Steven Sandor's Blog, page 116

While Canada loses its opener, Germans send a message to U20WWC field

Theresa Panfil

After seeing the Germans and Americans square off in the Group B opener at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium, I can tell Canadian fans this much. Now that Canada has lost its opener (1-0 to Ghana at BMO Field), the best it can realistically hope for out of Group A is to scrap its way into second place. And that will mean, unless the world turns topsy-turvy, Canada would face the Germans.

Gulp.

After an incident-filled first half which saw both teams miss golden chances, the Germans simply dominated the Americans in the second half. The score was 2-0, but it could have been — should have been — 4-2 or 6-3.

But, even if some great chances weren’t converted, there is no denying the Germans weren’t worth a two-goal margin in this tournament’s group of death, which also includes Brazil and China.

“I don’t say it very often, especially to my team, but I am very proud of them,” German coach Maren Meinert said through a translator after the match. “They gave everything and, regardless of the outcome, it was a very good game. They played as a team.”



“Regardless of the group, it was important to present ourselves as a team, the way we prepared. Even though, on paper, we have the most difficult group, every group can present its challenges. It was important to get off to a good start.”

The Americans had two great chances to go ahead early, both coming from Lindsey Horan. But, on the first attempt, after a fantastic run down the wing from Mallory Pugh, Horan put a shot right at German keeper Meike Kaemper. On her second attempt, she headed the ball off a set piece into the turf that bounded over the goal.

Meanwhile, Germany’s Pauline Bremer had two chances to put the Germans up; on one occasion, she drilled it right at keeper Katelyn Rowland. On the second, Rowland got caught out of the net and Bremer’s header was cleared off the line, off the post and out by American defender Katie Naughton.

But, in the second half, the Germans established their passing game, dominating the middle of the park. Meanwhile, the Americans tried to pound long balls up the wings in order to use their size and speed. But that’s the thing about soccer. If you’re tactically aware, you can mitigate the physical advantages of your opponent.

Somehow, Germany let the Americans off the hook when Lina Magull struck the post from point-blank range after the ball was spilled by the keeper. But you knew the goal was coming. All of the pressure, all of the possession, was coming from the Germans.

Finally, Lena Petermann went through on goal, and rocketed a shot off the underside of the bar and in.

Late in the match, Theresa Panfil, voted the player of the match, found the inside corner with her effort.

As a Canadian supporter, you can look at this tournament in two ways. You can see that they need to elevate their game so they can try and get results over Finland and North Korea and escape Group A. Or, you can see it as I do; that Canada needs to utterly transform itself so it can actually compete with the likes of a Germany in the knockout stage.

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Numbers game: San Antonio terminates the contract of Canadian Shaun Saiko

Shaun Saiko

Maybe if Canadians were treated as domestics on both sides of the border, it would not have come to this.

But, to make room for Costa Rican international Cesar Elizondo, Canadian midfielder Shaun Saiko was released from his contract by the San Antonio Scorpions on Tuesday.

Saiko has suffered through an injury-plagued season. He had to have surgery to deal with a double hernia. Since returning to active duty, he’s been used exclusively off the bench by coach Alen Marcina. He made just six appearances this season, with one goal.

“We wish Shaun all the best as he has been a consummate professional on and off the field for the Scorpions,” Scorpions General Manager Howard Cornfield was quoted in a release from the club.



When the Scorpions acquired Elizondo in a trade with the Carolina Railhawks — with midfielder Danny Barrera going the other way — they went one over the limit of seven internationals on their roster. So one of the internationals had to go — and in the end it was Saiko, a former member of the NASL Best XI, who got the short straw.

In USL-PRO, Canadians and Americans are treated as domestics. In the NASL and MLS, Canadians are treated as domestics on the rosters of the Canadian teams, while Americans are domestics on both Canadian and U.S.-based teams. So, in NASL, a Canadian player is a domestic if he plays for Edmonton or Ottawa, but it is an international if he plays in an American city. But, an American player has protected “domestic” status no matter if he plays in Edmonton or San Antonio.

