Sacramento Republic’s Rafael Diaz notches another clean sheet for Dominican Republic

Rafael Diaz is flying on the international front through three games, carrying a perfect defensive record for the Dominican Republic National Team through three games in 2021.

His latest accomplishment was a third consecutive clean sheet in a 6-0 win over Anguilla Saturday in Concacaf World Cup qualifying in Miami, Florida.

Anguilla came in as the smallest of Concacaf minnows, ranked last in the confederation, and the part-time squad showed they weren’t quite ready for prime time, with Dominican Republic rolling. Credit to Anguilla for holding D.R. scoreless for 20 minutes, but a penalty scored by Dorny Romero in the 21st minute opened the floodgates. From there, two goals were scored in the next 10 minutes, and by the end of the game, Romero had a brace, Nowend Lorenzo had a brace, captain Domingo Peralta had a goal and Luis Espinal came off the bench to score late.

And with Dominican Republic pummeling Anguilla on one end, that meant Diaz didn’t have much work to do on the other, so he didn’t have a stressful shift overall. But the Sacramento Republic FC goalkeeper did what he needed to and maintains his perfect start for his country.

World Cup qualifying is done for D.R. for this FIFA window, so Diaz will be returning to Sacramento for training camp. He’ll likely be back in the fray in June, and they’re scheduled to play Barbados and the cream of the group, Panama. If Dominican Republic can keep their momentum going, their campaign to reach the 2022 World Cup could continue to rumble on.

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