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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After a 4-10-2 start to Major League Soccer player, Real Salt Lake needed the good news of a run in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
Wednesday night would not bring good news.
Danny Barrera had a goal and two assists to help second-division Sacramento Republic FC roll by reserve-laden Real Salt Lake 4-1 in the fourth round of the U.S. Open Cup.
With the win, the USL side Sacramento advanced to its first-ever fifth round of the competition. The next round’s matchups will be decided via draw by U.S. Soccer on Thursday.
Sacramento’s Trevin Caesar opened the scoring int he 29th minute, giving the home team a 1-0 advantage by banging home the final pass set up by teammate Danny Barrera.
Ricardo Velazco tied the match at 1-1 with a goal from the edge of the penalty area just over five minutes later.
But Agustin Cazarez headed home the go-ahead goal from Barrera with three minutes left in the half, and Jeremy Hall’s penalty kick a minute later gave the Republic a 3-1 halftime advantage with a simple finish inside the left post.
Barrera scored in the second half, finishing a ball into the area from teammate James Kiffe for a 4-1 advantage in the 71st minute.
"There were a lot of questions answered for me tonight regarding some players," RSL coach Mike Petke told reporters after the match. "I'm not going to share that publicly, but there are certainly some questions both good and bad that were answered today."
Sacramento out-shot RSL 14-11, including a 7-4 margin in shots on target. The lower-division side controlled 52.5 percent of possession, including nearly 60 percent in the first half.
"Sacramento is a great environment here. Congratulations to them," Petke said. "They deserved it today."
RSL signed eight players from the second-division Real Monarchs squad to short-term contracts to fill out the final roster. Starters Max Lachowecki, James Moberg and Nick Besler all earned callups, as did Monarchs teammates Connor Sparrow, Kyle Curinga, Michael Gallagher, Andrew Brody and Daniel Haber. The full Monarchs squad defeated Sacramento 2-0 May 13 at Rio Tinto Stadium.
"The rationale was to put out a combination between first-team players like we did and Monarchs players who have earned that right," Petke said. "And how do I think they did? We lost 4-1, so they weren't up for it like Sacramento was.
"We talked all week about how this is Sacramento's World Cup. We have to match them there."
RSL returns to MLS play Saturday against Minnesota United FC. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. MT.
