The Quails welcomed Detroit City to Sacramento for just the second time in club history and kept their perfect record over the visitors intact. In 4 matches against Detroit, Republic has outscored them 5-0 and have won every match.

But this was not a match that looked easy on paper. Republic came in unbeaten in 5, but with just 1 win to show for it and would have to find a way to score on the league's stingiest defense to pick up a much needed 3 points at home. How did the tactical battle play out? Let’s take a look.

While last week in Orange County gave a chance for center back Jared Timmer to show off his wing back skills, playing as a right back, this week Republic awarded that chance to Lee Desmond, who slotted in as a left back in the back 4 formation. In 360 career appearances, Desmond has played left back just 23 times - and just 9 of those have been for Republic in 150 appearances.

Rounding out the back line were Kleemann, who played his first full 90 minutes since April 21st, Timmer, and Gurr, who returned to the lineup after being absent from the 18 all together last week. The middle of the pitch stayed solid; while Benitez and MAK continue to be out injured, Casas, Crisostomos, and Memo have locked things down.

Out wide is where things really changed - in for Spaulding at right wing was Malango, while Midence made his first start for Republic, replacing Willey. And of course, new signing Cal Jennings started up top.

On the other side of the pitch, Detroit’s XI was fairly consistent, with one notable exception: the absence of Darren Smith, a striker that is tied for second in the Golden Boot race and has led Detroit’s attack all season. Smith picked up an injury 2 games ago, and hasn’t made the 18 since.

This match was always going to be a defensive battle. Detroit City have the league's best defensive record, with just 19 goals against, while Republic sit at second best in the league with just 20 goals allowed. Neither team is particularly high scoring either - despite an attack led by the aforementioned Darren Smith, Detroit have just 28 goals on the season, tied for 8th worst in the league. Republic is only a bit better off - their 30 goals have them tied for 13th in the league.

In fact, both teams have a fairly similar look. They both tend to utilize a 4-2-3-1, sit above 50% possession on the season, play a fairly defensive game despite that possession, and use their wing backs to stretch the field while their midfielders stay central. The main difference between the teams is how high up the field they want to control the ball, which is something we can measure using a statistic called field tilt.

Field tilt takes your final third, i.e. the opposing team’s third of the pitch, and measures what percentage of passes that your team had out of all passes in that third. For example, if there were 100 passes in the opposition’s third of the field, and your team had 40 of those, your field tilt would be 40%. It’s a way of measuring how high up the pitch a team is controlling the ball. You can sort of divide field tilt into 4 quadrants, when compared with possession, to see where teams have the ball: 

Republic is solidly in the top right box - they have the 5th highest average possession (54.3%) in the league and the 2nd highest average field tilt (58.7%) - meaning they control the ball a lot, and a lot of that control is in the opposition’s third of the pitch. Detroit, meanwhile, has the 7th highest average possession in the league (52.7%), but they pair that with just about an average field tilt (49.7%). So they control the ball well, but most of that control is in the middle or back third of the pitch.

That comparison played out in an interesting way in this match up. Look at both teams’ average positioning, Republic on the left and” Le Rouge” on the right:

Detroit actually controlled more of the possession, 51.7%, but look how far back their average positioning is compared to Republic’s. The majority of the game occurred in the midfield (42% of all passes) or Detroit’s third (36%), compared to Republic’s third (22%). 51.7% to 48.3% possession is a negligible difference, so the real difference maker here is where the possession occurred.

And that shows in the shot numbers. Republic held Detroit to 6 shots, with just 1 on target, while Republic had 14 shots, 6 of which were on target. Major credit here to Detroit’s goalkeeper, Carlos Herrera, who was the second highest ranked player on the field with an 8.2 player rating due to 5 saves and a punch. Republic head coach Neill Collins’ agreed:

This was always going to be a game with a single goal, and Republic needed a set piece to do it, scoring the lone goal on a Jared Timmer header off what appeared to be a planned corner play. Watch how all of Republic’s players rush the near post on the kick, while Memo sends it to a waiting and open Jack Gurr on the back post, and then all those players on the front post (now back post) are ready for Gurr’s cross:

It’s really well done, because it throws Detroit’s defense into a panic - they don’t know who to mark after the ball goes through, it takes a minute for someone to step out to Gurr, and once the ball comes in, Timmer is largely unmarked. He’s not even challenged on the header. 

