sports central
Aimin J
ust how exciting will it be to watch the Tulsa Roughnecks in the United Soccer League this year? Head coach David Irving has virtually guaranteed the team will make the playoffs.
“If we don’t make the playoffs, I wouldn’t be doing my job,” he states. The season begins for the Roughnecks March 26 with a home game at ONEOK Field against the RGV Toros, a Houston Dynamo affiliate. (See page 65 for more details.) The Dynamo play in the ultimate professional league in the United States — the Major League Soccer league. The Roughnecks will play a 30-game schedule. If anyone should know what it takes to have an elite team, it would be Irving. The 64-year-old head coach of the Roughnecks is already a USL Pro Hall of Fame member and has either played or coached at the highest level of professional soccer. Irving led the team to an 11-11-6 record in its inaugural season in 2015 and finished only one win out of the playoffs. Six of the 12 squads in the Western Conference advanced to the playoffs in 2015. This year, the number of teams
WRITTEN BY: Richard Linihan
Looking to build on the late-season momentum of 2015, David Irving and the Tulsa Roughnecks have their sights set on delivering a playoff birth (and maybe more) to the rabid Roustabouts. 62 March 2016