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FCE dominates NASL-leading Scorpions

Horace James scores the opening goal after a howler from Scorpions’ keeper Josh Saunders. PHOTO: FC EDMONTON/TONY LEWIS

The San Antonio Scorpions came into Sunday’s game with FC Edmonton sporting a 6-0-0 road record in 2014. The Scorpions had a perfect 4-0-0 record in the NASL fall season. The Eddies had just one home win all season, and were winless and goalless in three previous NASL fall-season matches.

Of course, the Eddies would win handily, beating the Scorpions 3-1 and allowing only one shot on goal all game long — a first-half penalty-kick from Eric Hassli. From open play, the Scorpions didn’t generate a single shot on goal.

Funny game, this soccer.

“They are the best team in the league, record wise, but we matched them,” said FCE winger Lance Laing, who set up two goals.

And Laing said the goals and the victory helped ease what has been a frustrating start to the fall season. The Eddies now have four points from four matches, and now clear out of town as Edmonton is one of the host cities for U-20 Women’s World Cup.

“We love it here,” said Laing. “We hope we can give the fans what they deserve.”



The Eddies started off brightly pushing the Scorpions back — and FCE, after hitting so many posts and missing so many chances in their first three games of the fall, got an absolute gift to open the scoring.

Before 10 minutes had expired, the Eddies got off the mat. And they got some help from Scorpions defender (and ex-Whitecap) Greg Janicki and keeper (ex-Los Angeles Galaxy) Josh Saunders.

Laing crossed a ball in from the left side. Janicki should have cut it off at the near post, but misplayed it. Still, the ball came right to Saunders. But it hit him and the chest and he spilled it out for Horace James, who then tapped it into an open goal.

After FCE’s Tomi Ameobi just fired a turnaround shot from the top of the box just wide, the Scorpions then got a gift of their own. Josue Soto lofted a free kick into the box; FCE keeper John Smits, distracted by Janicki, muffed his catch attempt. The ball fell into the box and Smits was judged to have brought down a Scorpions forward. Once you make the mistake by not catching the ball, it’s pretty hard to argue the penalty call. Former Whitecap and TFC striker Hassli rocketed the penalty into the top corner.

Both the Scorpions and Eddies had great chances to take the lead before halftime; Sainey Touray, after a clever layoff from Hassli, looked to have Smits at his mercy, but FCE fullback Edson Edward laid out to block the shot. Going the other way, Kareem Moses’ sliding effort to get on the end of a Horace James cross went just wide of the yawning cage.

But the second half was all Eddies.

In the 68th minute, Laing delivered a picture-perfect free kick into the box that we met by Ameobi, who out leaped the opposition to head home what would be the winning goal.

Daryl Fordyce put the icing on the cake, launching a right foot rocket from nearly 30 yards out that went into the top corner.

But, as good as the Eddies were going forward, it needs to be said that the Scorpions created zero scoring chances in the second half. Hassli, outside of the penalty, was shut down by FCE central defender Albert Watson, who passed a late fitness test before deemed being ready to play. Watson wrenched his neck in training on Saturday.

“For me, if Eric was still fit he could still play in MLS,” said Eddies coach Colin Miller. “It’s two times that Big Albert has played so well against him.”

Watson and a 10-man FCE side played the Scorpions to a 0-0 draw in the spring season. So, that makes it twice the two teams have met, and the Scorpions have got just one point out of the Eddies.

“As a former player, I can tell you it is easier to play against better opposition,” said Miller. “It’s easier because you raise the level of play.”

And Miller said giving up only the single shot on goal is one that the Eddies can build on.

“At any level of football, that’s a fantastic achievement.”

FCE’s all-time leading scorer, Shaun Saiko, came on as a second-half sub for the Scorpions in his first appearance at Clarke Stadium as a visiting player. It was too late for him to change the game.

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Saiko, Cann and Marcina: San Antonio Scorpions have a very Canadian feel

Shaun Saiko, in green, trains with the Scorpions, Saturday.

The San Antonio Scorpions media guide doesn’t use -our in words like colour. They don’t use the metric system in that part of Texas.

