Although Indomitable City Soccer is a brand new blog, the team it covers is not new at all. While it is not as old as some Eastern Conference USL teams like the Richmond Kickers or Charleston Battery, Sacramento Republic does have some history attached to it.

With the launching of ICS, it seems fitting to look back and chronicle how Sacramento Republic FC went from just another expansion team to holders of multiple attendance records and the 2014 USL Championship. A note before we begin though: This is not a perfectly comprehensive history of Sacramento Republic FC. It is instead a trip down memory lane, looking back at where we have come from to get to where we are now.

Building the Republic (Announcement – First Kick)

After the initial expansion announcement in December 2012, the team went through the process of choosing a name, color scheme, and basic crest elements by using supporter suggestions and votes. The results of the contest were announced at the first annual Sac Pro Soccer day in July 2013 amid a pair of exhibition matches.

One of the first times that the team caused a blip in the national soccer scene was on July 15, 2013 when they announced that US Soccer Hall of Famer, former USMNT member and MLS MVP Preki would be leading the team into their inaugural season as head coach. At the time it had been three years since he had last held a coaching job at Toronto FC, so his sudden resurfacing in Sacramento was a surprise to many.

The Republic’s very first signing was Rodrigo Lopez, announced in December 2013, one year after the initial expansion announcement. Over the next four months Lopez, who is surely one of the club’s most important signings ever, was joined by both young and inexperienced players like Gabe Gissie and experienced veteras like Justin Braun and Namanja Vukovic to round out the Republic’s initial roster.

The Inaugural Season (First Kick – First Championship)

The Republic started out their inaugural season by grabbing national headlines, selling out their first home game at the 20,231 capacity Hughes Stadium and setting a USL regular season attendance record in the process. The team went on to sell out three of their four matches at Hughes, with the only non sellout still drawing 17,414 people. This gave the Republic possession of the top four attended USL regular season games in league history, the next closest being an Orlando City match that drew a comparatively paltry 10,697 fans.

While the numbers may have dropped once Sacramento moved into the soccer-specific Bonney Filed due to lower capacity, the sellouts did not stop. Fans consistently packed the 8000 seat stadium, giving the club a streak of 14 sellouts, the highest average attendance of and USL club, and the USL single season attendance record.

The success in the stands was mirrored for the most part with success on the field, with the Republic finishing second in the overall USL table behind Orlando City. The club’s overall record for the year was seventeen wins, four draws, and seven losses.

Without a doubt the best stretch of matches for the Republic came after the team moved into their soccer specific stadium, Bonney Field. In the thirteen regular season and playoff matches played at Bonney Field in 2014, the Republic won eleven, lost one, and tied one with an astounding aggregate goal differential of +19. The new home was simply a fortress. A fortress that had one of it’s sternest tests during the USL Semifinals against LA Galaxy II, in a game now called the Miracle at Bonney.

The name Miracle at Bonney came about after Rodrigo Lopez did what seemed impossible: scoring a hat trick in the final 22 minutes of the USL Semifinal match to erase a two goal deficit and drag the Republic kicking and screaming into the USL Championship match. It was one of the most intense matches of Sacramento’s inaugural season and one that will likely live on in the memories of Republic fans for quite some time.

The season ended in a just about perfect fashion for Sacramento: they won the USL Championship in front of their own fans at Bonney Field in a commanding 2-0 win, putting the cap on one of the most successful inaugural seasons in the history of American soccer.

The Offseason and the MLS Push (2014 Offseason)

With the season over, the USL Championship trophy in hand, and a handful of attendance records thrown in for good measure, the Republic looked to intensify their push for something they had said from day one that they wanted: MLS expansion.

The incredible success that Sacramento had enjoyed in their inaugural season, in particular the record setting attendance, thrust them into the discussion for MLS expansion alongside cities like Minnesota and Miami. Suddenly soccer fans all over the country were looking at Sacramento as a good place for MLS to go to.

In order to bolster their bid or expansion, the Republic made some significant moves. They brought in new ownership like current head investor Kevin Nagle, celebrity investors like UFC fighter Urijah Faber, and huge investors like the San Fransisco 49ers owners the York family and the Sacramento Kings. However, despite these deep pocketed investors, a potential soccer-specific stadium in the Sacramento Railyards, and the wildly successful year, Sacramento lost out to both Minnesota and Miami for MLS expansion teams.

However, despite being left out of the current round of expansion, Sacramento was told that they would be in a future round of expansion. The official line was that MLS in Sacramento was “not a matter of if, but when.”

Defending the Championship (2014 Offseason – Present)

Most of the roster moves in the Republic’s offseason after winning the USL Championship was focused on retaining the core of the 2014 team. 14 players from that team returned to the team for 2015, including 9 of the starting 11 from 2014 USL Championship Game, with only Adam Jahn and Jake Gleeson, both loan players, leaving.

There were also some improvements to the roster. Former MLS forward David Estrada was picked up for 2015, as were a whole host mostly younger and inexperienced players like Cameron Iwasa and Zev Taublieb.

Many stories on the current 2015 season, such as the departure of Preki and the arrival of Paul Buckle, are ongoing and as such have not been added to this brief history. We hope you enjoyed this look back at where Sacramento Republic FC have been. If you have any thoughts on the history of the defending USL Champions or anything to say on where they will be going from here, please leave a comment below.

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