5 THINGS | What To Watch For In Week 8

The Spring Season standings are coming into focus, as the 10-match sprint rounds into the home stretch. FC Edmonton, who has played an exhausting run of matches, aims to rebound, at home, after their 10-match unbeaten streak at Clarke Field in league play was snapped last weekend. New York Cosmos and the San Antonio Scorpions square off in a highly-anticpated meeting in New York. Here are five things to keep an eye on during Week 8: 

1. Tough-luck Eddies: FC Edmonton has little time to rebound after Wednesday night’s disappointing loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps in the second leg of the Amway Canadian Championship Semifinals. Edmonton (1W-2D-3L, 5 points) has not won in its past five matches (0-2-3 in all competitions) and will host Atlanta (1-5-1, 8) on Sunday afternoon at Clarke Field. For their part, the Silverbacks are winless in their past four games, scoring only one goal over that span.

2. Nicht in Goal?: After a whirlwind two weeks that saw Indy Eleven transfer the veteran goalkeeper Kristian Nicht to Montreal for a CONCACAF Champions League game only to re-sign him after his release by the Impact, Coach Juergen Sommer opted to stick with Keith Cardona in last week’s 3-1 loss to Minnesota. This week, Indy (1-3-2, 6) heads to Canada to face last-place Ottawa Fury FC (1-2-3, 5) searching for its first win in three games. The odds are that Nicht could be back in goal.

3. Marquee Matchup: Perhaps the biggest match of the weekend is slated for Saturday night at Shuart Stadium. The resurgent San Antonio Scorpions (2-1-3, 7) take their two-game winning streak against the first-place and unbeaten Cosmos (4-3-0, 15). Coach Gio Savarese’s club conjured a late rally last week at Carolina to walk away with a point on the road, their first at WakeMed Soccer Park. San Antonio’s Billy Forbes scored his first two goals of the season in last week’s win at FC Edmonton. Both clubs are looking ahead to midweek US Open Cup matches, while the Cosmos are also preparing for a historic trip to Cuba for a match on June 2.

4. Armada FC Sails North: Jacksonville makes its first trip to the Land of 10,000 Lakes for a crucial match against Minnesota United. The Armada FC (3-1-2, 10) has a chance to leapfrog idle Tampa Bay into second place if it can grab three points on the road and add to its three-game unbeaten streak. The Loons (2-3-1, 9) are intent on adding to their two-game winning streak and four-game unbeaten streak as the club continues its march up the standings. A win for Minnesota would put it even with the Rowdies in second behind the Cosmos.

5. Rising Above Midtable: Carolina (1-4-2, 7) and Fort Lauderdale (2-1-3, 7) are locked in a virtual tie in the middle of the table heading into their match at Lockhart Stadium on Saturday night. The Strikers are coming off a 1-0 loss at the Rowdies last week, while the RailHawks’ draw with the visiting Cosmos actually felt like a loss after allowing two goals in second-half stoppage time. The Carolina collapse overshadowed a stellar one goal, one assist performance by Tiyi Shipalane. The Strikers have been inconsistent in the Spring Season, going L-W-L-W-D-L through its six matches so far.