But, there’s no mistaking the Canadian content on this team, which sits at the top of the NASL fall-season table and boasts the best overall spring-fall record in the league. If the season ended today, the Scorpions would have home field advantage throughout the NASL playoffs, er. championship tournament. (Remember, we’re not supposed to call them “playoffs.”)

Coach Alen Marcina is a former Whitecap who hails from Surrey, B.C. Former Toronto FC player of the year Adrian Cann is on the roster. And, of course, Shaun Saiko, FC Edmonton’s all-time leading scorer, is also with the team. All three were in suburban Spruce Grove Saturday evening, as the Scorpions prepared to take on the Eddies. That game goes Sunday at Clarke Stadium.

Saiko has not started a game for the Scorpions since returning to the lineup after he underwent surgery for a double hernia. For six weeks, he was feeling pain and pressure before getting the double-hernia diagnosis. He doesn’t know if he’ll get a chance to play on Sunday, though we all know he’s dying to get a shot to play in front of his friends and family.

“It’s exciting times to get to play in front of the fans I played in front of for four years, almost. It’s fun to see them and play in front of them,” said Saiko.



But Marcina hasn’t yet told Saiko if it’s yeah or nay.

“No I don’t know,” said Saiko. “First and foremost, we have to win, to get the three points. Hopefully I can help the team get three points, and if not I will be on the sidelines cheering them on.”

For Saiko, the visit home also allows him to reconnect with his partner, Erin Bennett. They are expecting a girl (that’s what the ultrasound says). She is six months pregnant. But she’s in Edmonton full-time while Saiko is in Texas. It isn’t easy for the two to be apart as they expect their first child.

“It’s hard, we make do with what we have,” said Saiko. “It’s basically red alert and I will come down as soon as I get the call.

“For sure. I’ve been looking forward to coming home for a while,see the missus, the baby, and family.”

Cann said it was nice to be back in Canada, and to have at least a bit of a cool breeze in the evening. After TFC decided not to pick up his contract option after an injury-filled 2012 campaign, Cann decided to take a year off and re-evaluate his soccer career. Even though there was interest from the Chicago Fire and Rochester of USL-PRO, Cann decided to keep himself and shape, but not commit to any contract. Even last year, the Scorpions had contacted him and asked if he wanted to play there. And that interest only increased after coach Tim Hankinson was replaced by Marcina, who is a former Whitecap teammate of Cann’s.

So, when Marcina reached out in 2014, Cann said yes.

“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 play and win a championship and eventually made the commitment.”

Cann and former Whitecaps and Toronto FC designated player Eric Hassli started on the bench last week. Saiko didn’t join the team. It’s a sign of just how deep the squad is.

“You look in the locker room, we have great, great players, it’s tough to get a game,” said Saiko. “You have to work hard in training every day, to make it tougher for the coach to make a decision on who he wants to play. And I think we do a good job of that. I think that’s why we are getting the results we are getting. Everyone is working hard and trying to play and it carries over. Training carries over to the game. It’s good to have that depth.”

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Stats show link between number of draws and playoffs; are there lessons there for MLS?

As of Thursday, 31.7 per cent of Major League Soccer’s game end in draws.

That’s not a number that falls far from the conventional soccer wisdom that says that between a quarter and 30 per cent of all games will end in ties. But, probability changes as the game evolves. And, if you look at other leagues around the world, the 30-per-cent-draw figure isn’t such an accurate reflection of how the game is being played nowadays. The rate of draws is actually closer to 20 per cent, if you look at the major Euro circuits.

In the previous English Premier League season, just 78 of 380 matches ended in draws — or a shade above 20 per cent. Major League Soccer has seen 61 draws already, in just 192 games played so far in 2014.

In the previous Bundesliga campaign, 64 of 306 matches ended in draws. Just a bit under 21 per cent, and consistent to the English trend. In Spain, 86 of 380 matches were even after full time, a rate of 22.6 per cent. A little higher than in England or Germany, but nowhere close to MLS.

In the 2013 season, MLS had a 25.4 draw percentage. Slightly higher than the elite-European-league norm, but 2014 is trending upwards, thanks to the likes of the Vancouver Whitecaps and Chicago Fire, who each have drawn more than half of the games on their schedules (and, so fitting, played to a 0-0 draw on Wednesday).



