Sacramento Republic (USLC) vs Sporting KC (MLS)

Wednesday, 07/27/22 - Heart Health Stadium - Sacramento, CA

Major League Soccer doesn’t deserve the Sacramento market – Sacramento Republic FC, founded in 2012, always seemed destined for move to the league US soccer has sanctioned as the first division; however, US soccer, shepherded by SUM and MLS, has refused open up the option for winning teams from the second tier to be promoted and has outright denied Republic FC the ability to buy its way in.

They played their inaugural season in 2014 and only went on to win the league in their first foray into the soccer world – in nearly every civilized footballing nation, that would have seen them move up. Instead, they had to wait until 2017 to put together a financial package which would see them join the first division and in 2019, MLS even announced that Sacramento would be joining the league for the 2022 season… which was then pushed to 2023, eventually to be revoked.

Now, in the very year they should have been playing in said league, they have made a point of knocking Major League Soccer teams out of the US Open Cup. Before we get to those, however, let’s take a look at how they got there. Sacramento entered the 2022 Lamar Hunt Open Cup in the second round with a resounding win over the Portland Timbers’ U23s, of USL2 6-0. In Round 3, Sacramento faced Central Valley Fuego of USL1 and sent them back to Fresno after a 2-1 win. The Round of 32 saw Republic earn their second shutout of the cup run, beating fellow USL Championship side, Phoenix Rising, 2-0.

It would be the Round of 16 where Sacramento ran out of lower division teams to face and had to go to work on Major League Soccer’s California teams – starting with shutting out the San Jose Earthquakes 2-0 then heading down to Los Angeles to knock off the LA Galaxy 2-1 in the Quarterfinals. This is no small feat; something which is particularly interesting in that stretch is that head coach Mark Briggs adjusted his lineups to the teams he played, partially out of tactical awareness but also out of necessity because he was simultaneously hanging tight in the league, keeping Sac Republic in a playoff position all the while. From 4-2-3-1, to 3-5-2, to 5-4-1, back to a 3-5-2, and headed into the semifinal against Sporting Kansas City with a modified variation of what he fielded against LA Galaxy, by moving Rodrigo Lopez slightly forward and giving him a free roaming role.

Sporting Kansas City, four-time winners of the US Open Cup, were lucky to even be in this match. While Sacramento earned their way here, SKC didn’t enter the competition until the Round of 32 – playing two fewer matches to get to the Semi-finals. Meanwhile, in their league, they are the second worst team in all of Major League Soccer, having only won once since their last USOC match in mid-June. Peter Vermes lined them up in a 4-3-3 and wasn’t shy about putting his best roster on the pitch for the game – despite having an important league match in just two days.

Sacramento started off fast, with their first opportunity in just over 120 seconds – they were relentless in counterattack and were inches away from scoring on multiple occasions. The first half ended 0-0 and despite SKC holding 57% possession with twice as many shots (10 to 5), Republic never seemed outmatched. The second half was the story of Massapequa, New York native, Danny Vitiello; who, despite Sporting Kansas City really turning the screw, came through with multiple big saves and remained calm and collected. The former Westchester Flame, Jersey Express, and Long Island Rough Rider goalkeeper was just getting started.

All images from US Open Cup Social Media

Briggs made a decisive couple of substitutes in the 69’, bringing in Nick Ross for Matt LaGrass, but more importantly, Keko out and Maalique Foster in. It was a response to Vermes swapping out Khiry Shelton for William Agada (who would prove to be pivotal in the match for reasons entirely emotional). Immediately, Foster was putting SKC under pressure with Viader and Rodrigo Lopez putting in crosses and through balls to get Foster running right at them. The action of attacking instead of holding out and hoping for penalties is actually what got Sacramento through regular time and into extra time. Felipe Hernandez, who came in for SKC in the 83’ nearly ended the dream for Sacramento with a brilliant shot on goal, but it was parried by none other than Danny Vitiello. Gurr, Casey, and Donovan were also heroes on the night, keeping Salloi and Russell at bay.

Sporting ended regular time, and through both extra time periods, maintaining 60% possession; Roger Espinoza, Zusi, and Russell never gave up, but they just didn’t have the code to crack Sacramento Republic. There was a wild shout for a penalty in the 110’ when the ball came down near the torso of Desmond and bounced back up possibly brushing his arm, but it was not in an unnatural position and no penalty was given. Immediately after that play, Agada could have sealed the match for SKC, but instead missed the ball while stabbing for it and instead collided with Vitiello, who was able to snatch the ball away.

By the end of the extra time periods, multiple Sporting players were going to ground with cramp and exhaustion; Vermes was forced to make a like-for-like substitution and bring in a defender 2 minutes away from going to penalties. Meanwhile, Briggs smartly brought in a fresh forward and gave a him a few minutes to run around before going into those decisive penalty kicks; bringing in Luthor Archimede for Douglas Martinez – this would pay out in the following few minutes. After 120 minutes, this match did go to penalties and it was Johnny Russel who struck first, putting SKC up 1-0. Viader countered to make it 1-1; Salloi and then Luis Felipe Fernandes made it 2-2.

It was William Agada who was the first to make a mistake, he struck the ball poorly and Vitiello was able to save it; however, it was ruled that Vitiello had come off his line early and Agada was given a second chance to put it away – which he did. His backflip was probably unnecessary and likely ruffled the feathers of a couple Republic players yet to kick. Archimede came up to the spot and calmly finished his chance to tie it again at 3 each – followed by SKC’s Academy product Felipe Hernandez who also put his chance in the back of the net. His response was definitely disrespectful and earned him a yellow card as he was chirping away at Vitiello. Maalique Foster had seen enough - he took a few extra steps back, wound up to hammer the ball, and then chipped Pulskamp with an absolutely disgusting Panenka, trotted away, performed his own backflip, and gave the crowd more to cheer for by pretending to nap on his hands.

What came next, however, is the stuff of legend, with Danny Vitiello making the save on Graham Zusi’s spotkick getting the entire stadium to their feet – then the legendary Rodrigo Lopez putting the winning penalty past Pulskamp and causing all 11,000 in attendance to swoon! It was an absolute delight to see this team, snubbed by Major League Soccer, stick it to one of their darlings. Sacramento Republic have now knocked out three MLS teams to advance to the 2022 Lamar Hunt Open Cup Final - will travel to Florida and play Orlando City, also of MLS, in Exploria Stadium and do it again and win the tournament. We’ll have to wait until Wednesday, September 7th, to see it happen.

- Joshua Duder