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After Upset Win, Sacramento Republic At Center Of A Different Kind Of Playoff Upset

UPDATE: Early Tuesday afternoon, the USL announced Sac Republic will travel to Kansas City for the upcoming playoff match.

The announcement comes after conflicting announcements were made and both teams said they would host Saturday's match.

The league apologized for the confusion, saying after working with all parties they came to an agreement that the game will be played in Kansas City.

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Chaos and confusion reigned online Monday morning after a series of tweets from United Soccer League, Sacramento Republic, and the club's upcoming playoff opponent.

The No. 8-seed Republic FC beat top-seeded Real Monarchs squad. The win set up a showdown with the No. 4-seed Swope Park Rangers out of Kansas City.

But on Monday morning, the United Soccer League tweeted that the match would be played in Sacramento instead of Kansas City. The USL cited "challenges" with the Swope Park Rangers stadium as the reason, but would not go into detail.

"This was a huge surprise to a lot of us," said Don Gibson, a Republic fan, and season ticket holder. "None of us assumed we'd be able to watch a home game here in Sacramento."

Within minutes, fans like Gibson rejoiced and Republic FC tweeted out the home game details and ticket information.

"I want to see my team and support my team wherever I can," said Gibson, "but this situation does kind of seem strange."

The surprise announcement became a controversy hours later when the Swope Park Rangers told its supporters through social media to "ignore the fake news, " and the game would be in Kansas City, despite the league's announcement.

Hours of confusion followed. We reached out to the USL to ask about the "challenges" and who would host the game. A spokesperson for USL said over the phone.

"We have no further comment on the topic and are working on a solution. Have a good evening."

"A lot of us are still left out in the dark and Kansas City, frankly, deserves the home game because they had a better season than us," said Gibson.

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