Steven Sandor's Blog, page 110
November 6, 2014
FCE parts ways with six players, including Hlavaty, Parker and James
FC Edmonton’s Horace James, centre, skips by Indy’s Kleberson, left. PHOTO: FC EDMONTON/TONY LEWIS
FC Edmonton has parted ways with six players — including NASL veterans Lance Parker, Neil Hlavaty and Horace James.The team also released Canadians Massimo Mirabelli and Edem Mortotsi, and former Chicago Fire midfielder Mike Banner, who missed almost all of the season with a knee injury.
Coach Colin Miller said it was an amicable parting of the ways.
“All of these lads have been fantastic professionals, and their attitude, work rate and effort has been fantastic while at FC Edmonton,” Miller said in a release.
Parker’s season was derailed by a series of hand and shoulder injuries. The former Chivas USA keeper then saw John Smits post the best goals-against average of any keeper in the NASL who has enough minutes played to qualify for the Golden Gloves award (0.90).
Hlavaty had been with FCE for two seasons and scored three times and added three assists. But Ritchie Jones emerged as the No. 1 central midfield option for the Eddies in the fall season.
James scored twice and added two assists. He created issues for defenders on the right wing because of his speed, but Canadian Michael Nonni has also looked good in that spot. As well, moving James on now opens an international roster slot for the Eddies.
Mirabelli played 727 minutes in 2013, and just a total of 62 minutes in 2014. With Lance Laing’s emergence as a true left winger, Mirabelli was simply squeezed out of the lineup.
Mortotsi played just 56 minutes in the regular season. This was a player who Miller had praised during the season. Many times, he’d favourably compared Mortotsi to Vancouver Whitecaps midfielder Gershon Koffie.
Miller said last week that he didn’t expect a major turnover at the club this season — maybe five or six roster spots.
November 3, 2014
NASL feels the wrath of Cann
Adrian Cann may be known for a lot of things: But the Canadian centre back was never known for his scoring touch.
Until this week. For scoring the 93rd-minute game winner against the New York Cosmos that allowed his San Antonio Scorpions to clinch the fall-season title, Cann was named the NASL player of the week.
The Scorpions, coached by Canadian Alen Marcina, will go into the NASL post-season as the No. 2 seed and will host the Cosmos this coming weekend.
Cann and Marcina are former Vancouver Whitecaps teammates. Cann was released by Toronto FC in 2012 and, despite getting offers from San Antonio and the Chicago Fire in 2013, he decided to take a year off. But, after the 2013 season, Cann found out that San Antonio was still interested in bringing him on board, and he accepted Marcina’s challenge.
“Last year, I was supposed to come to San Antonio,” Cann said as part of an interview with Plastic Pitch (the full interview with Marcina and Cann can be found in the autumn issue, out now). “But I decided to take some time away from the game to reassess where I was at and then, eventually, a year went by. I was doing my own training at the time and Alen had reached out to me, we had played together in Vancouver, and said ‘would you consider coming to help the guys out?’ And I thought, yeah, I still had the urge to win a championship and eventually made the commitment.”
ADRIAN CANN and ALEN MARCINA: CANADIANS IN SAN ANTONIO. READ ABOUT IT IN THE AUTUMN ISSUE OF PLASTIC PITCH!
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November 2, 2014
Farago gets first NASL win in Eddies’ season finale
Tomi Ameobi scores the first goal of the game for the Eddies: PHOTO: TONY LEWIS/FC EDMONTON
Weeks ago, the Eddies coaching staff had discussed the scenarios: If the Eddies were out of the chase for the post-season in the final week of the NASL campaign, Tyson Farago would get his professional debut.And Farago got the win between the sticks as the Eddies got a 2-1 victory — a triumph that gave the supporters at Clarke a nice send-off, but also added to the “what could have been” dialogue in the wake of last week’s loss to Fort Lauderdale on a late, self-inflicted goal.
Farago deserved a ton of credit for getting the Eddies the three points they needed to finish third in the NASL fall season table. After the Silverbacks cut the lead to one, Farago made a fantastic leap to parry Pablo Cruz’s dipping shot over the bar. And he came out of the goal to block an effort from Ryan Roushandel, who found himself alone at the far post.
