When you win a game like that, my job becomes both very easy and very difficult. Easy, because there is so much to write about—5 goals, a hat trick, 2 corner goals, a clean sheet, etc etc—that I can basically focus on what I want. But, therein also lies the difficult part. This analysis cannot, regrettably, be 10 pages long. There just isn’t enough time or space to cover every single positive thing in this match. So rather than spread ourselves thin here, we’re going to look at a few tactical changes that occurred, hit on a few of the core numbers, and see where things go from there. Let’s get into it! 

For the first time in what feels like a long while, Republic kept a fairly consistent starting XI between the Oakland match and the Sporting Jax match. The lone exception was the addition of Chibi Ukaegbu to the lineup in place of Aaron Essel. One surprise was the continuation of Tyler Wolff at the striker position; he had made his first start in that role for Republic in the Oakland game, but didn’t exactly light the world on fire, ending that match with a 6.4 player rating and just a single shot. That being said, Edwards has clearly shown he plays best from the bench, and Ajago’s coming back from a red card for violent conduct—perhaps Collins wanted to send a message. 

But, playing the worst team in the entirety of USL not withstanding, the lineup consistency paid off in a major way. Sporting Jax is a terrible team—they came into the game with a -23 goal difference and just 8 points—but the expansion side has recently started playing, if not “well,” at least “ok,” picking up their lone win and 2 of their 5 total draws in just the last 4 matches. This could have easily been a trap game, where over confidence caused an upset, and Collins alluded to as much: 

So with that in mind, Republic sought to establish some consistency on the pitch. To pull out another Collins quote, he talked about the team trying to find form: 

And come together they have, with 8 goals in just 2 matches for this Starting XI. 

Last week against Oakland, Collins made a slight tactical tweak at half time when he subbed left back Aaron Essel out for Chibi Ukaegbu. Rather than come in at left back, Chibi slotted into what I am calling a “right center back” role, and Republic switched to a back 3—but they kept Jack Gurr on the field. This pushed Lee Desmond over to “left center back” and moved Timmer to “central center back.” It worked wonders. Republic allowed just a single shot and scored twice after the adjustment.

Let’s rewind for a second and review how Republic have utilized their backline this season, when they gain possession. In an ideal scenario, Republic sends both the right back and left back up field in the attack, usually Gurr and Benítez, while one of the CDM’s drops into the backline and pushes both center backs out wide, like so:

This works in theory—the 4 at the back becomes 3 at the back, and both defensive backs are able to streak up field. And while Republic do have a great defensive record this year, this has caused some confusion on the backline. There have been several occasions where an opposing counter attack has led to the single midfielder being overrun, the defensive players losing their marks, and easy goals. Even worse, it’s caused a few incidents where the CDM didn’t actually drop in—leading to just 2 center backs to deal with an onslaught of opposing attackers. Look at this instance against Phoenix:

Crisostomo (#27) is the dropping CDM in this case and can’t get back in time, leaving 2 center backs to cover 3 attackers.

This problem, combined with starting left back Benítez being injured for who knows how long, meant that Collins has tweaked this plan. Now, instead of a CDM dropping in while both outside defenders push up, now just one outside defender pushes up, while the 3 remaining defenders “tuck in”:

This means that Republic always maintains a 3 at the back, and doesn’t have to rely on a CDM to drop in. It also frees up both CDM’s—knowing that there are 3 defenders behind them, both can either more boldly get involved with the attack or more aggressively step in to challenge for the ball, with less concern of being the last man back if they get beat. Just look at the base numbers for the 2 CDM’s against Sporting Jax. Pep Casas was able to get forward more than normal and control the ball much more comfortably than anyone else on the field, ending the game with more accurate passes than anyone else on the field had total passes while maintaining an accuracy rating of 96% and picking up an assist. Meanwhile, MAK was able to step into challenges far more comfortably, breaking up Jax’s attack before it could even reach the backline—his 11 duals, 6 of which he won, were the 2nd highest on the team. 

