Energy FC missed an opportunity to gain some ground on the playoff positions, as Reno 1868 FC left Taft Stadium with all three points on Saturday night. In week 12, the teams that are currently 9th through 13th all won, while four of the top eight lost, making this result a bit tougher to take.

Zach Carroll opened the scoring for Reno when a hopeful long ball, not dissimilar to what happened in Tulsa last week, wasn’t properly dealt with and the visitors won a corner. Carroll subsequently scored from the resulting set piece in the second minute.

OKC got back into the match after a well worked goal in the 34th minute. Kyle Hyland’s cross to the back post was nodded down to Alex Dixon by Christain Volesky, and Dixon took a touch before smashing it past Reno keeper James Marcinkowski.

The second Reno goal came from a turnover in the defensive third that quickly ended up on the foot of the ever-present thorn in OKC’s side, Lindo Mfeka, and into the back of the net in the 76th minute.

Errors are often the reason why matches are lost, and it was costly mistakes that led to both goals for Reno. Head Coach Steve Cooke didn’t hold back after the match saying, “I can’t explain it. Somebody’s made a mistake, and that’s just the way it goes. And when you get punished for those mistakes at a good level, it costs you points."

Volesky was also unable to hide his disappointment when asked how he felt about the result.  “Frustration. I thought, as a group, we battled but to give up two goals in that fashion… another mistake. It cost us. It’s just frustrating. It’s a frustrating feeling,” said the striker.

The result was disappointing, but Energy FC supporters should still be able to take away some positives and most would probably agree with Coach Cooke when he said, “I thought it was a fairly evenly played game, where maybe the neutral would say that a tie might have been a fair result.”

Without watching the match, one might think from the general stats that 1868 were the far superior side. Despite outshooting Energy FC 16 to 8 and having 7 hit the target compared to 1 for OKC, many of the other figures were very similar. Possession, number of passes, passing accuracy, corners, crosses, tackles and fouls were all almost identical for both teams.

Also, while Reno 1868 did greatly outshoot the Greens, several of those shots on goal were ambitious efforts from distance that didn’t trouble Matt VanOekel at all. Conversely, several of OKC’s closest chances didn’t register as a shot on goal but were inches from going in, namely Dixon’s header off the bar in the 13th minute and Callum Ross’s half volley in the 57th minute.

Other than not being able to pull the strings in midfield, the absence of captain Juan Pablo Guzman could be affecting the team in other ways. When the going gets tough, the team captain will often be the one to pick other players up and get their minds right. Unfortunately, JPG has only played in five matches this year and hasn’t featured since coming off injured in the 14th minute against Saint Louis FC on April 22. It will be interesting to see what kind of boost he can provide when he’s fit again.

Overall, the Greens looked comfortable and confident again this week, as Coach Cooke lined the side up in a 4-1-4-1 for the third consecutive match. It was almost the exact same team that drew with Tulsa the week before. The only difference in the starting XI was Jaime Siaj replaced Jon Brown. Kalif Alhassan made his Energy FC debut on 68 minutes but wasn’t able to make much of an impact.

Instead of dwelling too much on Saturday’s result, both Cooke and Volesky were quick to turn their attention to the next fixture. “The only thing that matters in our lives is getting a result in Seattle, so we’ll do everything we possibly can this week,” Cooke said.

Volesky similarly echoed the manager saying, “All we can do is get back to training Monday and work hard for the game coming up in Seattle.”

Energy FC remain at 7 points and 16th place in the Western Conference, 10 points off a playoff spot.

Watch this space Thursday for a preview of Matchweek 13, when OKC head to the Pacific Northwest to take on Seattle Sounders FC 2.