Another weekday game for Fresno comes just four days after our win over SLC. We will be taking on the Sacramento Republic at Chukchansi Park on Wednesday, May 8th at 7:30 P.M.

This should be a great match, last year the fixture ended 2-0 with Frank the Tanks amazing shot from over the half line. The Republic is a strong team and this is a highly anticipated #Highway99Derby.

Sacramento Leaving?

With the possibility of an MLS franchise looming over Sacramento – its time to ask the question: Are they a good rival to invest in?

Sacramento has always had a high idea of themselves, and that can make someone a good rival, but if they are going to MLS we have to ask the question; is all the work we put into our rivalry worth it? The #Highway99Derby is probably our most famous one, we love it because of how close Sacramento is and because they are well supported, but it might be better to look elsewhere for derbies.

I love a good derby match. The North London Derby is one of my favorites and there is none more famous than El Classico – but you can’t have something become a classic if the two sides never meet. I think, then, that we as fans should begin to divest ourselves from this derby. Let’s instead focus on developing other derbies as must-see matches and build a history through those games. We don’t want to be pining for times gone by when Sacramento goes on to be a mid-tier team in the MLS.

New Year, Same Sac?

Sacramento was a top team last year. They finished 2nd during regular season play with a 19-8-7 record. Sacramento was a force to be reckoned with.

This year it seems the team has started poorly. If they are the same team they can’t lose much anymore and keep hopes of tying their record, they are sitting at three losses from eight games.

What that means is we should definitely look to win the game when they come to the Chuk on Wednesday. Even if Sacramento is the same team as last season and they are just having a run of bad form, it means we need to capitalize on that bad form to win again. If we win it means we are that much closer to playoffs.

The Play

Sacramento hasn’t conceded many goals, just nine in eight games, but when they do concede it is usually costly. Their last game was a 4-2 loss to Las Vegas. If we can get them on the back-foot, really push them with our attacking play, then it is possible that we might be able to bag a couple of goals and keep them out of ours.

I think we need to run a quick offense, hitting their defense on the counter. It seems more likely we will make an impact if we hit them when they’re overstretched. Our wingbacks and wingers will need to bring the ball forward quickly and hit some good crosses to our forward – that should be enough to break them down.

Defensively we should look to keep them out of the box. They have scored 80% of their goals from inside the 18, so keeping them out will definitely limit what they are able to do as a team. We have one of the strongest defenses in the USL West, and we are going to be relying on them to keep Cameron Iwasa at bay – he is their leading scorer with five goals in eight games.

Onward

I think looking forward we have a lot of play coming up, Smith is going to be looking to rotate the team which is probably why Caffa was rested for the game in SLC. I think we might see something different in terms of line-up and formation on Wednesday.

It will be something to see these next two weeks. The Foxes are a very old team, probably one of the oldest in the USL – so how Smith rotates for the 4 games coming up is going to determine a lot of how we play and if we win. It’s definitely a puzzle.

Final Thoughts

It will be a great match, hopefully, the rivalry will pull some people out to the #Highway99Derby and we can pack the Chuk.

I think we have a good shot, but I anticipate a low scoring game. I will say 1-0 to the Foxes.

Until next time.

#SomosZorros