TULSA, Okla. –<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to follow our process when you have such a long break without playing a game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thanks to scheduling, and a Fourth of July rainout from Mother Nature, FC Tulsa hasn\u2019t played a USL League match since June 20th, a 2-1 loss to Colorado Springs at ONEOK Field.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously it\u2019s tough to go three weeks without a game, or something like that. We\u2019re trying to put more intensity in training to raise our fitness level so when we come back we\u2019d be ready to play,\u201d says defender Abdoulaye Cissoko.<\/p>\n
FC Tulsa\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will be a different game.They\u2019re going to come and try and win obviously. We\u2019re at home, we need to make a statement. We need points. Obviously we need points,\u201d says Cissoko.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey 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,\u201d adds forward Stefan Luki\u0107.<\/p>\n
Tulsa currently sits in 8th place in the USL\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to be us. We have to be a team that gives everything, that\u2019s commited to both sides of the ball, that\u2019s together, and make sure that our fans have feeling of pride in coming to the game,\u201d says Spencer.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been here, we\u2019ve done this so we have that experience. But again, it\u2019s about sticking to the process, it\u2019s believing in each other, and believing in the group and giving our best every day,\u201d says Luki\u0107.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe table\u2019s 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,\u201d adds Spencer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TULSA, Okla. – \u201cIt\u2019s hard to follow our process when you have such a long break without playing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-377180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}