Ahead of FC Tulsa’s home opener Saturday , there are expectations to perform like never before — and the team knows it.
The Scissortails finished with the top seed in the United Soccer League Championship’s Western Conference last season with a 16-9-5 record. FC Tulsa scored a club record of 50 goals and sat atop the Western Conference standings for 15 consecutive weeks.
After losing on penalties in the USL Final in November, midfielder Jamie Webber said winning a championship is the only goal this season.
“That’s been the standard for the club since I came,” Webber said. “I’ve only been here one season, but I really have high hopes for the club, and I bought in immediately to the standards that they set.”
‘It’s amazing what happens when you win something’
While FC Tulsa’s coaches and front office set lofty expectations for the players last season, that was not the case across the league as the club finished 10th in the Western Conference in 2024.
Caleb Sewell, the club’s general manager and sporting director, said agents laughed him off the phone when he recruited players to join the club after the 2024 season. However, he said this winter transfer window was “vastly” different.
“It’s amazing what happens when you win something,” Sewell said. “We probably had more people we walked away from in this window than I’ve ever done before in a recruitment cycle, so that was an interesting dynamic in terms of what’s available and what we think is going to fit with our DNA.”
FC Tulsa signed 11 players this offseason, including three forwards. Sewell is hopeful these additions can replace the void left by Taylor Calheira, who transferred to Major League Soccer’s Sporting Kansas City for a club-record transfer fee in February.
“We probably would have preferred to lose him a little bit earlier in the offseason, if we were going to do it,” Sewell said. “But we had backup plans. We had players we were looking at should that scenario take place.”
One of the players Sewell believes will fit into the team’s DNA is Bruno Lapa, a Brazilian forward that signed in January from a South Korean club. Lapa and Sewell previously crossed paths at Memphis 901 FC.
“Keeping in touch with him and knowing how well of a job he does, I didn’t expect anything different from Tulsa last year once he joined,” Lapa said.
In addition to Lapa, the team also signed French forward Rémi Cabral and Haitian forward Nelson Pierre.
“Do I think we’ll be a carbon copy of the 20 goals that we got from Taylor? Probably not,” Sewell said. “But I think that’s a good opportunity for other people to stick their hand up and be able to make an impact.”
After losing the season opener to Sacramento Republic FC 2-0 last week, head coach Luke Spencer is hopeful the Scissortails will return to winning ways in front of the home crowd.
“We thrive off the energy that’s brought in the stadium. Hopefully they can see that in the way our guys fight and the way our team performs,” Spencer said. “It is a different feeling when the stadium is full and the energy is there.”
FC Tulsa takes on San Antonio FC Saturday at 7 p.m. at ONEOK Field.
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