WINLESS FURY HOPE DRAW SERVES AS SPRINGBOARD FOR ROAD ENCOUNTERS
If a team can face a must-win situation in game No. 7 of a 34game regular season, the Ottawa Fury FC have just about found it.
Coming off a three-game homestand that produced just two points on the United Soccer League’s Eastern Conference table, the last-place Fury FC need to post a win or two in short order, lest they lose sight of the playoffs.
The good news is that Fury FC’s upcoming two games are against teams they have to consider beatable in 12th-place Penn FC and 13-place Atlanta United FC 2, two teams with just one win apiece in seven games.
The Fury FC made the sevenhour bus trip to the Pennsylvania Capitol Sunday and take the field Monday night at 6:30 against Penn FC at FNB Field, home of baseball’s AA Harrisburg Senators and also the spring training home for the movie Major League II a few years back.
It marks the third game in nine days for the Fury FC, who return home to face Atlanta next Saturday afternoon at TD Place.
Penn FC, meanwhile, is coming off their first win of the season Friday, a stunning 3-0 defeat of the Tampa Bay Rowdies in which former Fury Tommy Heinemann struck for a pair of goals in the 57th and 60th minutes.
Heinemann, who still owns the Fury FC franchise record of 18 goals, is joined by three other former Fury club members in keeper Romuald Peiser, defender Kyle Venter and midfielder Mauro Eustaquio.
The Fury hope to build on their 0-0 contest with the New York Red Bulls II last Wednesday after a stinker against first-place Cincinnati prior to that.
“We’re all proud of the team’s response,” said head coach Nikola Popovic, who said after the game he would have to check for casualties after the “battle” with New York.
“They showed lots of character,” he said. “The message to them now is to be consistent. This is what has been missing — consistency. If we show the same character every game, that will help us throughout the (rest of the) season.”
Penn FC is living proof of what a win can do a team with the nine bottom teams in the East separated by just six points. Ottawa and Toronto are the only teams without a win.
Penn FC’S first win bumped the club up a couple of spots in the Eastern Conference table, moving them into 12th spot after three draws, a loss and the win in their past five games for six points.
“We have to focus on ourselves,” Popovic said. “We have to focus on our own performance and be consistent because that can be the recipe for us.
“If we do these things, we will be fine.”
The Penn FC goal-differential has also improved to a more respectable minus-1, far better than Fury FC’s minus-12. And the Fury FC have not scored a goal since the dying minutes of the game with North Carolina way back on April 21, a stretch of 180plus minutes.
Still, a win over Penn FC would get them back in contention, so to speak, while a win by the home side would even push the Penn FC into the top eight among the playoff contenders.
“At the end of the day, we need points,” said Fury FC keeper
Maxime Crepeau after his first clean sheet last week against Cincinnati FC. “It’s very clear to all of us in the locker-room. The results are not there yet.
“Now we go into a short field ... more a baseball field.”
The losing is wearing on everyone around the Fury FC and Eddie Edward, as a local product, hears it perhaps more than any other player.
“Every game is important right now,” Edward said. “We can’t be looking at where (Penn FC) is in the table. We have to grind it out.”
They showed lots of character. The message to them now is to be consistent. This is what has been missing — consistency.