Farago also got some help from Nonni, the scorer of the Eddies’ second goal. Roushandel looked to have sent the tying marker goalward, but Nonni headed it off the line and out to help preserve the win.
“The plan was always to give Tyson a chance to play the final game,” said coach Colin Miller. “And he did very well out there. Unfortunately, he’s been relegated to being a training-ground keeper, because we are in the middle of nowhere and we can’t find decent reserve games. But he went in there today and I thought he did fantastic, and he can kick the ball further than I can drive my car.”
The Eddies should have had the game won at halftime; the 2-0 scoreline flattered the Silverbacks, whose defending and midfield play were non-existent for long portions of the first 45 minutes.
The Eddies opened the scoring in the 17th minute. Eddie Edward launched a cross into the box; Atlanta defender Edgar Espinoza decided to move away from his man, Tomi Ameobi, to try and cut off the cross. But, when the ball came down, Espinoza couldn’t get close to the ball. And, because Espinoza left Ameobi behind, the Eddies striker had plenty of time to chest the ball down and blast it inside the post.
Then, Eddies’ midfielder was ruled to have been brought down in the box by Atlanta defender Ramiro Canovas. Hlavaty’s penalty was too close to keeper Thomas Hunter, and was saved.
But Espinoza was soon back at it — first, despite having goal-side, ball-side position, he allowed Lance Laing to get around him and lob a ball over Hunter. Atlanta defender Abdul Bangura cleared the ball off the line. But the Eddies collected the ball, and Edward pumped it back into the box — where Daryl Fordyce cushioned a header in the path of Nonni, whose diving header found the goal. Fordyce was Espinoza’s man and was allowed a free header to get the ball to Nonni.
“I thought, when I was in the air, ‘shouldn’t I be kicking it?’” said Nonni. “But it worked out OK. I’ve been snakebite this year. My first league goal — and it only took me about 20 games.”
When the Eddies and Silverbacks heard the halftime whistle, Miller was unhappy that the Eddies weren’t up by four or five over a team that’s future is uncertain.
“No disrespect meant to Atlanta, but that’s a team here that’s waiting to be beaten.”
The Silverbacks have not confirmed if they will return to NASL next season, and speculation has the team moving, self-relegating to a lower league or folding altogether.
But, if the second half in Edmonton was the Silverbacks’ final 45 minutes of play in NASL, at least they can say they came out with a heck of a lot more fire than they offered in the first half.
A photo finish was set up when, off a corner, Abdul Bangura won the ball in the air; the ball then went to his cousin, Shaka Bangura, who nodded home from six yards out.
The Eddies finished nervously — but thanks to Farago and Nonni, held on.
SMITS IS GOLDEN?: By sitting out the final game of the season, John Smits has clinched the NASL Golden Gloves award (at least by my math).
While the league won’t announce awards till the lead-up to the Championship, the Golden Gloves is an award based on stats, not votes. Smits went into the weekend with a 0.90 goals against average. Jimmy Maurer of the New York Cosmos was scored on this weekend, so his 0.91 goals against average going into the weekend can’t be lower than Smits’s goals against average. Matt Van Oekel led the league in GAA going into the weekend, at 0.89. But he gave up two goals on the weekend, so his average is now higher than Smits.
October 30, 2014
Three more years: FCE hands Miller and his staff a mandate
Colin Miller
Colin Miller believes that the length of his contract is a message to the naysayers who think that FC Edmonton won’t be around much longer.“The stability and the direction of the club, the fact that our owners, Tom and Dave Fath, have offered me a three-year contract is an incredible statement. It says to any of the doubting Thomases out there who have said that we may not exist in x amount of years, it’s a statement that we’re here and we are going to be in the community, to thrive in the community and to grow as a club and as a football culture.”
On Thursday, the club announced that Miller, assistant Jeff Paulus and keepers coach Darren Woloshen were all signed to three-year extensions.
Miller said that, when he took over as coach ahead of the 2013 season, he told the owners that it would be a five-year project to turn the team around. He said that the first year was almost a total wash, as so many changes had to made to both the roster and the culture of the team. But, in the fall season, the Eddies surged, and went from a club near the bottom of the NASL table to a club that pushed for a post-season spot till the penultimate week of the regular season.
