5 THINGS | Fury FC Sits Atop Fall And Combined Standings; Strikers Renewed Under Kronsteiner

The fourth week of the Fall Season looked a lot like the third week: Lots of goals (23 this week; 25 last week) and the league’s two Canadian teams on top of the standings. But the top two teams from the Spring Season – the New York Cosmos and the Tampa Bay Rowdies struggling – have seen their fortunes flipped to the other end of the standings.

Freddy Adu had an assist coming off the bench in his Rowdies debut, but visiting Fort Lauderdale walked away with 3 points in a 3-1 win. In San Antonio, Christian Ramirez, last year’s Golden Boot winner, scored a goal in his third straight game and Kalif Alhassan had a goal and two assists in Minnesota’s 4-3 win over the Scorpions. And the Cosmos and Indy Eleven played to yet another draw – the result in all six meetings between the teams. U.S. youth international Haji Wright featured for the first time in league play for the Cosmos.

Here are the five key things from Week 4 of the Fall Season:

1. Canadian Home Companion: It was a perfect week in every sense for Ottawa Fury FC. The club pocketed all nine possible points from a string of three games in eight days at TD Place to remain in first place in the Fall Season Standings and to take over first in the Combined Standings. Fury FC are now unbeaten in 10 games after Aly Hassan scored his first goal for the club and Carl Haworth nabbed the game-winner deep into second-half injury time. Up next is a trip to western Canada to play second-place Edmonton on Sunday.

2. Some Hope for Striker Likers: Fort Lauderdale is smack dab in the middle of the table after four games and the club – owned by Brazilians, coached by a German and featuring a roster of players partial to jogo bonito – Is unbeaten in the Fall Season. With a new addition, Gabriel, directing matters from the midfield, the Strikers won their Coastal Cup match at Tampa Bay to keep coach Günter Kronsteiner perfect in his return to the Fort Lauderdale bench.

3. Ramirez Is On A Roll: Last year’s Golden Boot winner (with 20 goals) scored only once in the Spring Season as the Loons slumped. This week, Ramirez was the beneficiary of strong play by Kalif Alhassan and he scored a goal in his third straight game as the third-place Loons outscored San Antonio.

4. Cosmos And Rowdies Turn Standings On Their Head: New York, the winner of the Spring Season; and Tampa Bay, which finished one point back, have both stumbled out of the gate in the Fall Season. The Cosmos have only two draws, both by 1-1 scores, against Indy Eleven, and now face a string of three games (two at home) over seven days. After winning their Fall Season opener, the Rowdies have dropped three straight games, scoring only one goal in the process. The addition of Freddy Adu provided a bit of a spark off the bench and it will be interesting to see if coach Thomas Rongen gives Adu the start at Carolina on Saturday.

5. For Chavez, An Encore In Edmonton: A week after scoring a stunning goal with a bicycle kick (which earned Play of the Week honors), Atlanta’s Jaime Chavez struck twice as the Silverbacks completed a two-game swing through Canada with an impressive victory at Edmonton. It was the middle game of a three-game road trip that will take the Silverbacks to Indianapolis to face Indy Eleven on Saturday.