Putting Sacramento Republic’s slump in historical perspective

Sacramento Republic FC are in a slump right now, no doubt about it.

Coming off their most recent fixture, a 2-0 loss at Real Monarchs on Wednesday, Sac Republic are now five games winless in USL Championship play. With only seven games played so far this season, that trend looks worrisome for a team that fancied itself a contender this season.

And while what’s happened in the past, with different players and coaches, doesn’t necessarily have bearing on what will come in the future, how does this current slump look in club history?

Well, it’s the second-worst winless run in league play in Republic FC history at this point. The current skid, one point in five games, is only worsted to date by 2017, when Republic had a six-game winless streak and picked up just one draw in that stretch.

After that is the current bad stretch, followed closely behind by a five-game winless streak in 2016 that featured two draws. On top of that, the team had a separate three-game losing streak that season, which the 2021 squad hasn’t done so far.

The silver lining? In 2016 and 2017, Sacramento still made the playoffs. That doesn’t mean that we should assume the same will happen this season, but given the timing of the slump at present, there is still time for them to get back on track, rack up a bunch of wins, and come good to reach the postseason yet again. Yes, five of their Pacific Division opponents have games in hand on SRFC right now, but Sac Republic sit in 5th place right now, one spot out of the final playoff spot. So they are so far from adrift right now, not even close.

Of course, they can’t afford to continue losing games if they are to get back to the playoffs this year, so they’ll have to find solutions as soon as possible, but even if this skid is approaching club-worst levels in history, the season is far from a lost cause at this point.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.