Energy can’t finish scoring opportunities
If the Oklahoma City Energy miss the USL playoffs by just a point or two, they’ll look back to Sunday as a prime opportunity missed. The Energy dominated Vancouver Whitecaps 2 throughout and created scoring opportunities galore, but Oklahoma City’s inability to finish offensively resulted in a 0-0 draw at Taft Stadium.
It was only the third scoreless draw for the Energy this soccer season. Oklahoma City (9-10-7) did gain one standings point to move into a tie with Colorado Springs for what would be the eighth and final playoff spot out of the Western Conference with 34 points.
Still, Energy coach Jimmy Nielsen rued a wasted opportunity to earn three points against Vancouver (5-14-8), a squad mired deep in the conference standings. Only nine points separate fifth through 12th places in the Western Conference, so the two points missed by the Energy on Sunday could loom large. “Unfortunately, it was not our night,” Nielsen said.
“It’s been awhile since I’ve been a part of a game where we dominated that much without getting the result we wanted.” The Energy outshot Vancouver 25-7 and set a franchise record with 15 corner kicks, all by Anthony Wallace, “and quite honestly, we were dangerous on a lot of them,” Nielsen said. But Vancouver goalkeeper Sean Melvin came up big time and again, making seven saves to post his second shutout of the season.
Melvin’s performance proved even more clutch, considering the Whitecaps were missing their starting center back, Francis de Vries, who was suspended a game for yellow card accumulation. “I got my head on three or four of those (corners) and put them on frame,” Energy defender Coady Andrews said. “You can chalk it up to good goalkeeping and a little bit of bad luck, for one not going in. We did have our chances. We just need to execute. We need to get points.” The Energy outshot the Whitecaps 13-2 and controlled the lion’s share of the possession in the first half, but had nothing to show for it.
Miguel Gonzalez hit the post with a free kick from 20 yards out in the ninth minute, and three minutes later, Alex Dixon’s strong shot went wide and Andrews’ follow shot, a header, went right to Melvin.
Melvin came up big again in the 18th minute, stopping a shot by Dixon set up by a strong crossing pass from Kyle Hyland, and in the 20th minute, the goalkeeper saved a shot by Gonzalez. “It was close to a little miracle that we were not up at halftime,” Nielsen said. It was more of the same in the second half, when the Energy’s best scoring chance was on a header by Andrews off a corner kick in the 58th minute, which Melvin had to dive to save.
Vancouver managed only a couple of serious threats, but the Energy’s back line and goalkeeper Cody Laurendi snuffed those out. Laurendi made two saves while recording his seventh shutout of 2017.
Oklahoma City’s 15 corner kicks were the third-most in a game this season by a USL team. Louisville City twice has had 16 corners in one game. “Ultimately, in the end, you look for the ultimate product, which is a goal,” Wallace said. “To know we had so many, it’s disappointing to not get anything out of them.”
The Energy’s previous franchise record for corner kicks in a game was 12, set against Vancouver on May 17, 2015, and matched against the Tulsa Roughnecks on Aug. 20, 2016.