HABER FILLS OFFENSIVE NEED FOR FURY
Toronto-born striker expected to play today and expected to score some goals
The newest member of the Ottawa Fury led all of NCAA soccer in goals-per-game with 18 in 16 games in 2012 as a junior with the Cornell University Big Red and was a semifinalist for the top player in the nation.
He is coming off back-to-back seven-goal seasons in the United Soccer League, first with the Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2 in 2016, then matched that total last season with Real Monarchs from Salt Lake City. He also has a career 30 USL goals.
So it doesn’t take an Ivy League graduate to know what the Fury expect from Daniel Haber. Try G- O -A-L!
Make that lots of goals. Haber, who has five caps with Canada’s National Team, officially arrived in Ottawa Monday after his release from the first-place Cincinnati FC, and with Fury so seriously challenged offensively it’s hard to imagine he won’t see the field Saturday afternoon at TD Place against Penn FC from Harrisburg.
“I’m very attacking-minded,” said the 26-year-old striker from Toronto and the highly successful Spartacus youth program. “I like to be creative in the final one-third (of the field).
“(The Fury) need some help on the attack.”
That’s a little like saying the Fury could use a few more fans in the stands.
Heading into the Penn FC match, the Fury are averaging just 0.88 goals-per-game with 15 goals through 17 games. That’s the lead part of a goal-differential of minus 7 to rank 26th of 32 USL teams. None of the 11 teams above them in the Eastern Conference standings are in the minus category.
Individually, the Fury attack, or lack thereof, is being led by three players with three goals each through slightly more than half a season, leaving Adonijah Reid, Steevan Dos Santos and Kevin Oliveira all on pace for a six-goal season.
One could say that makes for a balanced attack, just not a very productive one. That’s a far cry from the club record of 10 goals Dos Santos put up a year ago.
“I’ve known Daniel a long time,” said Fury FC head coach Nikola Popovic. “We can expect a player who is very dynamic, very explosive.
“One of the things this team lacks is the finishing part of scoring goals. We have had our chances. But if we had scored on just 10 per cent of those, we would be in a much better position.”
Just the same, Popovic won’t commit to whether he puts Haber right into the starting lineup or brings him in off the bench.
That’s an awful cautious approach when the Fury need a win in the worst way and have been blanked in eight matches. Those don’t sound like reasons to keep a proven scorer on the bench.
“He needs to know the names of our players first,” said Popovic. “So he can develop a chemistry.
“He must adapt to the model we have in place here. Let’s see how he reacts. Let’s see if he is capable of bringing us more goals.”
If Haber does see the field Saturday, it won’t be his first time on the turf at TD Place. He was a late-game substitution back on April 28 when Cincinnati shut the Fury out 3-0. And that’s just the way his season went with 199 minutes of sparse field time and, accordingly, no goals.
“I wasn’t playing as much as I felt I deserved and it had reached the point where I felt I had more to give,” said Haber. “Now there’s no player on any team who is not playing who would not say that.
“But I’m excited to be in Ottawa.”