Sacramento Republic’s title defense ended early with a heated first round playoff loss to LA Galaxy II at home in front of a sold out crowd at Bonney Field. The loss ended the team’s sophomore season with a whimper rather than a bang and has already sparked discussion on what is to come next season. What we at ICS want to know is: was the 2015 season a success, a failure, or a little of both?

Winning the championship in their inaugural season set the Republic up for great expectations in their sophomore season, with many fans looking for the team to get back into the USL Championship Match and defend their title. It’s safe to say that Republic fans were confident that their team, and with good reason.

Almost the entire core of the 2014 championship team was carried over into 2015, including defensive anchors Mickey Daly and Nemanja Vukovic and team MVP Rodrigo Lopez. The only key players that did not stay with the team in 2015 were the loanees from the Portland Timbers and San Jose Earthquakes. Although the missing loan players were blows to the overall quality of the roster, there was little doubt in the minds of many in the USL Western Conference that Sacramento Republic were going to be a force to be reckoned with in 2015.

And they were. Sometimes. Other times they looked nothing at all like the defending USL champions.

It was a season of ups and downs, with the Republic playing like world-beaters one week and losing to teams like Real Monarchs SLC the next. The team that scored one of the best goals of the year was also the team that got shut out at home 5 times. Although the team was able to put together some good runs of play, including 2 separate 3 game winning streaks, they were mostly unable to settle into a rhythm like they did in 2014.

Despite the season of ups and downs, Sacramento qualified for the postseason and found themselves poised at the end of the season to finish at the top spot in the Western Conference. They held their playoff fate in their own hands, needing only a win over Orange County Blues to put them in a great position to attempt the repeat that so many fans had hoped for. However, once again the specter of inconsistency struck and the Republic were unable to score in their final 3 games of the season, putting in around 325 scoreless minutes to finish up the season.

With all that being said, we come back to the question at hand: was Sacramento Republic’s sophomore season a success, a failure, or something in between? The poll is just below, let us know your thoughts. We also encourage you to elaborate on why you voted how you did in the comments below.

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