TULSA, Okla. –

“It’s hard to follow our process when you have such a long break without playing a game.”

Thanks to scheduling, and a Fourth of July rainout from Mother Nature, FC Tulsa hasn’t played a USL League match since June 20th, a 2-1 loss to Colorado Springs at ONEOK Field.

“Obviously it’s tough to go three weeks without a game, or something like that. We’re trying to put more intensity in training to raise our fitness level so when we come back we’d be ready to play,” says defender Abdoulaye Cissoko.

FC Tulsa’s playoff push begins on Saturday, as the club hosts El Paso in the first game of a two-match homestand. Tulsa beat the Locomotive 4-1 in Texas back on April 29th, but the club is expecting a closer match the second time around.

“This will be a different game.They’re going to come and try and win obviously. We’re at home, we need to make a statement. We need points. Obviously we need points,” says Cissoko.

“They have a lot of good individuals. A lot of good players, players that have a lot of experience playing in this league, and even better leagues than this one. But we are prepared. We are preparing just by sticking to the process just like every game,” adds forward Stefan Lukić.

Tulsa currently sits in 8th place in the USL’s Western Conference standings, but every team ahead of the Scissortails has played one or more extra games. With 17 matches left in the regular season, head coach Luke Spencer says his message to the team is a simple one.

“We have to be us. We have to be a team that gives everything, that’s commited to both sides of the ball, that’s together, and make sure that our fans have feeling of pride in coming to the game,” says Spencer.

The Scissortails have been in this situation before. Just last season, the team went on a franchise-record 14-match unbeaten streak that took the club all the way to the USL Final.

“We’ve been here, we’ve done this so we have that experience. But again, it’s about sticking to the process, it’s believing in each other, and believing in the group and giving our best every day,” says Lukić.

“The table’s so tight. You win one game, you jump up a lot of paces. You lose one game, people can think that the end of the world is coming. And you can be dramatic in that way. So for us, we just have to focused on our process,” adds Spencer.