On a night where you often couldn’t tell the difference between the pitch at Heart Health Park and an Olympic diving pool, Republic survived an onslaught of dives, flops, poor officiating, and straight up frustrating play to advance to the Western Conference Semi-Final. You have to give Tulsa credit - they came in with a game plan to break up play, slow Republic down, and disrupt the game as much as possible, which largely stopped Republic from implementing their attack as much as they had hoped. But a late breakthrough by 19 year old academy product Blake Willey finally put Tulsa to the sword. How did Republic break down a Tulsa team that seemed content to grind out the game to penalty kicks? Let’s take a look.

Republic’s starting XI required some tweaks this week. While Memo Rodriguez was unfortunately absent from the match day squad, Mark-Anthony Kaye’s return to the starting XI meant that Republic wasn’t totally scrambling in the midfield. While the backline was as stable as always, Republic’s midfield trio of Casas, Crisostomos, and Memo were forced to swap out Memo’s scoring prowess for MAK’s defensive stability. On the wings, Malango and Midence reprised their roles from the Oakland match and Jennings continues to start up top. On Memo’s absence, Collins remarked that, of course Republic had to make some tactical changes, but: 

We’ll get into those tactical changes below, as it required a look from Republic that we haven’t seen this year. For the bench, Republic named 9 subs, despite usually only being allowed 7, something they’ve done a few times this season. How, you may ask? Well, USL allows for clubs to name an additional 2 players to the match day squad provided the 2 players are either signed to a USL Academy Agreement (as Reid Paskey is) or signed a standard contract before they turned 17, which applies to Blake Willey. Willey’s case is interesting, because I can’t find any information on how long that clause applies for - he’s 19 now, with his current contract expiring at the end of the year, but that contract was signed when he was 16. Either way, using these clauses allowed Republic to ensure that the game winning goal scorer’s presence on the bench didn’t actually count against Republic’s normal bench numbers.

Tulsa came out in a look that resembles a 3-5-1 on paper but played more like a 4-2-3-1 that focused on attempting to play long balls down the wings, mostly on the right side. Just take a look at Tulsa’s attack map, with longer arrows indicating a higher number of attacks to that area and brighter squares indicating a higher concentration of play: 

They coupled this attack with a desire to largely slow the game down, as mentioned prior, and a fairly low block that invited Republic to press into their half. Look at the average positioning of Tulsa’s backline compared to Republic’s backline: 

Tulsa has 3 defenders all the way back, with a 4th (#12) only slightly in front of their backline. They’re also much deeper into their half than Republic’s backline sits, where Timmer (#4) and Desmond (#5) sit with a much higher line. Tulsa attempted to largely play long balls to their strikers in order to counter Republic - they attempted 70 long passes compared to just 51 for Republic - and largely focused on fewer, quicker passes when they were in Republic’s third of the pitch. Tulsa ended with just 84 passes within Republic’s third compared to Republic’s 144 passes in Tulsa’s third. 

To further slow Republic down, Tulsa took to the pool. Hitting the grass repeatedly killed any tempo that Republic put into the game, and Tulsa attempted to bait Republic into multiple fouls. This partially worked - Republic picked up 4 yellow cards to Tulsa’s 1, despite the same number of fouls - and Republic was not helped by a center official that struggled to control the match. As an example of the type of play Tulsa was committed to, look at this (incredible) overhead kick by MAK: 

MAK’s boot never makes contact with the opposing player - the ball actually hits the player in the upper back, not the head - and the player watches the shot before turning around and falling to the ground holding his head. The entire Tulsa team instantly starts yelling at the referee:

And asking for both a foul and a card… all while the Tulsa player lays on the ground holding his supposed head injury. As another example, would it shock you to hear that this player got up just fine not 5 seconds later?

I mean, someone give the man an Oscar - he looks like he’s been shot on the beach in Saving Private Ryan, arms waving and everything.

Diving aside, on the other side of the pitch Republic broke out an interesting switch. With Memo out injured and Republic controlling 60% of the possession, Republic pushed their second center defensive midfielder up field to attack, letting both Casas and MAK get involved with the offense, and kept just Crisostomos back as a traditional CDM. Compare Republic’s usual midfield positioning, such as the match against Oakland which shows this particularly well, compared to tonight’s positioning: 

The midfield triangle against Tulsa is inverted from the “2-1” part of the 4-2-3-1 to a “1-2”, switching the Quails into a more 4-1-4-1 or 4-1-2-3. Republic needed extra offensive player - with Memo missing, Republic desperately needed firepower up front, something that Cal Jennings has struggled to provide.

When that switch struggled to generate the offensive firepower needed, Collins turned to his bench and made 2 perfect subs: Willey came on for Midence at half time, and then Edwards, always the super sub, came in with 22 minutes left. Republic’s attack immediately looked more dangerous. Not only did Willey slot in the winning goal but, in the 22 minutes Edwards was on the pitch, Republic put up 5 shots. In the 68 minutes Jennings was on the field, Republic managed just 6. While Edwards wasn’t officially on the score sheet, his presence is what ultimately led to Willey’s goal. Before his pass to Casas (who would then cross in the ball that fell to Willey), Edwards drags 3 Tulsa defenders in towards the corner flag: 

Which in turn leaves Casas wide open to receive the pass and cross the ball into the box. Even when Edwards isn’t scoring or assisting them himself, he’s causing enough havoc for other players on the field to have chances.

On Willey’s goal, if you’re a Tulsa fan you’d be right to be furious with Deletenz Pierre, who had just subbed into the match, as he just sort of watches Willey run past him onto the free ball:

Willey makes a better read on the ball into the box, responds faster, and slots it past the keeper with power to win Republic the game - becoming the youngest player in league history to score a game winning playoff goal.

19 Years, 187 Days
Blake Willey’s age when he scored, making him the youngest player to score a game winning playoff goal in league history.

3 Matches Straight
Saturday marked Republic’s third straight match with a late game winning goal, with all 3 game winners occurring with just 3 minutes or less in the match. 

14
14 matches undefeated, which continues Republic’s club-record breaking streak. The USL record is 22 matches, set by the Richmond Kickers back in 2013.

20
Number of times that Republic has hit the woodwork this season after Casas hit the crossbar in the 72’.

59.59 Miles
Total distance covered by all Republic players against Tulsa - up from a season average of 58.16 miles. 

A hard fought victory over Tulsa sends an elated Sacramento to the next round, where they have yet another difficult match up in El Paso Locomotive. Collins thinks so too, remarking post-match:

Republic last played El Paso just 3 weeks ago, winning 1-0 away with an 87' game winning goal from Memo Rodriguez. Now, getting to play at home, Republic will look to continue that trend while El Paso will be playing for revenge. On the bright side for Republic, it sounds like Memo may at least make the bench. When asked about Memo’s availability next week by Quail City Soccer’s own Ryan Townsend, Collins had this to say:

Elsewhere around the playoffs, Republic fans should likely be hoping for Colorado to beat New Mexico. Should Republic beat El Paso, they would host Colorado or travel to New Mexico. Should Republic make the final, only New Mexico and Charleston have a higher hosting priority. As we mentioned on the podcast this week, a 9 am PST kick off with a breakfast tailgate sounds like a damn good time.

But first, the Quails must get through a tough match up against a good El Paso team this Saturday at Heart Health Park.