2025 Match Recap: Sacramento Republic FC 1, Louisville City FC 1
This gauntlet of a start continued for the Republic as Louisville City came to town. The Republic were aiming to give Louisville their first loss of the season and get back to winning ways. Both teams were up for the occasion and came out fighting. Cristian Parano opened the scoring in the second half. But it was another late goal given up that left the Republic with 1 point.
Last year's Player's Shield Holders and the defending Eastern Conference regular season champions, Louisville have gotten off to a hot start this season. 3 wins out of 4 played, and one out of two teams yet to have recorded a loss this season heading into this match. Louisville just have this consistency that is carried year after year. It became a common saying that the Eastern Conference championship runs through Louisville. That was until last year where they failed to make the conference finals after losing to Rhode Island in the second round. But, the club has decided to mainly run it back, retaining a lot of the players from last year's roster. The main person to keep an eye on would be Ray Serrano playing down the left wing. Serrano is the club's leading scorer with 3 goals on the season. The last match for this team was a 2-0 win at home against Detroit.
The Republic have had a mixed bag through their first three games of the season. The team have had two great performances at home. But, last time out was a flat 0-1 loss away to Tulsa. There were questions after their last match in regards to the roster sent out there. And I was curious to see how Coach Neill Collins handled this match. The attack just didn't seem threatening going into the final phase of play going against Tulsa's low block. Would we see players like Lewis Jamieson and Nick Ross return to the starters or would we see Sebastian Herrera and Justin Portillo get the nod? The last time these two played it was the crazy 4-3 match away at Louisville where both sides had the lead, but it took a goal late in stoppage time to seal it for Louisville. Nick Ross had a brace on that night with Kieran Phillips getting the third.
Coach Danny Cruz had this setup for Louisville:
Our XI in Sacramento 😈 Evan Davila gets his first start of the year + more in tonight's team news: tinyurl.com/5wkw4hcf
— Louisville City FC (@loucity.com) April 5, 2025 at 6:05 PM
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Coach Neill Collins made this selection for Sacramento:
Here is tonight's starting XI vs Louisville City FC
— Sacramento Republic FC (@sacrepublicfc.bsky.social) April 5, 2025 at 6:24 PM
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Coach Collins opted to use a similar lineup to the home matches that started the season. However, there were still a couple pieces being rotated in. Jared Timmer made his first start of the season after not appearing on the teamsheet so far in 2025. Lewis Jamieson returns to lead the line after coming off the bench at Tulsa. Blake Willey also returned to the starting lineup, but this time as a midfielder alongside Luis Felipe. Cristian Parano took the winger spot that Willey would normally play to hopefully combine with Jack Gurr going down the right flank. One note on the bench is Ryan Spaulding coming back to the teamsheet after suffering an injury in the first match of the season against New Mexico.
Both teams came out aggressive in the opening minutes of play. Lewis Jamieson had a great olimpico attempt that had to be punched out by the Louisville keeper Las in the 5th minute. And then Louisville responded with a chance of their own in the 7th minute. Perez won a ball going down the right and made his way past Benitez. Danny Vitiello got on the chance and smothered the opportunity.
Sacramento was definitely not backing down from the challenge. In the 11th minute they got another opportunity. Blake Willey in the midfielder played Russell Cicerone through on goal. He got past his mark but the shot ended up being blocked by the Louisville defense.
Louisville worked their way into an opportunity in the 30th minute. Cross from the right flank reached Ray Serrano at the opposite post. He headed it down to Aiden McFadden. But Danny Vitiello read the situation and got out to block all potential angles and only gave up a throw-in.
A pair of opportunities from both sides almost resulted in breakthroughs. First in the 38th minute Louisville had a great chance off of a well worked set piece routine. From the corner kick, the ball found McFadden making a run behind everyone to the far post. He was open and headed the ball down towards the Republic goal. The Republic defense were able to turn the chance away at the goal line and conceded another corner kick.
Then on the ensuing possession, it was Sacramento's turn to build some pressure. After passing and crossing the ball around the Louisville box, Jared Timmer ended up in possession. He lofted a ball up and over the Louisville backline to find Jack Gurr making a run behind. He cleanly fired a shot that narrowly missed the target, just ended up on the wrong end of the opposite post.
