Indomitable City Soccer is taking a look back at the 2015 Sacramento Republic FC season one player at a time. What better way to start off the series than with team captain, Justin Braun?

2015 Review

Simply put, 2015 was Braun’s best year in a Republic jersey. Although to be fair, it was also only the second year of the team’s existence, so that is sort of a low bar in the first place.

However, that does not discount the fact that Braun’s 2015 season was his best yet for Sacramento by many measures.

The first of those measures is simply minutes spent on the field. Braun played 25 out 29 league and playoff games for Sacramento this year, compared to just 19 of 31 in 2014. He also played the sixth most minutes of any Republic player this season with 1894.

While more minutes on the field does not necessarily mean that a player plays better or is more impactful, it does mean that they have more opportunities to make an impact. This held true for Braun, who more chances to make an impact, which led in part to his improvement in other areas.

Braun can be a polarizing figure at times, with some Republic fans periodically becoming frustrated with his lack of consistent goal production. This was especially the case in 2014, when he found the back of the net just 4 times in league play. However, in 2015 he doubled his goal tally, scoring a total of 8 times in the regular season.

He was especially prolific towards the end of the season, with over half of his goals coming after the coaching change from Preki to Paul Buckle. While some of that can be put down to chance or strength of opponent, the different way Braun was utilized under Buckle was likely a big part in the improved goalscoring numbers. He scored 5 goals in the 10 league games Buckle was in charge, compared to 3 in 18 under Preki.

Buckle himself told the Sacramento Bee that he tried to get Braun closer to the goal, something which surely factored into the captain’s increased production.

Best Game

Although most of Braun’s late season form was good, his two game stretch in which he scored four goals was especially notable. He looked particularly impressive against Vancouver Whitecaps 2 when he scored two goals to lead the Republic to a 2-1 road victory that secured Sacramento’s place in the USL Playoffs.

Braun was dangerous all game that day, making dangerous runs like the one that led to his second goal (video provided by Republic fan and Streamable maker extraordinaire, vanillacokeee).

Editor’s Note: An honorable mention shout-out goes to the game against Timbers 2 late in the season that gave us this glorious goal celebration.

2016 Outlook

Unless there is going to be some earth-shattering event during the offseason, Justin Braun is going to continue to be an important contributor for Sacramento Republic FC in 2016. At this point it is frankly hard to imagine a Republic team without him.

Braun has been the team captain since day one, has played more minutes than any other Republic forward, and is one of the most experienced players on the team.

One area that we would definitely like to see improvement in next season is Braun’s goal production. He does a lot of good work on and off the ball, but the Republic need to score goals and he needs to do more on that front. While 12 goals over 2 seasons is not a terrible number, Sacramento will need more from Braun as a forward and as team captain in 2016.

We will be looking to see if Braun can build on his improved 2015 numbers and deliver a double digit goal tally next season.

Let us know what you thought of Justin Braun’s 2015 season down in the comments below.