But, Miller has been given the chance to complete the five-year project.
And that work begins in the team’s final game of the season, when it hosts the Atlanta Silverbacks on Sunday. The Silverbacks’ future is murky; the team;s brass has admitted that the future of the club is uncertain. Does a white knight save the team and keep it in Atlanta, is the franchise sold and moved to a new city, or does the team self-relegate to third-division USL-PRO?
Miller said that he expects that the Silverbacks players will come and give very good account of themselves. He said they know there’s a history of FCE signing former Atlanta players — or, in the case of defender Beto Navarro, buying a Silverback. So he believes that players who know they might all become free agents will show their best.
“They know they are in the shop window,” said Miller.
“The Atlanta side that will come here, I watched their game twice so far, the game against Carolina from last week. They’ve got good players, there’s no question about it. Sure, the club may be in disarray at the moment, but we have to treat them with respect because they do have those good players, key players who are match-winners for them. And we haven’t beat them yet this season.”
After the Atlanta game, the business of planning for next season goes into full swing. Miller expects to bring in four or five new players, but said that he wants to keep the core of the team intact. It’s now about adding a few pieces.
TESHO AKINDELE TALKS ABOUT HIS CANADIAN HOPES… READ IT IN THE AUTUMN ISSUE PLASTIC PITCH!
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October 29, 2014
Dear MLS, please kill the No. 4 vs No. 5 playoff game dead
For a guy who writes about soccer as much as I do, loves the game as much as I do, I surprise myself about how many times I wonder if there are too many matches being played.
The world would be a better place without the League Cup (we get to see who the big clubs put on the bench today!), meaningless friendlies, North American summer tours by European clubs… They are like the cheapest of Scotch; too much exposure to these things, and you might get so turned off that you forsake the good stuff, too.
And, if Major League Soccer cared about the integrity of its playoff system, it would do the world a favour and jettison the No. 4 vs. No. 5 conference playoff games.
Wednesday’s match, which saw FC Dallas end the Whitecaps season with a 2-1 win, was another example of why the No. 4 vs. No. 5 playoff game is a massive issue. The announced attendance was 10,279. Almost Chivas bad. But, as anyone in Sports Marketing 101 would tell you, what do you expect when a team is expected to sell playoff tickets for a game that happens on a midweek evening, just three days after the regular season ends?
Last year, the Montreal Impact traveled to Houston for a No. 4 vs. No. 5 playoff. A total of 10,476 fans showed up.
In 2012, the Chicago Fire played Houston in a No. 4 vs. No. 5 game — and 10,923 showed up.
Half-full stadiums — for what are knockout games. The public has voted. The jury is in. We simply don’t care about this preliminary round of the playoffs. And MLS has to accept that the customer is right. Because, to anyone not in Vancouver or Dallas, the one thing he or she will notice from Wednesday’s game is the empty seats.
Watching the highlights would be something like this:
“Isn’t it ironic to see a Canadian, Tesho Akindele, score against a Canadian club? Look at all the empty seats!”
“Whitecaps tie it on Erik Hurtado’s goal! Lucky he got the deflection, because he really should have hit that first-time with his left foot rather than have to wait, turn and shift to get it onto his right. Look at all the empty seats!”
“I can’t believe Mark Geiger gave Dallas a penalty for that! The ball bounced up awkwardly! It was ball-to-hand on Kendall Waston! It wasn’t just that Michel buried the penalty! Couldn’t have been the crowd who lobbied for a call, because, c’mon, look at all those empty seats!”
The playoffs are supposed to be when a league shines brightest. But when crowds are much smaller than an MLS side would get for a regular-season game, the No. 4 vs. No. 5 game is an embarrassment to the league, instead.
As a Canadian, it seems counterintuitive to want to scrap the game; I get that. After all, the only way a Canadian side has ever made the MLS playoffs is as the No. 5 seed. But, really, how does it feel to be eliminated from the playoffs just a few days after the regular season ended? You want to say it. It’s OK to admit it to yourself. IT FEELS LIKE YOU MISSED THE PLAYOFFS.
