2021 OKC Energy FC Season

[SEMIweather]

Gonna go ahead and start this thread as the Energy announced today that they will be kicking off their season at Taft on April 24th with a home match against FC Tulsa.

In a change from prior seasons, the USL is splitting into four divisions this year. The Energy are in the Central Division along with FC Tulsa, Sporting Kansas City II, Memphis 901 FC, Birmingham Legion FC, Atlanta United 2, Louisville City FC, and Indy Eleven. They will play each of these teams twice at home, and twice on the road, for a total of 28 games. The regular season this year is 32 games, so they'll have two additional home and road games against non-divisional opponents. The full schedule has not been released yet, but I'm expecting those remaining games to be against some combination of Colorado Springs Switchbacks, New Mexico United, El Paso Locomotive FC, Austin Bold FC, San Antonio FC, and Rio Grande Valley FC Toros. Will update this thread with the full schedule once it is released.

Really looking forward to getting back to Taft for some live soccer this year, we can only hope that the Energy will actually field a good team for the first time since the 2017 season. USL rosters turn over a lot from year to year, so a major improvement over last season is certainly possible.

[SEMIweather]

Two games into the season and the Energy are off to yet another slow start, losing 3-1 to FC Tulsa last weekend and 1-0 to Atlanta United 2 last night. Watched both games and not seeing much reason for optimism, but this team has turned it around after slow starts in the past (most notably, in 2017) so you never know.

Upcoming games:

Fri. 5/7 at 7:00 p.m. - @ Sporting Kansas City II
Sun. 5/16 at 5:00 p.m. - vs. Atlanta United 2
Wed. 5/26 at 7:00 p.m. - @ Birmingham Legion FC
Sat. 5/29 at 7:30 p.m. - vs. Memphis 901 FC
Wed. 6/2 at 6:00 p.m. - @ Indy Eleven

[SEMIweather]

For anyone wondering why I haven't bothered updating the Energy thread, it's because the team has managed a grand total of two points in five games and are sitting solidly in a tie for 7th in an 8 team division. Things, they are bad, to the point where the Manager and the COO are having a Town Hall Meeting with supporters at Social Capital tomorrow evening. (I do not know why anyone thought this would be a good idea.) https://twitter.com/EnergyFC/status/1395016411597217793

On the plus side, attending the home games has unironically been a fun way to ease back into post-vax live events, would recommend for anyone not wanting to jump right back into crowded indoor situations. Don't think there's any official capacity limits at this point, but attendance has been about 1k-3k per game in a 7.5k seat stadium.

Results so far:
OKC 1-3 Tulsa
OKC 0-1 Atlanta
Kansas City 1-1 OKC
OKC 2-2 Atlanta
Birmingham 1-0 OKC

Upcoming games:
Sat. 5/29 at 7:30 p.m. - vs. Memphis 901 FC
Wed. 6/2 at 6:00 p.m. - @ Indy Eleven
Sat. 6/12 at 7:30 p.m. - vs. Birmingham Legion FC
Sat. 6/19 at 7:30 p.m. - @ Memphis 901 FC
Wed. 6/23 at 7:30 p.m. - vs. Sporting Kansas City II

[amocore]

One win last season, zero so far this season...

If we go back to the terrible end of the 2019 season, that is one win in the last 30 USL games ! Impressive feature in its on way !
At least there is no relegation waiting for the Energy.

I saw them in the 2-2 against ATL 2 and found them more encouraging than last year but the results are obviously not there.

Enjoy going to the stadium though.

[SEMIweather]

If you’re wondering just how poorly things are going this year, the Energy picked up two more draws in their last two games but went ahead and fired their manager anyways today. He departs with, no lie, one win in 23 matches. It is very uncommon for USL teams to fire a manager six weeks into the season, so I can only imagine how bad things were/are behind the scenes. We will see how the next guy does, given the timing of this move I assume they’re planning on bringing in a replacement within the next week or so rather than rolling with an interim for the rest of the season. They really aren’t *that* far out of the playoff picture and have been playing better recently, though all the other teams in the division do have games in hand.

[SEMIweather]

Energy are actually playing really well under the interim manager! Three wins in a row! Friday's home match against Tulsa should be fun; with a win, the Energy will pass them in the table and move into a playoff position. If you've been wanting to check out a match this season, I would highly recommend that one.

[SEMIweather]

After the nuttiest finish to a soccer match I have ever seen in person, the Energy are officially in a playoff position less than one month after breaking an eight match winless run to start the year. Unbelievable turnaround to a season potentially in progress. https://mobile.twitter.com/USLChampi...81107370184710

[Jake]

OKC is averaging a little over 2,000 fans per game according to this chart.

https://i.redd.it/mw4n9wzs0ik71.png

[Zuplar]

I'll be honest, I thought COVID killed this soccer team. I hadn't seen anything about them until this thread since 2019. I guess the news doesn't report on them anymore? I pretty much exclusively watch channel 9.

