7:30 at Papa Murphy's Park Television: KQCA My58; Estrella TV Sacramento Radio: none Online: http://www.SacRepublicFC.com/matchday-guide
MOTM: Cohen. Dude had waaaay too much to do in the second. Honorable Mention: Partain. He was playing out of normal position but was quite effective...when not making bone headed hospital passes in the back third. Overall, ugly win is ugly. SRFC's defensive shape in the last 40 minutes was about as ugly as Keith Richards. Liked the free flow of the offense...well, at least in the first half. It's also nice to know that Chris Christian hasn't forgotten how to raise his arm to appeal for offside when the ball is sitting in the back of his net.
I’m waiting for coach Elliot to impress me. Thus far, looks like he’s in over his head. And making defensive substitutions with 20 minutes to go, ugh. Come on. You’re up by one goal with the other team getting the better run, it’s opening night at home and your strategy is to go all out defense for the last 20 minutes? I was hoping he wouldn’t have so much of the player he was influencing his coaching, but seems like he does, as well as the Quakes/New Zealand influences of being crappy, playing conservatively and being happy with the bare minimum. Cohen is good. Also liked Taintor(spelling?) #4 in the back, he’s has looked good. I get that Iwasa is a Sacramento kid and people like him.. but he shouldn’t be starting. He’s not a good player, he’s so inconsistent and unreliable. We need better. Villarreal and Aleman has lots of moments of questionable play and something was up with their attitudes. I’ll have to keep watching those two to see if that is an issue or early game thing. One win down!
Our net is definitely in good hands. Cohen looked great against Seattle and LAFC, as well. I've been impressed by Partain's transition to RB, too. It will be interesting to see what happens with Hord is healthy. I think Partain covers ground although Hord probably provides better service. Such small rosters at the start of the season are concerning. Our unused subs were a keeper, CB, and two academy kids. Wilson, Hord, Kneeshaw and probably Turnley are injured. That accounts for all of our professional players. That's it. It ties a coach's hands. The Bijev substitution surprised me. I thought he was our best infield player, offensively anyway. We needed Kneeshaw's speed last night to counter SA's pressure in the 2nd half. Iwasa's not the guy to do that. San Antonio is a solid team (I'd like to know who their coach is). They apply a lot of pressure throughout the entire game and you have to work hard to beat them. Finally, it's GREAT to be the team scoring in stoppage time and to start the 2nd half rather than to be the team conceding, as was the case way too often last year. Let's hope this is a new trend.
what did you peeps make of Keven Alemán's performance. At times I thought he was trying to do too much, but all in all I loved what he brings to the team. Do you think this version of Sac Rep is better than last season's? I guess we need to wait but I know some people are already saying that. I will hold my assessment when the Dog Days of Summer arrive. Then we will see the real Sac Republic.
Did anyone see why Hall was given a yellow? I thought I saw his opponent push off with a forearm but didn't see Hall do anything. Honestly, aside from first impressions against Seattle and his goal Saturday, he hasn't really stood out to me. I've been noticing Bijev's work to get the ball into or near the box and Iwasa's distribution centrally which I think was pretty good. I haven't adjusted to all the new faces.
Republic FC not conent From the USLSoccer.com staff, here's the SRFC portion of the article in it's entirety... SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Sacramento Republic FC got off to an ideal start to the new season with its 2-1 victory against San Antonio FC on Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd of 11,569 fans at Papa Murphy's Park, but despite the impressive win against its fellow Western Conference contender the hosts still felt there was room for improvement going into the rest of the 2018 season. “I think the end result was successful. I wouldn’t say it was a successful 90 minutes, I would say it was more like 70-75 minutes that we were good and consistent,” said Republic FC Head Coach Simon Elliott. “We need to be 90-minute team, we are not there yet, but there were some good things. Obviously some nice goals, I thought that we were tough at the end, I think we could smarten up a little bit, but I thought we showed good grit and determination at the end.” While holding out for the final 15 minutes against a determined SAFC challenge got Republic FC the win, there was certainly still work to be done. One of those areas was turnovers, with Sacramento finishing the night with a passing accuracy rate of 79.9 percent, a slight drop from the club 81.46 rate in 2017. “Turnovers are where we need to improve. Throughout the game, little details make all the difference over 90 minutes. I think that we turned the ball over a little too much,” said Elliott. “At times we were really good, but overall if we can eliminate stuff like that it will help us a lot. Then in the last 10 minutes they start to push guys forward and they start to push, we just need to be a little bit smarter with the way that we control the ball.”
You mean the 70 minutes before you decided to sub out attacking players for defensive ones and go all out defense to protect a one-goal lead at home for the final 20+ minutes? Yeah, I agree- it wasn't good- don't go defensive. Play your strength the full 90. Leave what you learned from Frank Yallop in the trash can. You win by attacking and possessing, not ultra conservative tactics and being content with a one goal lead at home.