SACRAMENTO, Calif. — When Sacramento Republic forward Maalique Foster walked to the penalty spot in the U.S. Open Cup semifinal July 27, it represented one of the most pivotal moments in club history and in American soccer lore.
After 120 minutes of goalless soccer, second-division USL Championship side Sacramento trailed Major League Soccer’s Sporting Kansas City 4-3 in the decisive penalty shootout. Neither team had missed, so Foster needed to score to keep pace. A failed attempt would put the team on the brink of elimination, possibly ending a magical tournament run that had re-energized the soccer community in California’s capital city, following a disappointing previous year.
So, naturally, Foster went about it in one of the most audacious ways possible: a Panenka. The Jamaican’s approach was normal enough, but just as he arrived at the ball and planted his left foot, he slowed into a lean and softly chipped the ball right down the middle. There was nothing SKC goalkeeper John Pulskamp could do — other than smirk afterward — as he fell helplessly to his right.
Foster cartwheeled into a backflip and, in a nod to Steph Curry, rested his face on his hands … night night.
Maalique Foster đ€ @StephenCurry30 @SacRepublicFC đŽ #USOC2022 pic.twitter.com/L1chZoH00x
â U.S. Open Cup (@opencup) July 28, 2022
The shootout wasn’t over, but it might as well have been. Sacramento goalkeeper Danny Vitiello saved Graham Zusi‘s attempt moments later before Rodrigo Lopez, the club’s first-ever signing in 2014, sealed the Republic’s passage to the final with an emphatic final penalty.
Sacramento will travel to Orlando City SC for the Wednesday final (8 p.m. ET, ESPN+) with a chance to make history. Simply put, a victory would complete one of the greatest underdog stories in American soccer history.
Advancing this far in the tournament is a significant achievement for any club, but for the Republic — just more than a year after its MLS status dissolved unexpectedly — it’s more than just the opportunity to win silverware or qualify for CONCACAF Champions League.
Not since 2008 had a non-Major League Soccer team advanced to the Open Cup final (Charleston Battery, 2008), and only once since MLS began play in 1996 has a team not from of it won the competition (Rochester Rhinos, 1999).
For the club and city, it’s more than just pride. It’s about belonging. It’s a statement of intent that the Republic, once tabbed to join MLS, doesn’t necessarily need it to ensure a vibrant future.
“If you don’t have struggle, then when you experience the highs, they’re not as high,” Sacramento mayor Darrell Steinberg said. “When you’ve had struggles, it’s so much sweeter and I do think that’s part of it. We don’t feel like we have anything to prove and we’re showing it.”
MLS snub ‘a big shock’
This was supposed to be the year that soccer lifted Sacramento.
At least that was the plan when thousands of fans packed downtown in October 2019 for the announcement the city and the Republic had been building toward for years: MLS was officially coming to town.
The club had the backing of billionaire Ron Burkle, a part-owner of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins. MLS commissioner Don Garber raved about the community. A $300 million, 20,100-seat soccer-specific stadium was set to be the centerpiece of a transformational development project that would double the size of the city’s downtown. All the pieces fell into place.
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“For many years, soccer fans in Sacramento have passionately supported Republic FC and shown that the club deserves to be competing at the highest level,” Garber said at the time, with MLS announcing the team would join the league in 2022 from the USL Championship.
When the starting date was delayed until 2023 months later, during the height of the pandemic, club employees went about business-as-usual as much as that was possible at the time, thinking that’s all it was — a delay.
And at first, that’s all it appeared to be. But as the pandemic continued to wreak havoc, circumstances continued to change and in December 2020, Burkle’s group missed a deadline to submit a signed MLS expansion agreement and its first payment toward the $200 million expansion fee, which was reported by The Athletic the following month.
The death knell came Feb. 26, 2021. Late that Friday, MLS announced Burkle had revoked his pledged support of the Republic, citing the impact of the pandemic, and plans for the club to join MLS were on “indefinite hold.” Though the league, the club and city all indicated intent to find a new majority investor to keep the Republic a viable MLS team, it’s hard to overstate how deflating the news was.