The halftime break came with neither side able to find a breakthrough. That being said, there were plenty of quality opportunities for both teams. Shots were fairly even at the interval with Sacramento having the narrow edge 6 shots to Louisville's 5. But the visitors had the advantage on shots on target with 2 shots to Sacramento's 1. Both teams were up for the occasion and neither were willing to back down in the first half. The matchup that needed to be watched would be the wingbacks. Who would be able to get the better of their direct opponent and find the space needed to create? Jack Gurr going against Aiden McFadden was fun to watch as both players were going back and forth up and down the field just throwing everything at each other.
Coach Collins made a pair of substitutions at halftime to freshen up the backline. Chibi Ukaegbu and Ryan Spaulding came on to take the places of Dominik Wanner and Jared Timmer.
The pace of the game slowed down to start the second chance as both teams became more methodical in possession.
Louisville had the first clear opportunities in the second half. Goodrum was played through, in the 63rd minute, onto the Republic net with only Vitiello to beat. But it was Freddie Kleeman that came in with the recovery one and got a great slide tackle in to stop the attack.
Coach Collins made another substitution in the 65th minute. Sebastian Herrera took to the pitch to lead the Republic attack in place of Lewis Jamieson.
It would be Sacramento to open the scoring in the 69th minute. Some pressure forced the Louisville keeper to play the ball quickly. The pass was mishandled and Crisitan Parano was the first to the attempted pass. He caught the keeper in no man's land and chipped the ball over and into the Louisville net.
FILE NAME: Cristian Parano with a Spectacular Goal vs Louisville City FC and that it is 😮💨
— Sacramento Republic FC (@sacrepublicfc.bsky.social) April 5, 2025 at 8:44 PM
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And for the first time since last year. Rodrigo Lopez took to the field at Heart Health Park in place for Cristian Parano in the 78th minute.
And then in the 84th minute, AJ Edwards came on to replace Jack Gurr.
Louisville were pushing for an equalizer but in stoppage time Sacramento came away with a free opportunity out of the pressure. Cicerone had the ball in space and played it to Roro cutting across the Louisville goal. The shot was blocked off by the Louisville keeper out for a corner.
Louisville found an equalizer in stoppage time. The ball was bouncing around in the Republic box and was attempted to be cleared out. It took a deflection off of Dia on the way out and floated into the back of the net.
Quite the heads up goal from Amadou Dia to grab the equalizer 🤯
— Louisville City FC (@loucity.com) April 5, 2025 at 9:17 PM
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The Republic tried to get a goal late in stoppage time but were unable to. Another late goal against the Republic to drop points. I'll be honest, I'm a little bit stunned after the Louisville equalizer. Another win that was right there for the Republic just given up after a freak opportunity. But, still a great performance against a quality opponent. Going into this match I would've been happy with a point, but I'm a bit sad with this result. Hopefully the points dropped here and in the Colorado Springs match won't come back and haunt us come playoff time. Next up for the Republic is an away trip to Orange County. Onwards!
Key Takeaways:
- It's great to see the Republic take it to Louisville. They had fight from the jump. But, damn another late goal given up drops more points for the Republic.
- Rodrigo Lopez coming off the bench in front of the home crowd was a great moment.
- This was still a strong performance. If they can just find a way to close opponents out, we will definitely be making moves up the table.
Sacramento Republic FC: 1 goal, 8 shots, 4 shots on target, 49.1% possession, 5 corners, 1 offsides, 0 yellow cards, 0 red cards.
Louisville City FC: 1 goal, 9 shots, 4 shots on target, 50.1% possession, 3 corners, 3 offsides, 1 yellow cards, 0 red cards.
Republic FC Lineup: Danny Vitiello, Michel Benitez, Jared Timmer (OUT, HT'), Freddy Kleeman, Dominik Wanner (OUT, HT'), Jack Gurr (OUT, 84'), Cristian Parano (OUT, 78'), Luis Felipe, Lewis Jamieson (OUT, 65'), Blake Willey, Russell Cicerone
Republic FC Bench: Jared Mazzola, Chibi Ukaegbu (IN, HT'), Ryan Spualding (IN, HT'), AJ Edwards (IN, 84'), Rodrigo Lopez (IN, 78'), Justin Portillo, Rayan Djedje, Trevor Amann, Sebastian Herrera (IN, 65')
What were your thoughts on the match? Sound off in the comments below!
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Check out the stats from this match here!
Riyan Lacara
All Is Quail Blog Author/Co-Host
The “numbers guy”, Riyan! Riyan is a native of Sacramento and has been following the Republic since day one. He has covered the team across different media outlets including now his own, All is Quail Soccer. Aside from putting numbers in spreadsheets, he has a love of video games and finding a good book to put in his ever growing to-read pile.
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