Josh Cohen earns USL Save of the Week

The United Soccer League (USL) announced yesterday that Sacramento Republic FC keeper Josh Cohen had earned the USL Fans’ Choice Save of the Week for his spectacular save at Reno 1868 FC.

With Republic clinging to a 2-1 advantage in stoppage time, Reno defender Zach Carroll found some space just outside the 18-yard box and fired a shot that Cohen was able to deflect away. Check out the video below to see just how awesome his save was.

Cohen earned 51 percent of the fans vote, outlasting Diego Restrepo of San Antonio FC (28 percent) who had a remarkable double-save of his own against Phoenix Rising FC.

Cohen has been simply incredible this season — whether he’s keeping the Republic in a game or saving it late like he did last Saturday. As we opined back in July when Cohen was left off the USL mid-season awards list for keepers (for reasons that still don’t make sense), Cohen has been as good as any keeper in the league this season.

He’s second in the USL with saves (90) and tied for seventh with three other players with eight clean sheets. As an interesting side note, former Republic keeper Evan Newton also has eight clean sheets.

But beyond the stats, Cohen has provided Republic Manager Simon Elliott stability at the position, which has not been the case in recent years when the Republic, under former manager Paul Buckle, went with more of a platoon-approach (i.e., whomever had the hot hand — Newton or Dominik Jakubek).

Cohen is having perhaps his best season of his career, and as the Republic march to the playoffs, having someone of the quality like Cohen at goal could be the difference come October.