A new ear begins Saturday night as FC Davis takes the field for the first ever I-80 Derby against rivals Sacramento Gold. FC Davis is coming off a convincing 2-0 victory over Napa Valley 1839 which saw the team soundly dismantle the first place visitors from start to finish.
Andisheh Bagheri and Julian Ruzzier-Gaul made their season debuts and sparked the team to victory alongside Man of the Match Onah Power. Sacramento Gold are coming off a disappointing showing at El Faralito (San Francisco) where they suffered a 0-3 defeat at the hands of the now first place team from SF. A midday game saw the Gold go down early in the match and unable to recover.
FC Davis will look to build upon their victory and push into the top three spots. Currently the team sits in 4th place but have a game in hand on third place Napa Valley. With a first year derby, players are expecting a physical, contentious, raucous game that is typically seen when rivals meet on the pitch. "Everyone looks forward to playing in these games." center back Chase Rhode said. "We feel like we've got the quality over each team we play, but in these derby's everything gets thrown out the window." Outside back Dash McNamara echoed Rhode's statement, "It's going to be physical. It's going to be rowdy. We know a lot of there players. They know us. We're going to bring it. We expect the same out of the Gold."
Head coach Andrew Bailey has guided the team to continual improvement over the past three games and looks forward to the challenge a derby presents. "Another big match for our club." said Bailey. " We are a little banged up right now, but our depth will show through and the team is ready." The game could spark a turning point in the table, as 5 points separates the bottom of the table to third place. Each team will look to gain every edge they can as Davis takes on Sacramento for the first time ever. The game will be played at Capital Christian High School in Sacramento with a kick off at 7:00pm. The second leg of the derby is a Sunday night special taking place on June 17th, 7:00pm at Aggie Football Stadium. Game updates will be posted on the FC Davis twitter account.