Eddies look for stellar Cosmos win
They’re not in spoiler mode yet, but FC Edmonton are very close to it.
Heading into their road game against the New York Cosmos on Saturday, FC Edmonton are in danger of falling too far behind the leaders in the North American Soccer League standings.
And needing to finish first in the fall season to earn a playoff spot, they likely have to win their remaining five games of the season to have a chance.
“We’ve played well against New York, we beat them there earlier on in the season, 4-2,” said FC Edmonton head coach Colin Miller. “I thought the team played well in that game. Yes, the Cosmos had a couple of players sent off towards the end of the game, but I thought the attitude was terrific from the players and we’ll need that sort of attitude again against the Cosmos.
“The good thing for me is that from a motivational point of view, you don’t need that against the Cosmos. From that game, that occasion — it is always an occasion when you play against the Cosmos — it looks after itself.”
The last time FC Edmonton were in New York, they were at rock bottom. Five days earlier, the club suffered their worst defeat of the season, losing 3-0 to last-place Puerto Rico.
Yet, despite playing with a depleted lineup, the Eddies were able to battle back from a 1-0 half-time deficit and scored four second-half goals in the victory.
“We changed some personnel, we changed the system, and thankfully, it worked very well for us,” Miller said. “We’ll have to be at our best, we know the script when we play against the Cosmos, but traditionally, they have been very tight games in New York and here in Edmonton.
“We know that on any given day, we can beat any team.”
Edmonton have lost three straight and are as desperate going into New York this time as they were back in June. A loss would likely eliminate them from playoff contention.
“We desperately need to win, every point is going to be a prisoner now,” Miller said. “But I don’t think we can show signs of panic, because I think that would go through the team in a negative way. I think we just have to approach it and do our best, commit to attacking as much as we can.”
Regardless, trying to repeat their victory in New York will be difficult. The Cosmos are twotime defending league champions and are in the thick of a playoff battle, trying to hold off the Jacksonville Armada for the fourth and final playoff spot in the combined standings.
FC Edmonton travels to face the Armada on Wednesday.
“It’s an exciting stretch,” said FC Edmonton striker Jake Keegan, a New York native, who scored what proved to be the eventual gamewinner in Edmonton’s last trip to New York. “I know we’re kind of on the edge of the playoffs and if a few results go against us, it’ll knock us out. But it’s an exciting time. We have five games in two weeks in different cities against good clubs, and we want to have a good stretch where maybe we can build on.”
If they are able to pull out the victory, FC Edmonton hopes it will be a springboard to a strong finish, which they believed the last win in New York would do.
“It probably should have been more of a turnaround than it actually ended up being,” Keegan said. “But in terms of the way we were playing at the time, the Puerto Rico game we were atrocious and then the New York game we played well and then the period after that we played well. We just didn’t get enough results during that period where we probably should have.”