11 Things Newcastle Fans Need To Know About Sacramento Republic

7. Sunderland Lost 1-0 To Sacramento Just Last Week... But Club Atlas Hammered The Republic 4-1

Newcastle's bitter rivals Sunderland took on Sacramento Republic on Tuesday night (in the US)/Wednesday morning (in the UK) - and succumbed to a 1-0 defeat in their opening fixture on their US tour. Substitute Cameron Iwasa netted the only goal of the game in the second-half to hand the home side victory, with the Black Cats putting in a poor display. Interestingly, however, Club Atlas - who Newcastle lost 2-1 to earlier in the week in their first match of their pre-season tour to the States - hammered the the Republic on July 8th, leaving California with a 4-1 victory. Although Sacramento took the lead through Northern Irishman Thomas Stewart, goals from Juan Vigon, Nery Caballero, Juan Carlos and Christian Tabo gave the Mexican side the victory - who even missed a second penalty that could have made the margin of the win even greater. Will Newcastle go the way of their North-East rivals and succumb to a loss at the hands of the Republic? Or will they learn from their Club Atlas defeat and grab a second victory of pre-season?