• OKC Energy FC come into this match off the back of a 1-0 victory against rivals Tulsa Roughnecks.
• Last season, Energy finished in 6th place in the USL Western Conference table, picking up 49 points. They went on to beat Reno and San Antonio (the latter on penalties), before crashing out to Swope Park Rangers in the Conference Final.
• Energy and Rising met twice last season. In the first meeting, Jason Johnson and Shaun Wright-Phillips scored in a 2-1 Rising win in Tempe. The second meeting saw OKC take a 3-2 home victory.
• Steve Cooke replaced Jimmy Nielsen as manager of the team in December. The Sheffield-born Englishman has extensive youth team management experience, and also enjoyed a stint as interim manager of Colorado Rapids last season.
• Jose Angulo has returned to play for OKC again this year. He was their top scorer last season, with 15 goals (4th highest in USL). Nine of those goals came in OKC’s three-game winning streak at the end of the season.
• Former Ghanaian U-20 international Joseph Adeji has joined the side. Adeji began his professional football career in 2015 at Wa All Stars (Ghana), and also enjoyed loan spells at Cape Town City (South Africa) and Al-Orouba SC (Oman).  The defender previously featured at the 2015 U-20 World Cup in New Zealand.
• Energy has acquired three players on loan from their MLS affiliate, FC Dallas: defender Jordan Cano, and forwards Ema Twumasi and Francis Atuahene. All three are still awaiting their MLS debuts.

From the Ashes Prediction: Rising to secure a narrow victory in a closely fought encounter.