But this is where it gets interesting, and this is where we can begin trying to pinpoint why there are so many more draws in MLS than you’d find at the top levels of the game in England, Germany or Spain. We’ll turn to Mexico. In its last full season/tournament, a whopping 36.6 per cent of Liga MX games ended in draws.

So, what do Mexico and MLS have in common? What do the European leagues have in common?

In Mexico and MLS, a significant number of teams make the playoffs. Ten of 19 teams in MLS make the post-season. In Mexico, eight teams make the playoffs. In Europe, it is winner take all.

For example, if Chelsea or Manchester City or Liverpool or Arsenal is playing Crystal Palace, and the score is 1-1 after 80 minutes, the big boys chase the result as if they were down a goal. With only one point available for a draw and three for a win, dropping points because of ties could kill a championship push. Meanwhile, if a team in MLS or Mexico is positioned in a playoff spot, it can afford to settle for a draw. In the end, the hay is made in the playoffs.

This isn’t to suggest that the no-parity EPL method is better for fans. I think a lot of Southampton supporters who watched their team get picked over in the off-season would tell you just how much the big boys rule the league, and how hard it is for anyone to break their dominance. At any sniff of success, a team that could challenge the status quo is gutted as players are lured away. And we simply go along and nod and say these players are “ambitious” for leaving for bigger clubs — when we should be saying that if they were truly ambitious, they’d stay to help Southampton try and join the big boys club rather than accept the status quo.

OK, let’s put the preaching aside.

While this is just a single-season sample, these numbers do suggest there is a correlation between playoffs and draws. That is, if your league has a playoff system, the chance of there being more draws in the regular season go up. If your league has a straight table, there’s a greater chance of seeing more wins and losses.

Playoffs in North American sport aren’t going to go away. While NASL has promised that it won’t expand the format further, the league doubled its number of post-season entrants from two to four for this season. In MLS, 10 of 19 teams make the playoffs, and we’ll see what’s done to the format as more expansion teams are added in the future.

But if MLS wants to see more exciting games, more late match-winners, especially with its new TV deals in the United States, it could look at reducing the number of teams that make the playoffs. As it becomes more competitive to get a playoff spot, coaches and players may not be as willing to settle for draws.

It might not be a bad trade off; the playoff numbers, TV wise, for MLS aren’t great. There’s no great surge in interest in the playoffs; it’s not as if the TV numbers dramatically increase for post-season matches. So maybe the best course of action is to reduce the number of playoff teams, which would likely make the regular-season matches a better TV property. In short, build the game as a whole by reducing the playoffs.

Yes, there would be victims to reducing playoffs. For example, teams like this season’s last-place Montreal Impact would be writing off their seasons a lot earlier. There would be no artificial championship hopes in September or October. But the salary cap does ensure some level of parity, so it would be hard to see one or two teams running away and hiding when it came to the standings.

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Will Shaun Saiko return to Edmonton this weekend? Colin Miller says “I couldn’t care less”

Shaun Saiko

After an injury-filled spring NASL season, Canadian midfielder Shaun Saiko is healthy again.

Now, the question: Will he be with the San Antonio Scorpions when the team travels to Edmonton for this Sunday’s date with FC Edmonton? Will FC Edmonton’s all-time leading scorer, now a member of the Scorpions, get the chance to return home and play against his former team?

If there is any Saiko-mania this weekend, FCE coach Colin Miller won’t hear of it.

“I couldn’t care less about Shaun Saiko anymore. We don’t pay his wages anymore. He left our club and it’s history. I have no interest in San Antonio or Shaun Saiko. I’m interested in the guys that are here. This is how I feel. These are our players, the club has moved on, the club is evolving and we’re in a good place. Unfortunately, we’re where we are in the league, but progress is being made.”

FCE hasn’t scored yet this fall season, and has one point from three games. The Scorpions have played four times, and won all of those matches. They are already 11 points ahead of the Eddies in the standings.



In what was a disappointing 2013 season, Saiko was released by FCE at the end of the season after he spent his final weeks playing with the reserve side. Saiko is still the club’s all-time leading scorer. He then made the move to Texas, but injuries curtailed his spring season.

