Eddies Expecting To Build On Strong Spring Season

FC Edmonton entered its 2016 campaign looking to put an end to their typical Spring Season starts that have come back to haunt the team in their most recent attempts to qualify for the North American Soccer League (NASL) postseason competition. The team did just that, posting a team-best 17 points and finishing one point shy of the Spring Season title behind Indy Eleven and defending NASL champion New York Cosmos.

Featuring a heavy influx of fresh talent for the 2016 campaign, the Eddies headed into the Spring Season with an air of optimism surrounding the team following an intensive two-week preseason abroad. 

For the second consecutive season, the Eddies welcomed an NASL expansion club to the league in their Spring Season Opener, as they headed to Oklahoma City to face Rayo OKC. After opening the match on the front foot, the visitors found themselves playing down a man after captain Albert Watson was sent off following a red card. The team performed well despite their disadvantage in the match, earning a point in a 0-0 draw. 

The team returned home for their home opener against former Eddie Lance Laing and Minnesota United FC. It was unfortunately a flat performance from the Eddies, who were unable to respond to an inspired ‘Loons side as they conceded their first loss of the year, 2-0 at Clarke Field. Things did not improve, as the Eddies’  headed to Tampa Bay and suffered a second consecutive defeat. It was an unfortunate result for the Edmonton side, who put forth a positive effort, but were unable to nab a point despite a penalty kick opportunity at the death. 

In search of their first win—and goal—of the 2016 season, the Eddies returned home for their second match at Clarke Field versus Canadian rival Ottawa Fury FC on April 24. After a scoreless opening half of play, Watson broke the deadlock on 46 minutes to give his team the lead. Teammate Jake Keegan followed up on 69 minutes with his first goal as an Eddie to double the lead en route to a 2-0 win. The win kicked off a five-match undefeated streak in league play for the Eddies, highlighted by an impressive 2-1 victory over NASL defending champion New York Cosmos at Clarke. 

With results elsewhere in the league favouring the Eddies heading into the final two games of the Spring, the team headed to Miami FC with an opportunity to keep themselves in contention for their first-ever Spring Season Championship title. In the 67th minute, Miami’s Ariel Martinez scored a stunner from the top of the 18 to propel his side to their first victory in club history and eliminate the Eddies from title contention and an automatic berth in The Championship—the NASL’s four-team postseason tournament.

Undeterred by the disappointing Miami result, the Eddies returned two weeks later to wrap up the Fall Season against the red-hot Fort Lauderdale Strikers at home. Keegan had a half to remember for the Eddies, registering his third and fourth goals in the opening 45 minutes to send his team to their fifth win of season, halting the Strikers’ six-game undefeated streak and finishing the Spring in third place, one point back of both Indy Eleven and the Cosmos. Led by the Eddies back line and goalkeeper Matt VanOekel, the Eddies finished the Spring with the league's best defence, conceding just seven goals through 10 matches of play.  

May was a hectic month for the Eddies, to say the least. The team competed in the preliminary round of the Amway Canadian Championship in addition to their NASL matches. A 3-0 loss to the Fury in the first leg of the tournament proved to be too big of a hole for the Eddies to dig out of, despite a near 2-0 comeback in Ottawa that featured goals from Dustin Corea and Adam Eckersley.