Look, I’m a North American. I grew up with the notion that playoffs are more important than the regular season. I’m comfortable with a playoff format in soccer. It may sound sacrilegious to some, but I think if it’d OK to put four teams together in a playoff for a promotion spot, it’s perfectly fine for the English Premiership to lump the top four teams together for an end-of-season playoff to determine a champion.
That’s how much of a playoff backer I am.
But, the MLS 10-team system — with five teams qualifying in each conference is, well, how to put it nicely? It’s dumb. It would be so much better if we went right to the conference semifinals. No. 1 vs. No. 4.. No. 2 vs. No. 3. Let a week go by to build the hype. Don’t play playoff games in the middle of the week.
OK, so eight teams make the playoffs instead of 10. That’s a good thing. Making the playoffs should be hard. When MLS expands to 24 teams, and only eight make the playoffs — well, then just making the post-season would be a badge of honour. There wouldn’t be the feeling that you got the fifth-place consolation prize.
But MLS can’t keep going on like this — where interest diminishes once the playoffs begin.
Please. Kill this No. 4 vs. No. 5 game dead. The fans have voted by not buying tickets for these games.
JOHN MOLINARO WRITES ON HOW TO FIX THE MLS CUP. HOW TO MAKE MLS’S BIG GAME RELEVANT IN A CROWDED SPORTS WORLD? READ IT IN THE AUTUMN ISSUE PLASTIC PITCH!
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Turfgate: FIFA’s Valcke affirms that a men’s World Cup could be staged on turf
In an interview/press release posted on FIFA.com, FIFA Secretary-General Jerome Valcke said that a men’s World Cup played on artificial turf could be organized sooner rather than later.
More of Valcke’s statement:
“By the way, for many years now, any organizer of a FIFA event — irrespective of whether it be a men’s or women’s competition, including the men’s World Cup – has had the right to propose for the tournament to be played on artificial turf, provided that it is of the highest quality and the same playing surface is used for all venues and training sites. It could well be that sooner rather than later the men’s World Cup will also be played on artificial pitches. The Canadian Soccer Association proposed for the tournament to be played on artificial turf based on the fact that most sporting infrastructure in Canada is on artificial turf, primarily due to the extreme climate in the host country. It would be very difficult to ensure solid natural-grass pitches at all venues. As has already been explained, this is not a question of money, or of differences between men’s and women’s events, but it is a matter of the natural conditions in Canada: We want to guarantee consistent top-level playing conditions for all 24 teams during the event, both in the official stadiums and at the training sites. This has been the sole reason behind the decision to play on artificial turf from day one.”
This statement is an important one. While no doubt many will scoff at the notion of a men’s World Cup being played on turf — and will say that Valcke is simply playing politics — this statement from a top FIFA official carries weight. Why? The legal team representing the women’s players who are taking the CSA to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario claim that their clients are being asked to play their World Cup on turf, when it’s something FIFA would never ask of the men. But FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association can now say, “if it’s good enough for women, it’s good enough for men.”
FIFA’s Secretary-General has gone on the record and basically said that turf is indeed an option for a men’s World Cup. It’s a major development.
And, it opens the door for Canada to make a bid for the 2026 men’s World Cup with turf — if that’s the road the CSA would want to go down.
We’ve been waiting for a FIFA official to make this admission, because acknowledging that the men’s World Cup is fair game for artificial-turf-based bids changes the discussion for the legal teams.
Valcke’s comments come right on the heels of allegations from the plaintiffs that some of the Mexican and French players who were involved in the legal action dropped out because of intimidation by their own national association and/or FIFA. The CSA has denied it has intimidated or threatened any player involved in the argument against turf.
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October 28, 2014
Canada’s blunders gift win to Japan at BC Place
Emily Zurrer
“Yeah, if you don’t beat these tier-one teams going into the tournament, you go into it with the ‘what if?’ factor. And we don’t want that. We want to go in there confident, that we can beat these teams, that we can compete with the best teams in the world. We need to do that in the build-up over the next eight months. So, Japan is a big test for us, and we’re not going out there to tie. We are going out there to win the game(s).”The quote comes from a one-on-one interview I did with Canadian midfielder Desiree Scott late last week, before Canada played its two-games series of friendlies with Japan in Edmonton and Vancouver. (The full interview will appear in the winter issue of Plastic Pitch.)