Saiko has been brought slowly back into the Scorpions’ lineup by Canadian coach Alen Marcina. After undergoing surgery for a double hernia in early June, Saiko was ready for the fall campaign, but has been on the subs’ bench for three of the team’s four games. He’s come on twice. But, in last weekend’s road win over the Tampa Bay Rowdies, Saiko wasn’t in the Scorpions lineup.

The team has yet to announce its traveling squad for Sunday’s game.

How talented is the San Antonio lineup? How deep is it? In last weekend’s win over Tampa, the Scorpions had former MLS Designated Player Eric Hassli on the subs bench. And well-known NASL midfield studs Danny Barrera and Richie Menjivar were also on the bench. Canadian central defender and former Toronto FC player of the year Adrian Cann? Unused sub.

Miller says he can’t feel anything but impressed by the squad Marcina has beem able to put together in Texas.

“They spent a great deal of money, by the sounds of it, on their squad,” says Miller. “It’s very, very talented, if not the most talented, roster in the league. There’s a depth of squad there that would be the envy of a lot of clubs in our league, for sure…

“We know they’re top of the league, they score goals, they’re dangerous, they soak up pressure, they’re well organized and then they’ll hit you quick on the counterattack. They have a little bit of everything. They can come full pressure, they can drop off, they’re a good footballing team. But I think if we are as focused as we are going in against them, or any opponent, playing at home, I think we have a good chance. We don’t fear anybody at home.”

FC Edmonton may not fear anyone at home; but the truth is the team still has but one home win this year. On Sunday, FCE hit the woodwork three times in a 1-0 loss to the Indy Eleven.

“I despise the sound of the ball hitting the goalpost, now,” says Miller.

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Eddies find baffling new ways to not score in loss to Indy

FC Edmonton’s Horace James, centre, skips by Indy’s Kleberson, left. PHOTO: FC EDMONTON/TONY LEWIS

For the second week in a row, FC Edmonton faced a team that had yet to keep a clean sheet in either the NASL spring or fall seasons.

For the second week in a row, the Eddies obliged and gave the opposition its first shutout of the campaign.

Last week, it was Atlanta. On Sunday, on the first game on the pristine Clarke Stadium pitch, it was the Indy Eleven. The Eddies suffered their second 1-0 loss in a row.

And sure, the highlight shows and recaps will show the comedy of errors that led to Kleberson’s injury-time game winner. But, really, Kleberson’s 92nd-minute effort should have been a consolation goal — that’s how badly the Eleven was out chanced by the Eddies. You could argue that the Eddies created as many chances as they did in the spring season finale, when they found the net six times against Carolina.

But, as Eddies coach Colin Miller put it at halftime, the way the Eddies attackers find ways to turn chances in front of goals into shot attempts that didn’t even trouble the keeper is a “physical impossibility.”



Interestingly, the longer the game went scoreless, Miller used all three of his available subs — and none of them were striker Frank Jonke, who was dropped from the starting XI this week.

“We had a team that was dead and buried,” said Miller. “We could have had five or six goals at halftime.

“We have to be better in front of goal. We find ways to hit the goalposts, the crossbar or the photographers at the side of the pitch.”

And, after letting Indy off the hook time and time again, the Eddies took the suckerpunch to the kisser right at the death. After Lance Laing failed to clear the area, a cross was lofted in and hit defender Edson Edward in the back, as he was falling. With the ball at his prone body, he decided to try and head the ball — while lying down — to clear it away. Instead, the ball rolled off his head to the middle of the penalty area, where Kleberson obliged by putting the winner into the corner of the goal.

Indy started the game brightly. On two occasions Blake Smith, on loan to the Eleven from the Montreal Impact, found space on the right side and got shots away on goal. But both times, FCE keeper John Smits was equal to the task, coming off his line and taking the space away.

For most of the half, though, FCE thoroughly dominated, making attack after attack on the right wing, exposing Indy Eleven left back Jaime Frias as the weak link in the defence. Unopposed crosses rained in from Edmonton’s right/Indy’s left.

