it was a great overall performance,” Cicerone said after his seventh-career multi-goal game. “Clean sheet, five goals. It doesn’t get much better than that against a top team in this league. Defensively, we didn’t give them much, but offensively we were creating a lot, whether it was in possession or in transition.”
The game never appeared close and Sacramento could have scored more than it did. The home team had 10 shots on target, not including two off the crossbar and one off the post, while Louisville managed just one shot on target. Republic FC outshot the visitors 22-11. The clean sheet was Sacramento’s third in four games behind anchor fullback Conor Donovan and keeper Danny Vitiello.
“I think, defensively, everybody’s working,” Briggs said. “I think when everybody works and everybody does the basics of running, communicating, winning individual battles and then collectively playing your role for the team, which all the guys are, that gets you clean sheets. I thought tonight, defensively, we were absolutely excellent.”
Midfielder Louis Felipe got Sacramento on the board in the fifth minute when he put back a rebound following an on-target header from Sebastian Herrera after a cross from Jack Gurr. It marked Felipe’s second straight game with a goal.
Gurr scored Sacramento’s second goal in the 23rd minute after Louisville’s keeper and a defender mishandled a cross in the box. Both players went to stop a centering pass from Cicerone, but they collided, leaving the ball unattended in front of the net, allowing Gurr an easy finish for his second score of the season.
Then Cicerone got on the board in the 28th minute to make it 3-0 on a well-placed cross from Keko a few yards from the right goal post. Cicerone nearly scored again in the 70th minute but crushed a close-range shot off the crossbar. He atoned by making it 4-0 a minute later with a flip over the keeper on a breakaway. Rodrigo Lopez assisted.
Keko didn’t start the game. He entered after Herrera left in the ninth minute after suffering an apparent injury. Herrera slammed a water bottle to the ground in frustration while his team played down a man for a few moments until Keko subbed in. Keko scored his second goal on a penalty kick in stoppage time to make it 5-0.
Cicerone has hit the ground running after joining the team from the Pittsburgh Riverhounds.
“I think the biggest thing is how competitive our preseason and training were,” Cicerone said. “Every player that’s on the bench that didn’t make the (game day) roster could easily be starting for us. Every day you have to go into training and compete for your spot and that keeps the level extremely high.
“And then the mentality of the group. When we’re out there, we want to get three points and we want to win. We want to get clean sheets. We want to score goals. It’s just what’s ingrained in our heads right now.”
Briggs made a bit of history Saturday. The victory gave him 41 wins, the most by a coach in Sacramento’s 10-year history. He’s the fourth coach to have the job. Briggs said the announcement over the PA system came as he was addressing his players at midfield and it led to a water shower on a 54-degree evening.
“It’s a great accomplishment, but I want to bring silverware to this club, I want to bring silverware to this city,” Briggs said. “So it’s great to have that accomplishment, but we’ve gotta continue to grinding.”
Next up for Sac Republic is the club’s first U.S. Open Cup match of 2023. The Republic will host Crossfire Premier on Wednesday at Heart Health Park. Last year, Sacramento became the first lower-division squad in 14 years to reach the final of the nation’s oldest tournament. This year’s edition is No. 108 in the tournament’s history.
Their next league match is on the road against San Antonio, which is second in the West standings. San Antonio is last year’s USL’s champion, meaning Republic FC will face the two teams who played in last year’s final in consecutive contests.
This story was originally published April 2, 2023 at 7:19 AM.
