Fury looking to get back in win column
A couple of things jump out heading into Fury FC’s Saturday match with Jacksonville Armada FC: One, Ottawa will be looking to bounce back from a 1-0 loss to Indy Eleven a week ago. Two, the opponents this week will have a coach who is making his NASL debut.
First things first. Coming off three straight wins, Fury FC slipped in the final stages of its away game in a 1-0 loss to Indy.
“We were disappointed to give up a last-minute goal,” said Fury FC coach Paul Dalglish. “We would have been quite happy with the point in one of the toughest places to go for visiting teams. We limited them to very few chances, but we switched off in the last couple of minutes and conceded a goal from a set piece.
“We have to learn from that — just as we didn’t get too excited after we won three games in a row, we’re not going to get too down when we’ve lost one. When you put things in perspective, we’ve conceded one goal in four games.”
Jacksonville assistant coach Mark Lowry steps in for head coach and technical director Tony Meola, who was fired earlier this week.
Ottawa will be looking to put the ball in the net against a team that allows that to happen far too many times. Sitting in the middle of the NASL pack with nine points (seven off the pace set by Indy), Fury FC needs to put the hammer down on Jacksonville, which has just five. This is one of those games that Ottawa should and needs to win.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to play in front of our home fans and show how far we’ve come,” said Dalglish.
As the fall season moves along, the banged-up Fury FC squad has several wounded players working hard to return to the pitch.
Said Dalglish: “(Fernando) Timbo is day by day with a concussion. You just have to take it day by day. (Bryan) Olivera, we’re hoping he’s not far away. (Kyle) Porter’s starting to do warm-up and he’s with the team. (Onua) Obasi’s out jogging. We’re getting there. I looked the other day at who we’ve got out and you could put a pretty good team together in the NASL with the players we’ve got missing. For us to go on playing at the level we’ve played in the past four games is a huge credit to the depth of the squad.”