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Matchweek 18 Report: Six Goals, Six Unbeaten

By Tyler Vaughn, 07/16/18, 8:45AM CDT

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It’s safe to say that Matchweek 18 was the wildest of the season for Energy FC. The Greens took down Las Vegas Lights FC, 6-4, on Wednesday night at Taft Stadium and put on an absolutely scintillating attacking performance in the process. With the win, OKC extended the unbeaten run to six matches and set of couple of club records in the process: most goals by the Greens in a match and highest combined score in a match.

Head Coach Steve Cooke stuck with the 4-2-3-1 formation again but made five changes to the side that beat Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC in week 17: Bryan Byars; Christian Ibeagha, Atiba Harris, Drew Beckie, Shawn McLaws; Philip Rasmussen, Justin Chavez; Francis Atuahene (Richard Dixon, 70’), Jose Barril (Callum Ross, 75’), Alex Dixon (Christian Volesky, 85’); Jaime Siaj.

On Friday, starting goalkeeper Matt VanOekel underwent successful surgery to reattach his quad tendon to his hip, after picking up the injury against the Switchbacks last week. No timeline has been given on his recovery.

Dixon opened the scoring in the 12th minute with the goal of the night – good enough to land the striker on SportsCenter’s Top 10. Dixon has been red hot lately, with three goals and two assists in the last three matches. His second goal, while much different than the first, was of incredibly high quality as well – the overlapping run from Dixon, the perfectly weighted pass from Barril and the calm, precise finish – all top class.

Barril and Dixon have been quite the pair of late, with the duo combining for goals in each of the last three matches. When asked after the match about the chemistry, Dixon, with a sly grin, said, “We talk a lot. We sit next to each other in the locker room, so we’ve got a good connection going on right now.”

The Man of the Match for the second consecutive outing didn’t reflect too much on his personal success, changing subjects to the team as a whole and saying, “We’re in a good place. We just want to keep it rolling. That’s the most important thing, to take it one game at a time, so we can keep fighting to make the playoffs.”

The Greens are making a habit lately of getting the ball wide and scoring off crosses, with Harris opening his Energy FC account on his debut in the 44th minute off a ball from Dixon. Siaj got back in the scoring column as well, when Ibeagha’s cross from the right found the striker all alone to smash the header home in the 50th minute. Ibeagha’s ball was perfect, but Siaj deserves praise for checking his run and intelligently slipping his marker to create the yard of space needed to make the goal happen – and make it all look so simple in the process.

Atuahene found the back of the net in the 57th minute for the first time since the home opener, and celebrated in style by referencing the time on the clock and his shirt number – 57. Although not the prettiest goal he’ll ever score, any goal can do wonders for a striker’s confidence.

The same goes for Volesky. The second-half substitute did what he does so often and got in behind the opposition defense and smartly nodded the ball over the onrushing Ricardo Ferrino and walked it into the back of the net. Volesky is averaging a goal every three matches for the Greens, and despite it being a seemingly consolation goal, every goal is important when your job is to do just that.

While the fans surely didn’t mind too much, the only drawback on the night was that the OKC defense allowed four goals – tied for the most the Greens have given up in league play this season. Byars, making his first start of the season, will be disappointed, but truthfully, he wasn’t at fault for any of them. Vegas took advantage of sloppy defending and punished the OKC backline with some good finishing, particularly through Raul Mendiola, who ended the night with a hat trick.

Coach Cooke wasn’t particularly pleased giving up four goals saying, “I think at 4-1, we lost a little bit of discipline, and I just said to the guys that they have to develop this ruthless streak, they have to develop this way of playing that doesn’t allow teams the moment that could change the entire course of the day.”

On the flip side, Cooke was quick to applaud the effort from his players over this great run of form when he said, “I just want to talk about a team that have gone unbeaten… and gone on the road to San Antonio and got a point and played against a good Colorado Springs team and got a point and came out tonight and to go unbeaten [through this stretch] is fantastic. I think it puts us in with an opportunity to challenge in this last 15 games or so this season.”

And challenging is something the Greens will surely do if they can keep up this type of form. The win not only extended the unbeaten run to six matches, but it moved OKC up to 12th in the Western Conference – just 7 points off 8th place Fresno FC with two games in hand for the Greens.

Energy FC will definitely have to earn it though, and in order to legitimately challenge, they’ll need to get wins against better quality opposition. Their next match will likely be one of the more difficult tests of the season, as the Greens take on Sacramento Republic FC away on Saturday. Sacramento, currently third in the Western Conference, are 4-1-4 at Papa Murphy’s Park – the only loss coming against second place Reno 1868 FC on May 12.

Watch this space Thursday for a preview of that match and the rest of Matchweek 19, as the playoff race tightens with more crucial fixtures.