TULSA – As we enter the final month of the regular season, third-place FC Tulsa will find itself in position to play the spoiler as other clubs jockey for the fourth and final Playoffs spot in the table. Memphis 901 FC is one of those clubs.
While FC Tulsa sits four points ahead of fourth-place OKC Energy FC with a comfortable two matches in hand and a 98% chance to make the postseason according to FiveThirtyEight, a sports data site, OKC and Memphis are not sitting as comfortably. And with two matches left against Memphis including tonight, FC Tulsa could begin to close the door of the Tennessee club’s 2021 campaign on Saturday night.
In the first two matchups this season, FC Tulsa and Memphis 901 FC have split results as each club has come away with a win. The first match back in July saw Memphis take away three points courtesy of Kyle Murphy who scored the contest’s lone goal. FC Tulsa turned the tides in the second matchup which saw Marlon score in the 80’ and 90+2’ minutes to earn the 2-1 victory. Marlon and Murphy are the only two players who have scored in this series.
Both defenses and goalkeepers come into this one in terrific form. In the last five matches each club has played, Memphis has allowed just five goals while FC Tulsa has allowed only four. Austin Wormell has been terrific in goal filling in for the injured Sean Lewis over the past four matches, proving an invaluable asset to Michael Nsien’s squad. Meanwhile, keeper Cody Cropper has logged three clean sheets for Memphis over his last five starts, bringing Memphis’ total to seven clean sheets on the year.
FC Tulsa has earned just one point over its last two matches despite playing well and arguably looking the better club in each match. Unfortunately, FC Tulsa had a game-winner disallowed in its previous match at Sporting KC II late, but the club will have to bounce back in front of the home crowd against a Memphis squad that has won three of its last five matches.
It will also be Breast Cancer Awareness Night at ONEOK Field tomorrow night. FC Tulsa is offering a special $12 Endline ticket of which $2 from every ticket sold will be donated to the Susan G. Koman Foundation which fights to find a cure for breast cancer. The first 1,000 fans will also receive a pink rally towel courtesy of The Muscogee Nation.
FC Tulsa will also welcome Philbrook Museum of Art to the match as they get ready for "The Big Show," which will feature art from Oklahomans aged 4-18. At the match, children and teens will be able to create and submit a piece of art to be displayed in the gallery.
The rubber match is set to kick off from ONEOK Field tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. CT.
SCOUTING MEMPHIS 901 FC
At the moment, Memphis is on a tear, seeing its playoff odds and position in the standings soar over the past month. With its incredible comeback victory vs Birmingham Legion FC on September 4 in which Memphis rattled off the game-tying and winning goals in the 90+3’ and 90+6’ minutes as the impetus, the club has gone 3W-1L-1D over its last five matches.
With a draw vs LouCity in its last outing, Memphis prohibited the division leaders from clinching a Playoffs spot. Kyle Murphy bagged his 15th goal of the season just 130 seconds into the match, good for the club lead and third in the USL Championship. Kareem Dacres logged his fifth assist on the play, the most on the club and ties Dacres for the second-most in a single season in Memphis history. Goalkeeper Cody Cropper has made 17 saves in 23 chances for a 73.9% save pct. to go along with his three clean sheets.
THREE THINGS TO KNOW
1) Suárez and the Scoresheet
Darío Suárez has been a menace in the minds of opposing USL Championship clubs since late August. The Cuban has either scored or assisted in six of FC Tulsa’s previous seven matches, including finding the back of the net in four straight. The surge has seen Suárez usurp the club’s leading-goal tally with nine, surpassing his career-high last season in which he scored eight goals in the shortened 15-match campaign.
2) Scoring More than Once
For FC Tulsa, the same trend continued once again last weekend at Sporting KC II in the controversial draw – FC Tulsa struggles when only scoring once in a match. When scoring just once, the club is 1W-5L-2D. However, when scoring at least twice, regardless of how many goals FC Tulsa concedes, its record is 11W-1L-0D. Memphis 901 FC is only averaging 1.1 goals per match this season, signaling good fortune if FC Tulsa can put a crooked number on the scoreboard.
3) Playoff Picture
Despite only coming away with one point last Friday night, FC Tulsa still very much controls the third spot in the Playoffs race. FC Tulsa leads fourth-place OKC by four points, but OKC has the most difficult remaining schedule of any club in the Central, and fifth-place Memphis has the second-toughest schedule in the division. In addition, FC Tulsa has the third-easiest schedule remaining as it has already played LouCity and Birmingham four times each.
