Sacramento Republic FC came into Saturday’s season-opening match against Tulsa FC unsure what its new-look group would like with so many new players.
“I’ll tell you, as a player, nothing builds chemistry like winning,” coach Neill Collins said. “It’s amazing, the bonds that you get when you start winning games together. So tonight’s a good step towards that.”
The new season couldn’t have gotten off to much better of a start. Republic FC beat Tulsa, the defending Western Conference champions, 2-0, while getting both goals in the final 22 minutes in front of an energetic crowd of 11,659 fans at Cal Expo’s Heart Health Park.
“I’m just so excited to be in front of these fans again,” defender Freddy Kleemann said after scoring his first goal with Republic FC as he begins his second season with the club. “It showed. I think the whole team had a lot of energy. We came out hard and I think it showed in our performance. We’re just so excited to be back.”
Sacramento is entering a new era with Collins at the helm for his second season while the team hired a new president and general manager last week in Tim Holt, a former league president. The win was its 200th across all competitions in club history, and Republic remained undefeated in its history in home season openers since entering the USL Championship in 2014.
The club dramatically reshaped its roster from last season and is returning just two players who scored goals in 2025 — Lee Desmond and Jack Gurr — with 10 new players and 13 holdovers overall. Six of the 11 starters Saturday were new to the team.
“I think this is just the beginning. We can gel even more and get even better,” Kleemann said.
FC Tulsa’s Delentz Pierre gets tangled up with Republic FC’s Mayele Malango (7) and Arturo Rodriguez (10) in the first half Saturday at Heart Health Park in Sacramento. JOSÉ LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com
The first half was scoreless with Sacramento holding 60% of possession while Tulsa had a 9-3 shot advantage. But things changed in the second half.
Sacramento had a goal disallowed in the 56th minute when new forward Mayele Malango got tangled with a defender in the box, he centered the ball to Memo Rodriguez, who drilled the back of the net. But the referee called Malango for a foul leading to the pass to Rodriguez.
But Republic got the match’s first goal in the 68th minute on a header by Kleemann, a former player for Austin FC of MLS. It came off a well-placed cross from fellow defender Ryan Spaulding.
Kyle Edwards, who substituted into the game in the 75 minute, scored from the top of the right box in the 83rd minute, becoming Republic FC’s 19th player in club history to score in his debut match with the team. He spent his last three seasons with the Hartford Athletic, where he set a USL Championship record with 8 goals as a substitute in 2025.
“The goal that he scored is no surprise to me,” Collins said of Edwards. “You get him the ball around the box and he’s very, very good.”
Kids wave the Tower Bridge Battalion flag behind the east goal in the second half in the soccer game between FC Tulsa and the Republic FC on Saturday, March 7, 2026, at Heart Health Park in Sacramento. JOSÉ LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com
The game went on despite ongoing negotiations between the USL Players Association and the league, which have not reached new collective bargaining agreement with the last agreement expiring at the end of 2025. There had been a fear coming into the week that the players might cause a work stoppage that would have postponed the season-opening game.
Republic FC plays next on the road March 14 against Lexington before returning to Sacramento for three straight home games, beginning March 18 with a U.S. Open Cup match against El Farolito, then league games against Monterey Bay on March 21 and El Paso Locomotive FC on March 28.
This story was originally published March 7, 2026 at 9:55 PM.
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Chris Biderman covers sports and local news for the Sacramento Bee since joining in August 2018 to cover the San Francisco 49ers. He previously spent time with the Associated Press and USA Today Sports Media Group, and has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, The Athletic and on MLB.com. He is a current member of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and former member of the Pro Football Writers of America. The Santa Rosa native graduated with a degree in journalism from the Ohio State University.