I’m not sure what changed in the Republic coaching offices, there wasn’t any news of any sort of set piece expert being hired, but Republic have gone from not scoring off a corner in over a year to now scoring 5 of their last 10 goals off of corners. The congratulatory handshakes on Republic’s bench after the goal make it fairly clear that this move was straight from the training ground. Republic is 6th in the league in corners, a statistic that also speaks to their field tilt, and appear to have finally found a way to consistently convert these chances. 

As the game progressed, Republic’s high press began to slow down. Republic ceded 61% of the possession to Detroit and 4 of their 5 corner kicks in the second half. There is an argument to be made that the subs came on a little late, with Willey and Edwards coming in for Midence and Jennings in the 67th minute, and Wolff coming on for Malango in the 75th. Republic sought to keep the pressure on by pressing Detroit into their own midfield, with all 3 players coming in playing more centrally than the players they replaced. Republic’s final sub, Essel for Casas, happened with just a minute remaining in the game. 

For such a high pressing game, the lack of use out of the last 2 sub opportunities was a bit surprising - but it could be that Collins feels his options on the pitch are just that much better than those on the bench. Take Arturo, for example, who appears to be completely in the doghouse. He started the first 9 games of the season, putting up a 6.94 player rating with 5 assists and a goal, but was subbed off at halftime of that horrible Phoenix game back in May. Since then? Just 1 start and 6 sub appearances in 14 matches, and averaging just 14.5 minutes per game in games where he does sub in. While this could be a result of injury, the fact that he has managed to play off and on while being on the bench every single match indicates that he’s not hurt. Even so, not seeing the extra available substitution used to bring in Spaulding or Leibold was an interesting choice, though one that obviously paid off. 

Overall, a very professional tactical performance by Republic to see off a very good team. Collins said it best post-match:

4
Number of “key passes”, or passes that lead directly to a teammate's shot, that Memo Rodriguez had.

8.4
Jack Gurr’s player rating, his best of the season. He went 4 for 7 on crosses and had an assist while having 7 defensive contributions and winning 4 duals, easily his best work of the season on both sides of the ball.

+0.86
Republic’s average expected goal difference over the last 5 matches - that is, their expected goals for minus their expected goals against. Nearly a goal a game is very impressive form.

7.1
The average player rating of the starting XI in this match - the team’s highest since beating Sporting Jax 5-0.

22 mph
Lee Desmond’s top speed during the match - tied for the third highest on the pitch with Midence and Detroit’s Montgomery. Usually, with him playing center back, we don’t get to see his pace, but he was able to fully unleash it at left back.

Republic have now scored in each of their last 5 matches - their second longest streak in league play this season, after a streak of 7 games earlier this season where Republic went 2W-3D-2L. In their last 10 matches, they’re now at 4W-5D-1L, taking 17 out of 30 available points. Not a bad rate! Of course, with how tight the West is, the club would rather those draws be wins, as Jared Timmer says:

The final 7 game stretch sees Republic play a true variety of opponents - 3 opponents are solidly midtable (San Antonio, Colorado, and Tulsa), 2 are the best in the West (El Paso and New Mexico), and Vegas and Oakland are… well, Vegas and Oakland. Republic do have the advantage of a match in hand though, with one game fewer played than everyone outside of Tulsa and New Mexico. While they only trail a seemingly unbeatable El Paso by just 7 points,  just 3 points separate Republic from the playoff cutoff line. They can’t expect to cruise through Vegas and Oakland and call it a day - Republic will need to grind out some real wins against good opposition to secure not just a playoff spot, but a home playoff game.