To further drive home the point, look at Republic’s average positioning from this match:

That’s a very solid 3 at the back. You’ll also notice how high up Jack Gurr (#2) is playing—that’s because of the other advantage this tactical tweak gives—Republic can freely move to 5 attacking players without sacrificing the middle of the pitch. When Gurr moves up field, it bumps the right winger (#20, Willey) more central, and in turn, the center attacking mid (#8, Memo Rodriguez) can move to his left, creating a 4-pronged attack behind the striker. Look how this works in its entirety, and how easily Republic can go from a 4-2-3-1 to a 3-2-4-1 when they gain possession:

There is a lot of flexibility here, too much to write out, but Republic can alternatively have various players make inside runs, outside runs, drop, man mark, or zone mark depending on what the situation calls for. But this roughly matches the average positioning you see above—especially because Republic controlled 65.6% of the possession.

Now let’s get into those rapid fire numbers that made this tactic actual work:

Republic’s 10 shots on target were a season high, and their 19 shots on target over the last 2 matches is equal to the total shots on target in the 7 matches before that. And finally hitting the target has done wonders—coming into the game, Republic was the 5th worst in the league in shot conversion rate at just 9.8%—they now sit at 12.7%, good for 6th best in the league.

Memo Rodríguez has been looking for his break out game all season—Collins said he was getting “a little frustrated” because the productivity numbers weren’t there. Six minutes were all he needed to change that, providing 3 assists to 3 different players in that time period including…

Yes, that’s right, the streak is broken!!!! The last time Republic scored directly from a corner was May 17, 2025, when Trevor Amann scored a header for the 5th goal of a 5-0 drubbing of Las Vegas in the Open Cup. It took 130 corners to do it, and both deliveries were by Memo Rodríguez. A Republic team with an effective corner routine would be an offensive juggernaut—Republic is already 8th in the league in corners taken.

That defensive realignment that we discussed above? It led to the lowest xG against Republic all year at just 0.04. Republic limited Sporting Jax to just a single shot, and it wasn’t threatening. In fact, since they switched to this alignment starting the beginning of the second half against Oakland, Republic have allowed only 2 shots in 135 minutes. 

Also, a shutout to center back and team captain Lee Desmond, who made his 400th career appearance, an incredible achievement.

I’d be remiss if we didn’t discuss Tyler Wolff at all here, who’s hat trick and 10.0 player rating are both firsts for a Republic player this season. What is interesting to note is that Wolff came into the game with an average player rating of just 6.53—the lowest on the team of all players who have played at least 90 minutes. 

Despite the low player rating and single goal coming into the match, Wolff has appeared in every Republic game except one since signing for the club. I have a suspicion that this may be due to his loan status, still contracted to MLS-side Real Salt Lake. Often, loan agreements come tied with some guarantee of play time, given that the player was loaned out specifically to get more first-team minutes to assist with their development. Even if there isn’t, it’s likely that Republic wants to avoid garnering a reputation for loaning players in and not playing them—that’s a good way to have teams avoid loaning players to you. So there is real incentive from both sides for Wolff to perform here.

This breakout performance is a great sign from both sides and comes at a very opportune time—the striker starting position is there for the taking with Ajago struggling and Edwards succeeding primarily as a super sub, and it will be very interesting to see what position he ends up starting at against either Tulsa or Pittsburgh this week. The real question will be if he can give these types of performances against tougher opposition.

With 9 goals scored and only 2 against in the 3 matches since the disastrous Boise game and subsequent 3-week break, Republic are riding high. They’ve moved up to 4th place in the West and have 2 games in hand over both 1st place Orange County and 2nd place San Antonio, giving them a real chance to make up some ground in the fight for the top of the West. 

But things aren’t going to be easy—up next is a 2 away matches in a week, with 5th in the West Tulsa up first on Wednesday before playing 5th in the East Pittsburgh on Saturday. Memo Rodríguez had this to say about the upcoming matches:

Points on the road this coming week will be huge for confidence—for the players and the fans. We’ll all be waiting to see if the goal-scoring problems are still lingering, or are a thing of the past. 

On a last note—if you are a fan of numbers and stats like myself, I strongly recommend checking out John Morrissey’s new Data Tool over at USL Tactics. John’s reporting on USL as a whole is 2nd to none, and this new data tool will be invaluable for comparing teams and looking at stats. The Player Data Tool is equally as good too!