HOW TO WATCH
TV: MY41
Spanish Radio: Que Buena Tulsa
Stream: ESPN+ (US), YouTube (International)
Follow: You can follow @FCTulsa on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
TULSA – As we enter the final month of the regular season, third-place FC Tulsa will find itself in position to play the spoiler as other clubs jockey for the fourth and final Playoffs spot in the table. Memphis 901 FC is one of those clubs.
While FC Tulsa sits four points ahead of fourth-place OKC Energy FC with a comfortable two matches in hand and a 98% chance to make the postseason according to FiveThirtyEight, a sports data site, OKC and Memphis are not sitting as comfortably. And with two matches left against Memphis including tonight, FC Tulsa could begin to close the door of the Tennessee club’s 2021 campaign on Saturday night.
In the first two matchups this season, FC Tulsa and Memphis 901 FC have split results as each club has come away with a win. The first match back in July saw Memphis take away three points courtesy of Kyle Murphy who scored the contest’s lone goal. FC Tulsa turned the tides in the second matchup which saw Marlon score in the 80’ and 90+2’ minutes to earn the 2-1 victory. Marlon and Murphy are the only two players who have scored in this series.
Both defenses and goalkeepers come into this one in terrific form. In the last five matches each club has played, Memphis has allowed just five goals while FC Tulsa has allowed only four. Austin Wormell has been terrific in goal filling in for the injured Sean Lewis over the past four matches, proving an invaluable asset to Michael Nsien’s squad. Meanwhile, keeper Cody Cropper has logged three clean sheets for Memphis over his last five starts, bringing Memphis’ total to seven clean sheets on the year.
FC Tulsa has earned just one point over its last two matches despite playing well and arguably looking the better club in each match. Unfortunately, FC Tulsa had a game-winner disallowed in its previous match at Sporting KC II late, but the club will have to bounce back in front of the home crowd against a Memphis squad that has won three of its last five matches.
It will also be Breast Cancer Awareness Night at ONEOK Field tomorrow night. FC Tulsa is offering a special $12 Endline ticket of which $2 from every ticket sold will be donated to the Susan G. Koman Foundation which fights to find a cure for breast cancer. The first 1,000 fans will also receive a pink rally towel courtesy of The Muscogee Nation.
FC Tulsa will also welcome Philbrook Museum of Art to the match as they get ready for “The Big Show,” which will feature art from Oklahomans aged 4-18. At the match, children and teens will be able to create and submit a piece of art to be displayed in the gallery.
The rubber match is set to kick off from ONEOK Field tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. CT.
SCOUTING MEMPHIS 901 FC
At the moment, Memphis is on a tear, seeing its playoff odds and position in the standings soar over the past month. With its incredible comeback victory vs Birmingham Legion FC on September 4 in which Memphis rattled off the game-tying and winning goals in the 90+3’ and 90+6’ minutes as the impetus, the club has gone 3W-1L-1D over its last five matches.
With a draw vs LouCity in its last outing, Memphis prohibited the division leaders from clinching a Playoffs spot. Kyle Murphy bagged his 15th goal of the season just 130 seconds into the match, good for the club lead and third in the USL Championship. Kareem Dacres logged his fifth assist on the play, the most on the club and ties Dacres for the second-most in a single season in Memphis history. Goalkeeper Cody Cropper has made 17 saves in 23 chances for a 73.9% save pct. to go along with his three clean sheets.
THREE THINGS TO KNOW
1) Suárez and the Scoresheet
Darío Suárez has been a menace in the minds of opposing USL Championship clubs since late August. The Cuban has either scored or assisted in six of FC Tulsa’s previous seven matches, including finding the back of the net in four straight. The surge has seen Suárez usurp the club’s leading-goal tally with nine, surpassing his career-high last season in which he scored eight goals in the shortened 15-match campaign.
2) Scoring More than Once
For FC Tulsa, the same trend continued once again last weekend at Sporting KC II in the controversial draw – FC Tulsa struggles when only scoring once in a match. When scoring just once, the club is 1W-5L-2D. However, when scoring at least twice, regardless of how many goals FC Tulsa concedes, its record is 11W-1L-0D. Memphis 901 FC is only averaging 1.1 goals per match this season, signaling good fortune if FC Tulsa can put a crooked number on the scoreboard.
3) Playoff Picture
Despite only coming away with one point last Friday night, FC Tulsa still very much controls the third spot in the Playoffs race. FC Tulsa leads fourth-place OKC by four points, but OKC has the most difficult remaining schedule of any club in the Central, and fifth-place Memphis has the second-toughest schedule in the division. In addition, FC Tulsa has the third-easiest schedule remaining as it has already played LouCity and Birmingham four times each.
HOW TO WATCH
TV: MY41
Spanish Radio: Que Buena Tulsa
Stream: ESPN+ (US), YouTube (International)
Follow: You can follow @FCTulsa on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
