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Matchweek 10 Report: Greens end week on a high

By Tyler Vaughn, 05/21/18, 11:45AM CDT

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Week 10 featured two fixtures, in two different competitions, with two different outcomes. Energy FC were shockingly knocked out of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in extra time by NTX Rayados on Wednesday night. On Saturday, they got back to winning ways with a big, 1-0 win over Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC – a win that put smiles on the faces of the fans and players alike.

After starting slow and falling behind in the first half against Rayados, OKC quickly overturned the deficit in the second half with goals from Philip Rasmussen and Miguel Gonzalez. The Greens looked set to move on to the next round, when a foul in the box gave the hosts a penalty in the 90th minute. Up stepped former Energy FC U23 player Christian Okeke, who calmly converted to send the match to extra time.

When a team concedes late, the momentum tends to shift, and that’s exactly what happened on Wednesday. The Greens conceded three more in extra time and were ousted from the competition.

After the defeat in Dallas, Energy FC desperately needed a result against the Switchbacks, and they got it in dramatic fashion. After a fairly even match, in which both sides had nine shots and three on target, the Greens won a corner kick in the 82nd minute. Up stepped Jon Brown, who had delivered several dangerous crosses from dead balls throughout the night. The Welshman whipped in an inswinger to the near post, and Callum Ross was there to nod it down, back across goal and past Switchbacks goalkeeper Steward Ceus to give the Greens a massive, 1-0 victory.

The delivery. The finish. The celebration. It was perfect way for OKC to end a 601-minute league and 5-match home goal-scoring drought.

When asked afterwards if the goal (and win) was a relief, Head Coach Steve Cooke replied, “Not relief. You never get overjoyed by too much. It’s part and parcel of the job that we do. We put ourselves on the line and we know that we’re going to take some stick when results don’t go our way. And we know that people are going to pat us on the back when things go our way and we win games. Our job as coaches is to not get too carried away.”

Ross, the man of the hour and beaming from ear to ear, was a little bit more forthcoming about the impact the goal had: “It is a relief to get the three points finally, but that’s all it is. We’ve got to come back on Monday morning hungry as ever and go to Tulsa next week and do the same thing.”

OKC started the match in 4-1-4-1 or 4-1-2-3, depending on how one interprets it. Justin Chavez anchored the midfield with Ross just in front of him and Rasmussen given license to get further up the pitch. Christian Volesky led the line and was flanked by Alex Dixon and Brown. The back four was made up of Richard Dixon, Christian Ibeagha, Jordan Cano and Kyle Hyland.

Every player in white did their job on Saturday night. The back line was rock-solid, winning 100% of their tackles. The midfield moved the ball quickly when transitioning to attack, in addition to breaking up play on the defensive side of things. The attack, although still not as ruthless in the final third as it could be, was more creative and efficient than in previous weeks and put together numerous good passing sequences.

Volesky is proving to be invaluable with his fantastic holdup play and smart runs in behind opposing defenses. In addition to being a big threat when facing goal, having a striker that can hold the ball up with his back to goal while the rest of the attack joins in is something OKC has been missing.

The field players weren’t the only ones that pulled their weight on Saturday night, however. Matt VanOekel came up big on several occasions, perhaps none bigger than his intervention in the 88th minute. A cross into the box was headed down to Marty Maybin, but MVO was quick off his line, sacrificed his body and snuffed out the opportunity to keep a clean sheet for the second time this season.

While each player performed well to fulfill their individual roles, the work rate of the entire squad appeared to drastically increase from previous weeks. OKC rarely allowed Colorado Springs any space in which to operate. The old cliché of “attack being the first line of defense” rang true as the home side was constantly closing down the Switchbacks and contesting just about every shot, pass and cross. Besides the perfect tackle success rate, the Greens also won 62.9% of the aerial duels. In short, OKC wanted this one more. Even when the results don’t go your way, Energy FC fans will always greatly appreciate maximum effort coming from the players.

Next up is the second installment of the Black Gold Derby, as the Greens head up the turnpike to take on Tulsa Roughnecks FC on Saturday. Tulsa’s struggles have continued since the opening day loss to OKC. The Roughnecks have failed to pick up a win this season and are currently last in the Western Conference.

Energy FC now sit 15th in the Western Conference, 8 points off a playoff spot and 19 points behind conference leaders Real Monarchs SLC.

Watch this space later in the week for a preview of the Black Gold Derby in Matchweek 11.

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