April 29, 2022 – United Soccer League Championship (USL) – Sacramento Republic FC News Release
Republic FC is back at home in league play for the first time in nearly a month this weekend, welcoming Las Vegas Lights FC. The contest will be a challenge, as the Southern Nevada club has been one of the league’s most surprising teams, but Sacramento is more motivated than they’ve been all year coming off their toughest result of the season.
A full week of training has helped the squad get back on track this week – in Rio Grande Valley, it was clear that a busy stretch had begun to wear on the club. Now fully recharged, they believe they are ready for the challenge to come.
“Obviously with the amount of games over the past two weeks, our focus was on recovery,” said Head Coach Mark Briggs. “This week we’ve been able to focus in on a few little details we think need improving.”
“The last result we had was a poor one on our behalf,” said Zeiko Lewis on Thursday. “But that’s just more motivation to come out and get a result, especially in front of our home fans. I think the loss inspired us to come out and work harder this week.”
Further, more motivation has been provided by the club’s current streak at home, currently at five straight – If the club can extend that to six, they’ll set a new mark for consecutive home wins by the club. And it’ll make the fans happy – their ultimate goal this year.
“We want to keep our home streak in front of them alive,” Lewis continued. “Them being there supporting us makes the world of a difference for us, and we don’t want to send them home upset.”
The Las Vegas team that will line up opposite the club on Saturday won’t make that goal easy to achieve, however. After entering the season with a lot to improve on from last season, they’ve unseated a few of the league’s top clubs and taken a few other strong opponents down to the wire. Through their first eight matches, the club has been one of the most dangerous offensively, both…