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Week 29 Preview: Crunch Time

By Tyler Vaughn, 09/20/19, 2:45PM CDT

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USL Championship – Match 30
Energy FC v Sacramento Republic FC
Sunday, September 22 – 6 p.m. CDT
Taft Stadium – Oklahoma City

Where to Watch

Live and in person (the best way)
ESPN+
@EnergyFC on Twitter

Week 28 Recap

Energy FC are back home after suffering a 3-1 loss away to San Antonio FC last Saturday. Deshorn Brown scored his 13th goal of the season, but it wasn’t enough, as a slow start ultimately cost the Greens at Toyota Field.

Week 29 Preview

Next is a matchup with Western Conference rival Sacramento Republic FC. Sacramento got the better of OKC in the first meeting of the season back on March 24, as Bryan Byars filled in for Cody Laurendi while the latter was away on national team duty. Nicolas Taravel suffered a devastating knee injury in the 4-1 loss.

OKC holds a slight advantage in the all-time head-to-head record with five wins, four losses and two draws, including a 4-1-1 record at home.

The one to watch out for on Sacramento is Cameron Iwasa. Iwasa, who scored a hat trick against OKC in March, leads the team with 13 goals and six assists. Thomas Enevoldsen is another threat and has already tallied five goals with the club since his midseason move from Indy Eleven a little over a month ago.

Deshorn Brown still leads OKC with 13 goals, Omar Gordon has the most assists with seven, and Cody Laurendi has extended his USL saves lead to 91.

Coach Cooke confirmed this week that five players will be unavailable this week due to injury: Josh Garcia, Rafael Garcia, Kal Okot, Amer Sasivarevic and Nicolas Taravel.

Reinforcements have arrived just in time, however. Coach Cooke announced Saturday morning that the club has signed defender Chris Duvall and midfielder Ian McGrath.

Table Talk

The race for the postseason is well and truly on. With only five games to go, more for most clubs, the Greens need to pick up as many points as possible. As Jon Brown said this week, "We have five cup finals coming up."

Back-to-back defeats have seen OKC fall to 11th, one spot out of the playoffs, but level on points with 10th place San Antonio. Still, the Western Conference remains as close as ever with only eight points separating  4th place Sacramento from 14th place Las Vegas Lights FC. 

Sunday’s match kicks off from Taft Stadium at 6 p.m. CDT, and tickets are still available at energyfc.com/september or by calling 235-KICK.

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