mackenzie davis played tulsa in the space between us.
mackenzie davis played tulsa in the space between us.
who plays tulsa in the space between us?
mackenzie davis
Na
Na
the 2014 campaign began with the inaugural red river cup featuring former pdl and future nasl side oklahoma city fc, npsl newcomers fort worth vaqueros and usasa and former us open cup entrant tulsa lobos. okc fc narrowly slipped past lobos 2–1 and a late juan peralta header completed athletic 2–1 victory over ft. worth. lobos surprised ft. worth in the third place match by winning 2–1. the final again saw tulsa dig itself into a hole. this time it was a two-goal deficit. dave leung's header cut the lead in half and ray saari scored his first goal for the club late in the second half. tulsa had come under a great deal of scrutiny in the off-season for its poor performances during shoot-outs (1–7 in pk shootouts in 2013), however they went an impressive 7 for 7 in the extended shootout and in doing so won the inaugural red river cup. the south-central division saw a drastic change as it lost both houston teams and added oklahoma city fc, joplin demize, dallas city fc, fort worth vaqueros, corinthians fc of san antonio and bcs clash. the conference was further divided into north and south divisions. the regular season opened the following weekend in fort worth and athletic played spoilers running out resounding 5–0 winners against the vaqueros. two days later the club set an npsl league record when they pummeled the ill-equipped bcs clash 13–0. tulsa made there much anticipated lamar hunt u.s. open cup debut versus upstart usl pro side oklahoma city energy fc. though both teams had their chances, okc was the sharper side on the day and advanced on to the third round with a 2–0 victory. tulsa had a 16-day break before their roller coaster 5–4 victory over liverpool warriors. the following 10 days saw two solid victories over new club joplin 4–0 at home and 4–1 @ joplin. the new playoff structure paired off the top two teams from the north and the south divisions in a four team playoff. tulsa was nearing clinching a berth at the midway point of the season. a 2–0 victory vs. okc fc on breast cancer awareness night all but clinched. however, the next night athletic suffered their first ever npsl regular season defeat 2–5 at the hands of the same okc fc team that they had vanquished the previous evening. tulsa got back on track five days later when they clinched a playoff spot with a near perfect 3–0 performance against eventual south champion corinthians fc of san antonio. a mid-season friendly with the houston dynamo u23's proved an interesting affair as the dynamo took 2–0 lead into the break. coach ryan made a full 10 substitutions at halftime and saw his subs and reserves fight back for an exciting 3–2 victory. tulsa clinched 1st place in the north the following friday when they beat dallas city fc 4–1. cf monterrey came into town for a friendly on the one year anniversary of club america's shootout victory and again the match was decided in penalties after ending 2–2. tulsa avenged the previous year's defeat winning 4–2 in penalties. the game also marked the arrival of austin aztex loanee tony rocha whose thunderous free kick from 25 yards served as the late tying goal. for the second time in two years tulsa could clinch the #2 national seed with a win @ liverpool on the final day of the regular season. the club was victorious 4–2 on a scorching hot day. tulsa was chosen prior to the season to host the conference tournament. they faced dallas city who were pipped by corinthians on the final day of the season to become the #2 seed. the club was masterful, dismantling dallas city 6–0. in the other semi-final corinthians won a penalty shootout vs. okc fc to reach the conference final. the final was a tale of two halves. tulsa took a commanding 3–0 lead into the final half-hour of the game through niall masterson, dave leung and an akeil barrett penalty. however corinthians came roaring back to make it 3–2 with 15 minutes remaining. just when it seemed as though corinthians might find an equalizer, damieon thomas's individual effort clinched a 4–2 victory and a second straight south-central conference championship. the regional playoffs were originally slated to be hosted in atlanta. however, when the facility became unavailable it went to a bidding process. tulsa and chattanooga were the two candidates to host. chattanooga was awarded the bid solely based on the economic feasibility of travel from the participating teams (tulsa athletic, chattanooga fc, miami united, upward stars of south carolina), rather than the point total model that decides hosting rights for the national semi-finals and finals. the #1 seed athletic faced the #4 seed upward stars in the regional semi-final, while #3 chattanooga fc squared off against #2 miami united. upward stars immediately pounced on athletic taking a commanding 2–0 lead. one minute before halftime athletic leading scorer levi coleman cut the lead in half. tulsa entered injury time still trailing 2–1 when makeshift defender/intern/director of soccer operations matt boullt got free on a corner kick and headed tulsa level in storybook fashion. a clearly deflated upward stars conceded twice in the first ten minutes of extra time and eventually fell 4–2 setting up a rematch of the 2013 playoff game between tulsa and chattanooga. the match started perfectly for chattanooga who appeared married to a counterattack style of play, as a cleared corner kick started the break for chattanooga and they turned it into a 1–0 lead in the 4th minute. the next 74 minutes saw chattanooga in a shell doing whatever they could to see off the athletic attack. in the 78th minute chattanooga caught tulsa on the break again and finished a one on one and doubled the chattanooga lead. tulsa were unable to break through and bowed out to cfc for the second straight year. after the match cfc head coach bill elliot sang tulsa's praises saying "they’re the best that we’ve seen so far,” and “if i’m honest, they may have out played us a little tonight." the stat sheet echoed elliot's statement (final shots on target 12–4 in tulsa'a favor and possession 68%/32%). tulsa athletic earned a spot in the 2015 lamar hunt us open cup and for the second straight year and led the country (all leagues included) in average goals per game.
tulsa athletic