After a 3-0 loss to the World Cup champs in Edmonton on Saturday, the Canadians really needed some kind of result Tuesday in Vancouver. Canada has played the so-called “tier-one” teams through the year, and it hadn’t yet claimed a win against the likes of Germany, the Americans or Japan. More losses and that “what if?” factor Scott spoke about just grows and grows — and you’d begin to wonder if coach John Herdman’s plan to play the world’s top dogs in the lead-up to the Women’s World Cup was going to do more psychological damage than good.
On Saturday in Edmonton, the Canadians could only claim the sort-of moral victory of playing Japan pretty even for 40 minutes in a 3-0 loss.
On Tuesday at BC Place, the Japanese ran out a decidedly B squad, making nine changes to the starting lineup. Canada did very well to be tied 1-1, but, at about the 65-minute mark, the Japanese began bringing on the big guns, including midfield superstar Aya Miyama.
And the Japanese ended up with a 3-2 win, thanks to two terrible defensive mistakes by the Canadian centre backs. Right after Sophie Schmidt had brought Canada level at 2-2 in time added on, Emily Zurrer allowed her pocket to be picked by Japanese fullback Aya Saweshima, who then went in on keeper Stephanie Labbe and picked the corner for the winning goal.
Shortly after the Japanese made their changes, Canadian centre back Kadeisha Buchanan totally whiffed on a clearing opportunity. The ball fell to Yuki Ogimi, who deftly chipped the ball over Labbe, off the post and into the goal. That gave the Japanese a 2-1 lead at the time.
So, even though the two goals came after the Japanese brought in some of its big-time performers, they were the result of massive blunders by the Canadians. And, Canada finished yet another game against a “tier-one” team with a loss.
Sure, the Canadians can point to the fact that they created oh so many first-half chances that they didn’t convert. Japanese keeper Miho Fukumoto had to come out of the box to tackle Christine Sinclair; Jessie Fleming’s pass or shot (we’re not quite sure) went just wide after she made a blazing run down the left. From eight yards out, Adriana Leon blasted a shot over the bar.
The Japanese punished the Canadians late in the first half. On the second phase of a corner, Asano Nagasato blasted a volley into the top corner of the Canadian goal.
The Canadians came with more pressure in the second half. Japanese defender Azusa Iwashimuzu had to slide across the goal line to block Fleming’s goal-bound header from going in. But, on the ensuing corner, Sinclair took a short pass, slipped it back to Schmidt, who got into a good shooting position and blasted it in off the head of Mizuho Sakaguchi.
That got the score to 1-1; the Japanese made their changes and the Canadians helped the visitors with two serious mistakes. What should have been a wonderful, spirit-boosting at-the-death equalizer from Schmidt was erased by Zurrer’s error.
But Canada’s series of friendlies is helping a team build its confidence ahead of the Women’s World Cup — the visiting team, that is.
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The three games that ruined FCE’s chances for a post-season spot
Oct. 4: TB vs FCE, one of the games that killed the Eddies this season
When the team you support is eliminated from the post-season picture, it’s normal to look back on the season and obsess about that game where your side was robbed by the ref or that match where your team hit three posts and a crossbar.After FC Edmonton was eliminated from NASL post-season contention last weekend in Fort Lauderdale, it would be hard to blame an Eddies supporter for not obsessing over the games where points were dropped.
In the end, that supporter should come to the logical conclusion that the Eddies could have easily gone into that game with Fort Lauderdale with an NASL post-season slot already salted away. I’ll look at three games that should have been wins for the Eddies — instead, they only got two points from those matches.
July 13: Ottawa Fury 0, FCE 0
The game was played at Commonwealth Stadium because new turf was still in the process of setting at Clarke Stadium. With pitch-side temperatures at a sweltering 35 C, the Fury went down to 10 men early in the second half. But the Eddies couldn’t take advantage of a team down a man in the heat. But, late in the match, Hanson Boakai’s left-footed effort struck the post. In time added on, Horace James’s effort went off the post.
July 27: Indy Eleven 1, FCE 0
FCE took 28 shots at the Indy Eleven goal at Clarke Stadium. Out of those 28, none went in. Two FCE attempts were cleared off the line. Attempts from Daryl Fordyce, Lance Laing and Michael Nonni hit the woodwork. Cristian Raudales missed a wide open net from a few feet out. After all that domination, the Eddies gave up a suckerpunch goal from Kleberson deep into the second half. It was a loss that defied description — coach Colin Miller lamented that the nature of the missed sitters was “a physical impossibility.”