Lance Laing missed the target after a cross from Horace James; James then missed the net on an open header off a cross from Edward. A couple of looping headers, from Albert Watson and Daryl Fordyce, were cleared off the line. Fordyce missed the goal on a cross from Edward.

James was able to take a pass from Milton Blanco and then turned around Kleberson as if the Brazilian was wearing cement shoes; he pushed a ball behind the Indy defence for Laing, who chipped keeper Kristian Nicht and watched his effort go off the bar. Then, FCE central defender Beto Navarro, who joined the attack, won a ball on the right side (again), laid off a pass at the top of the box for Fordyce, whose effort went off the bar.

That was all in the first 20 minutes.

But, in the 28th came the most egregious miss of all. Blanco pounced on a giveaway and fed the ball to James on the right wing (again), who then laid a roller into the area for Cristian Raudales to side foot home. The ball was shanked well wide.

In the second half, James totally missed making any contact with a decent cross from Edward; Tomi Ameobi, who came on as a sub, got the ball behind the defence but had his effort stopped by Nicht, who came well out of goal.

Finally, Michael Nonni, another sub, rifled a shot that Nicht touched onto the bar.

At least with Ameobi and Nonni, they could say they forced Nicht into making the saves. But, too often this fall season, great chances aren’t put anywhere close to the target. And that’s why the Eddies have yet to score in three fall season games, and are already 11 points back of the table-topping San Antonio Scorpions.

Maybe the enduring image from the game should be a second-half shot from Laing, which was blasted well wide and over the goal, and flew over the fence at the end of the stadium and into the parking lot. It might do more to summarize the game in one play than the Kleberson goal.

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FCE’s Boakai and Jalali to join national U-20 side for the Milk Cup

FC Edmonton teenagers Hanson Boakai and Sadi Jalali will be leaving the team on Wednesday.

Why? So they can join the Canadian U-20 squad for the Milk Cup, a tournament to be held in Northern Ireland from July 27-August 1. Canada will face Mexico, China and the Irish hosts.

And, for Boakai and Jalali, it’s a chance to audition for Canadian squad going into the cycle for the 2015 U-20 World Cup qualification process. For Jalali, who scored his first career NASL goal on a penalty at the end of the spring season, it’s not a surprise to be named to the team. Much of the U-20 squad will be made up of the players who played at the U-17 World Cup in 2012 — and Jalali was a part of that team. A concussion forced him to miss the most recent U-20 national-team camp, but he was always a player you’d have thought would be in the rotation.

But, Boakai was part of the U-17 World Cup team in 2014; so he’s moving up in terms of age group. But, as arguably the best player of the 2014 Amway Canadian Championship, and a player who has already earned a trial stint at Fortuna Dusseldorf, his stock may be higher at this moment than any other youth player in this country’s system.

“I’m one of the youngest ones, it will be a new family.”



For Jalali, it will also be about impressing national senior coach Benito Floro, who is scheduled to be in Northern Ireland to watch the U-20s.

“Well it’s important. I’ve heard there’s going to be a lot of scouts there now and maybe the senior team coach will be there, too. Hopefully, if I do well there maybe I can get a look with the senior team and even the U-20 World Cup.”

Jalai scored for Canada in a 2012 U-17 World Cup group stage match against England. He knows what a special feeling it is to score for his country in an international fixture. And it’s a feeling he wants to have again.

“It’s a once in a lifetime moment. Even if it’s a youth World Cup, not a lot of people can say they scored for their country in a World Cup.”

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FCE raves about new longer and wider pitch at Clarke Stadium

For FC Edmonton’s players, there was cause for celebration, Tuesday.

After two and a half seasons of playing on the rock-hard, football-line filled turf at Clarke Stadium, the Eddies were able to train on the new FieldTurf surface for the first time.

“It’s quite nice,” said assistant coach Jeff Paulus. “It plays as close as we can get to real grass. I think it’s now the best artificial surface in the country. I can’t think of anything better.”

The installation of the $1.2 million, FIFA-approved turf at Clarke Stadium finishes two years worth of lobbying to get a surface that was free of the football lines. The lines can be painted on for junior and high-school football games played at the facility.

