Five years later, it remains one of the most mystifying results in a USL Championship game.

When Sacramento Republic FC visited San Antonio FC on June 16, 2018 at Toyota Field, the visitors recorded 37 shots, put nine of them on target, hit the woodwork once, and thoroughly dominated proceedings.

And, at the final whistle, San Antonio emerged with a 1-0 victory.

“Man, that game,” said former Republic FC forward Cameron Iwasa this week. “I feel like we came in in great form, our team was flying at the time. We were in the stretch of a couple of full seasons where I felt like we were always a threat to beat anybody, home or away.

“We went in there and I never felt so much like we dominated play and had the better the game and to look back at the score line and not to come out with three points? That’s probably the best game a team of mine has ever played that we didn't actually win.”

Retroactively, we now know it was also the game in which Sacramento registered its highest Expected Goals mark of the season (3.38xG), but thanks to a combination of stellar goalkeeping by former San Antonio shot-stopper Diego Restrepo and a defense that blocked 15 shots, the hosts came away with a victory thanks to a late first-half goal by Cesar Elizondo.

The 37 shots remain the most recorded by one team in a USL Championship regular season game without recording a goal. It’s also tied for second in the most shots in a game by one team in the league’s overall records.

“I mean, that’s an incredible amount of shots,” said Iwasa. “I think even Republic FC this past weekend scored five goals and I think they only had 22 shots.

“For one of those not to take some sort of bounce… right now I’m still kind of a loss for words of how somehow, someway, one of those didn’t end up in the net.”

Republic FC will return to San Antonio on Saturday night (8:30 p.m. ET | ESPN+) in one of the biggest early-season games of this Championship season hoping for a little better fortune than five years ago. With Sacramento and the defending title holders both having claimed 10 points from their first four games, the contest at Toyota Field offers a chance for early separation at the top of the Western Conference for the winner, and also a chance for Sacramento to make its claim as the biggest challenger to SAFC’s throne this season.

There’s no question for Iwasa as to how challenging that will be. Not only is San Antonio undefeated in its last 15 games in the Championship having taken a 1-0 win behind a goal from Samuel Adeniran when the teams last met in Texas last season, but it has claimed three of four all-time meetings between the sides at Toyota Field.

“San Antonio has consistently been a pretty tough place to go play,” said Iwasa. “The fans are good. They’ve consistently had pretty good teams – obviously a very, very strong team over the last two years or so. And it’s always hot and humid there. So, on top of everything else, it’s a tiring place to go.

“San Antonio, especially at home rarely concede goals. So, it’ll be really interesting to see how that plays out and which team is able to have a little bit of success going forward.”

The key to unlocking San Antonio’s defense for Republic FC this time around may be Russell Cicerone, who has made an immediate impact for his new club after joining from Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC during the offseason. With three goals in four games in the league and five across all competitions, the 28-year-old has made a strong start to becoming the first Republic FC player since Iwasa in 2019 to record double-digit goals in a season.

Iwasa has been impressed with Cicerone’s quality since his arrival, and the goalscoring mentality that appears to be the piece Sacramento was lacking consistently a season ago.

“You can see that he’s looking for his shot when he gets on the ball,” said Iwasa. “His focus is always scoring goals first and foremost, and you’ve got to have a guy like that who’s going to be a true killer from that. He’s also shown that when he does get those opportunities, he’s not going to miss very many of them.

“Even last game, I was actually on the broadcast, and he missed an opportunity that for me, a guy like him should put away. He missed it and obviously it’s disappointing, but he comes right back with a cheeky little chip into the net. I think that’s a big piece of it, isn't it? He's not a guy that's going to lose confidence. If he misses an opportunity, I think he knows he has the quality to bounce right back and put balls in the net whenever he gets those chances.”

For a team in search of an elusive second USL Championship title since the success of its inaugural season, it’s a major piece to add. Iwasa will be following along closely, at times in his new role as a color commentator on the club’s home broadcasts. Since his retirement after the end of the 2021 season, Iwasa has remained connected to the club on gamedays.

Last season he was invited to be an on-field host, which led to Republic FC Director of Game Entertainment & Broadcast Connor Sutton asking if he’d be interested in joining play-by-play announcer Rob McAlister and color announcer Adam Moffat – one of Iwasa’s former teammates at the club. It proved a fit, and now Iwasa is set to appear regularly on broadcasts this season as he branches out in his post-playing career.

“I’m in Sacramento still, never going to be moving out, and I always wanted to still be a part of the team at some capacity, even after I wasn’t actually playing on the field,” said Iwasa. “It’s been great for me to have a ton of fun with it, get some reps in that media space. It’s a little bit different than just doing regular interviews or anything like that, little by little I feel like I’m starting to pick that up. I’m enjoying it a lot.”

As one of the club’s icons over its first decade, Iwasa is hopeful this Republic FC squad can deliver more silverware. As the club celebrates its 10th season, though, the manner in which it has remained true to its roots despite all the changes that have occurred is what keeps the club special in the hearts of its fans and players.

“I think the club has done a good job of evolving where it needs to,” he said. “The name of the field has changed over the years, but the feeling of those home games I think has been pretty consistent over the 10 years.

“Obviously, the goal is to have a new home stadium in the future, but I think they’ve done a really good job of keeping that same sort of feeling. Being a fan-first club, that’s a big thing that I've always thought about. The people in Sacramento, the Tower Bridge Battalion, you can tell a big portion of the decisions the club makes are with those people in mind.”