Rough week for Republic FC leads to some harsh criticism on social media

One week ago, Republic FC were in the midst of a six game unbeaten match streak and fighting for second place in the Western Conference table. Then last week happened. An 0-2 loss at St. Louis FC and then a disappointing 1-4 loss at home against Los Angeles Galaxy II, in what was easily their worst performance of the season.

As mentioned in a story earlier this month, August was a critical month for the Quails to establish themselves heading into the stretch run. Currently though, they are 2-2 with one game to play. Not horrible by any stretch, but the last two matches (particularly Saturday in the matter in which it occurred), has clearly created some frustration and doubt.

A small sample of comments on Twitter last night included: Why can’t they play a full 90 minutes? Why the slow starts? The club doesn’t care about the fans. And on and on.

Setting emotions aside, I’m of the strong opinion that you can chalk it up to a bad week. Yes, they need to still play a full 90 minutes. Yes, the slow starts are frustrating, and if they don’t clean it up, will come back to bite them come playoff time, but all in all, a bad week in the midst of a LONG season. They are fourth in the table and have time to recover.

However, as our very own Indomitable City Soccer contributor Matt Weber so eloquently pointed out (and I think it’s a great observation), I wonder how much of the frustration is with the performance on the field versus that of not landing an MLS expansion franchise yet? It’s an interesting question right?

Sounds like the Republic are hosting a town hall of sorts with fans Thursday, August 30 (additional details forthcoming) to discuss this and more. We hope to dive into this question ourselves in a future post because it deserves further discussion.

What do you think the issue is? Is it with the team or club? Or is Saturday’s post-match reaction all a little overblown? We’d love to hear your thoughts below! Sound off!