[Laramie]

I'll be honest, I thought COVID killed this soccer team. I hadn't seen anything about them until this thread since 2019. I guess the news doesn't report on them anymore? I pretty much exclusively watch channel 9.

Channels, 4, 5 & 25 gives reports and some replay on Energy FC games. They seldom show the crowd unless we're playing Tulsa.

Recently started watching Channels 5 and 25 (recorded) in particular because of Myron Patton, he's great on local sports like OU Football & OKC Thunder.

[Zuplar]

Channels, 4, 5 & 25 gives reports and some replay on Energy FC games. They seldom show the crowd unless we're playing Tulsa.

Recently started watching Channels 5 and 25 (recorded) in particular because of Myron Patton, he's great on local sports like OU Football & OKC Thunder.

I really only care about OU football and I get enough coverage from the radio stations.

I do like Myron Patton, one of the better local TV sports guys.

[SEMIweather]

Energy officially removed the interim tag from Veidman today, with one game left in the season. He will be the club's fourth head coach. I am happy about this decision, the team is sputtering towards the finish line and headed for a 5th or 6th place finish in the division, but the fact that they were even in the playoff hunt at all after an 0-4-4 start is a testament to the turnaround that Veidman engineered after being named interim coach earlier in the season. The major concern heading into next year is that the team was never really able to put together a consistent scoring threat over the course of this season, but 33 points in 24 games as interim coach is a decent enough record IMO to make it worth a shot to see what Veidman can do with an entire offseason under his belt, as well as having more of a say in player recruitment. It has to at least have a better chance of success than bringing in another random MLS assistant coach, as that's what the team did for their last two coaching searches, and both of those hires backfired horribly. Another plus is that Veidman is only 33 years old and still working towards a couple of his coaching licenses, so if this move does work out he'll probably stick around for a few seasons at least.

Despite a 4th consecutive year of missing the playoffs, this was easily the most enjoyable Energy season IMO since 2017, and between Veidman's hiring and finally having the timeline for the stadium confirmed, this is probably the most optimistic I've felt about the state of the club since the beginning of 2018. Hopefully the club will follow this up with some quality signings in the offseason, in which case I'll be optimistic that next season will finally be the season to break the playoff drought.

https://www.energyfc.com/news_article/show/1190213

[amocore]

Thank you for the analysis ans sum up of the season.

I was a bit disappointed the future stadium is so far down the list of Maps 4 project but the cash cows have to go first, and the attendance at the energy game is fairly limited.

[SEMIweather]

I'm fine with the stadium timeline, tbh. Just having confirmation that it will eventually be built should be enough to keep the Energy from getting kicked out of USL or folding, which were my main concerns. I think MLS is pretty much out of the question for OKC, but the USL should continue to establish itself as a strong second-tier league that is independent of MLS, which should hopefully allow the Energy to have more of an impact on the city's sports scene than, say, the Dodgers. If the city and the Energy ownership work together to get the stadium right, there's no reason that the Energy can't be a flagship USL club. OKC is the 9th largest market in USL. If I were the Energy ownership, I would be contributing money in addition to the $37 million allocated from MAPS 4 to ensure that the more upscale version of the stadium gets built. Louisville and Colorado Springs have the two nicest stadiums in the USL at a cost of $65 million and $42 million respectively, the Energy could easily match them in 2026 at $80 million or so. If they just do the $37 million option, it'll probably be fairly crap but will still be a big upgrade over Taft just by virtue of (a) being in a better location (b) having a natural grass surface rather than artificial turf and (c) actually being a regulation-sized field.

[SEMIweather]

And naturally after my somewhat optimistic posts above, the Energy fall 2-0 to Tulsa to end the year, playing quite possibly their two worst games of the season back-to-back. Probably to be expected after officially being eliminated from playoff contention last Saturday, but still a fairly dispiriting way to head into the offseason. This club desperately needs to sign a few attacking threats between now and March, they were tied for the 9th fewest goals allowed on the season (a testament to both the excellent defensive scheme Veidman installed after being named interim coach, as well as C.J. Cochran being one of the best goalies in USL), but still finished 10 points out of playoff position due to finishing 31st out of 32 teams (!!!) in terms of goals scored. A better attack next season would not only allow the team to be more competitive, but I also have to think it would boost excitement/attendance, as I can't imagine that 5 out of the 16 home matches finishing in 0-0 draws was good for bringing in repeat customers, aside from the diehards (read: gluttons for punishment) like myself.

[nighttrain12]

^
Yes, the Energy have had problems scoring goals for many seasons and have way too many ties (or whatever the soccer terminology is, just a casual fan here). As you say, hopefully the team can sign some 'attackers' this offseason.