The new turf also allowed FC Edmonton the chance to expand the field dimensions — both length and width. The old dimensions saw the goal lines placed on the goal lines of a Canadian football field, 110 yards apart. The new field is now 115 yards long by 75 yards wide.



“The difference is night and day, the keepers are loving it,” FCE goalkeeping coach Darren Woloshen said.

The FIFA approved surface means that Clarke can be used as a training facility for the upcoming U-20 Women’s World Cup and the Women’s World Cup in 2015. The World Cup matches happen next door at the 56,000-seat Commonwealth Stadium. FCE General Manager Rod Proudfoot said that the club must vacate Clarke Stadium between May 26 and July 8 of next year, as FIFA takes over the venue and does not allow it to be shared. Likewise, FIFA has informed the CFL Eskimos that they won’t be allowed to be in Commonwealth (or train at Clarke) during that window.

FCE has already announced intentions to play at least two home games in oil-rich Fort McMurray during that window. Depending on how the NASL schedule breaks next year, there could be more visits to the Fort for “home” matches.

Proudfoot says that teams are looking at two NASL sample schedules for 2015; one would see a spring-season “sprint,” with teams playing 10 games each, and then a 20-game fall season. This would allow at least part of the NASL break to come when the Women’s World Cup is staged in Canada. Another draft schedule sees a break in July between two equal 15-game seasons — but that would mean both Ottawa and FCE would need to find contingency plans for “home” games in late May and throughout June, when they aren’t allowed in their stadiums as per FIFA rules.

TV RATINGS

Proudfoot says that television ratings in the local market for FCE games have doubled over last year.

In 2014, FC Edmonton games are attracting 15,000 viewers per match in the local market. The games were on Sportsnet 360 last year, which isn’t as easily available as Citytv, which is where the games can be found in 2014.

Citytv, which is part of the Rogers family with Sportsnet, has a two-year deal to carry FCE matches.

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Fury’s start to the NASL fall season mirrors that of FC Edmonton

Tom Heinemann: Had three great looks at goal

The Ottawa Fury welcomed 14,593 fans through the gates of TD Place Sunday, setting a new attendance record for the modern NASL.

The fall-season home opener marked the first time the Fury had the chance to play in the brand-spankin’ new stadium. And, with the most recognizable team in NASL, the New York Cosmos, providing the opposition, it was a formula for a very good gate.

But, as the Fury had reportedly had 13,500 tickets sold a week ago, there wasn’t a huge push for seats in the week leading up to the game. So the question remains, how will TD Place look when the Fury hosts NASL games later in the season? The one danger of playing in large multipurpose stadiums is that even if you get a crowd of 7,000 or 8,000 — which is excellent by modern NASL standards — the stadium looks and feels kinda empty.

Despite the hype created by the day’s attendance number, the Fury finish the second week of the fall season with a ledger that looks a lot like FC Edmonton’s — one point to show for its first two games, and no goals scored.



And, like FC Edmonton, the Fury can blame a lack of finishing touch.

Before the Cosmos got the game deciding goal late in the first half, the Fury had a couple of wonderful chances fall to striker Tom Heinemann; on both occasions, he decided to aim his efforts rather than try to have a good go at goal. In both cases, what resulted were tepid efforts that did little to trouble Cosmos goalie Jimmy Maurer.

The Cosmos goal came soon after those two missed chances from Heinemann. Fury central defender Omar Jarun — who has been one of the most disappointing signings in NASL this season — made an awful clearing pass, which went right to New York’s Sebastian Guenzatti at the top of the box. Guenzatti fired a low drive into the corner of the Fury goal.

New York had the best chance of the second half, as Hans Denissen struck a shot off the bar after a cross got behind four Fury defenders. But Tony Donatelli had a chance to get the equalizer for the Fury, but had it blocked off the line. Later, Heinemann had another great chance to tie the game, but volleyed a cross just wide.

The Fury did well to create some openings against the NASL’s stingiest defence. But, in a script that follows what’s happening with the other Canadian NASL team, when the chances came, the attackers didn’t do enough to trouble the opposing goalkeeper.

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