Full name | Sacramento Republic Football Club |
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Nickname(s) | Republic FC, SRFC, Sac Republic FC, The Quails |
Founded | 2012 |
Stadium | Bonney Field |
Capacity | 11,569 |
Owner | Sacramento Professional Soccer, LLC (Warren Smith) |
President | Warren Smith |
Head Coach | Paul Buckle |
League | USL |
2016 | 1st, Western Conference Playoffs: Conference Quarterfinals |
Website | Club home page |
Sacramento Republic FC is an American professional soccer team based in Sacramento, California. Founded in 2012, the team made its debut in the United Soccer League in 2014.
On December 3, 2012, USL Pro announced that a Sacramento expansion team would join the league for the 2014 season. On July 15, 2013, Predrag "Preki" Radosavljević was announced as head coach of the new franchise. The official name of the team and team shield were decided by fan vote. On July 18, 2013, the franchise officially announced the team name Sacramento Republic FC during the first annual Sacramento Soccer Day. As of April 2015, the team had sold more than 9,500 season-tickets.
Republic FC made their home debut on April 26, 2014 at Hughes Stadium, losing 2-1 to the Harrisburg City Islanders, before a sellout crowd of 20,231. This figure nearly doubled the previous USL regular season single game attendance record of 10,697. The following match, a 2-1 win over Orange County Blues FC, drew a slightly smaller crowd of 17,414. Eventually, all their home games were sellouts except this one.
Republic FC inaugurated their new 8,000 seat, soccer-specific stadium, Bonney Field at Cal Expo, on June 20, 2014. They defeated the Colorado Rapids Reserve team 4-3. Mike Fucito scored the winning goal in the 84th minute.
On July 27, 2014 the team broke the USL regular season attendance record of 112,748 previously set by Orlando City SC. Their total attendance was 182,107 (158,107 regular season; 24,000 in the playoffs).
Republic FC finished the regular season in 2nd place behind Orlando City SC with a 17 Win, 4 Tie and 7 Loss record. They defeated the Wilmington Hammerheads 4-1 in the Quarterfinals. Rodrigo López scored a hat trick, including the game winner in stoppage time, to defeat LA Galaxy II 3-2 in the Semifinals. Sacramento won the USL Championship by defeating the Harrisburg City Islanders 2-0 on goals from Octavio Guzman and Thomas Stewart. López was named the Championship MVP.Preki was named Coach of the Year. Nemanja Vuković was named Defender of the Year. Both López and Vuković were named to the All-League First Team.