Oct. 4: FCE 1, Tampa Bay Rowdies 1
The crowd at Al Lang Stadium didn’t catcall in hopes of drawing a penalty kick. When referee Ted Unkel put up his arm in the FC Edmonton penalty area, he was surrounded by Rowdies players, because they were so sure the free kick had been awarded Edmonton’s way. But Unkel pointed to the spot, which led to Tampa’s tying goal in a game that was arguably the Eddies’ best road effort of the season. The Eddies are still looking at the replays, wondering how Unkel could have judged defender Kareem Moses to have impeded a Rowdies attacker. The Eddies have been victims of bad calls before; the human factor is part of the game. But this particular call, which came as the Eddies were surging up the standings, did more harm to the Eddies’ post-season hopes than all of the other controversial calls that went against the Eddies, combined.
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October 25, 2014
FC Edmonton’s post-season hopes die in Fort Lauderdale
FC Edmonton’s Tomi Ameobi, left, challenges Fort Lauderdale’s Darnell King.
Soccer can be such a cruel game. A hero can be transformed into a scapegoat with just one kick of the ball.For 83 minutes, Eddies keeper John Smits was the best player on the field in Fort Lauderdale; in a game that the Eddies had to win, Smits made a series of wonderful saves to keep the score at 0-0.
But, in minute 84, the dream game turned into a nightmare. With one very poor touch, the Eddies’ keeper set up the goal that put an end to FCE’s push for a post-season spot. The Strikers got a 1-0 win, which puts the Eddies four points out of the fourth and final playoff spot in the overall standings — with just one game left.
Strikers’ forward Fafa Picault got a head to an attempted chipped pass from FCE winger Lance Laing; Smits had to come out of his area to collect it. He hit the ball first-time, and the panicked clearance went right to Pecka. The Strikers’ midfielder chipped the ball over Smits and into the vacated Eddies’ goal.
Emotionally, it would be easier to lose on a perfectly taken, unstoppable shot into the top corner.
“It was very disappointing to give up the goal in the manner that we did,” said Eddies’ coach Colin Miller. “Especially after we put so much into the game.”
But, he said no single player should be blamed for the result.
“We win as a team. We lose as a team.”
The goal overshadowed the fact that Smits made a series of very good saves, and one ridiculous save, to keep the score level. In the first half, with Fort Lauderdale trying to push for the early lead at home, Smits made a diving stop on former Eddie Shawn Chin. He then deflected a Mark Anderson shot just wide.
And, in the 61st minute, Smits’s save on Picault should get save-of-the-season consideration. Picault had a free header, Smits, on his back, reached behind himself to get enough on the ball to deflect it off the underside of the bar. The ball stayed out.
The Eddies created two excellent chances in the first half; the first came off a quickly taken free kick that caught all of the Strikers napping save for defender Rafael Alves. Eddies’ midfielder Ritchie Jones looked to be in the clear, but Alves sprinted back, laid out and blocked the shot.
Later, Kamil Contofalsky parried Jones’ point-blank shot over the bar after some lovely passing from Chad Burt and Tomi Ameobi.
The game was very physical, with the Strikers lobbying for Eddie Horace James to be sent off near the end of the first half for a late challenge that felled Pecka. But a sensibly, a yellow was issued — as referee Robert Sibiga decided not to try and decide what was essentially a playoff game with cards. He made another sensible decision in the second half, when Contofalsky came out of his box and flattened Laing. It would have been hard to call Laing’s run a clear goal-scoring opportunity and, heck, in a game that meant so much, a red card would have been unnecessarily harsh.
While the Eddies won’t be in the playoffs, Miller said the strides the team has made in the fall season — to be in the battle for a post-season slot — has put the club on a path from which it won’t deviate.
“I think the attitude of the players has been fantastic. And that also goes for everyone at the club, from our owners, Tom and Dave Fath, to all the staff who worked so hard to turn this team around. We have raised the bar. We have set a new standard, and we’re not going to back off from that.”
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