Strikers hurt FC Edmonton’s playoff hopes
FC Edmonton, short-handed, suffers vexing loss to Strikers
Lance Parker’s first red card as a professional couldn’t have come in more controversial fashion.
The FC Edmonton goalkeeper was ousted just 26 minutes into the Eddies’ 1-0 loss to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers on Sunday afternoon at Clarke Field.
It was a game that provided plenty of frustration for Edmonton, which was hoping to move into a tie for second place in the North American Soccer League.
“I thought the guys were terrific today …. We can blame certain things that happened on certain people, but we created some terrific chances, even with 10 men,” said head coach Colin Miller.
The Eddies were down a man after Parker was handed the red card by referee Sheena Dickson after he inadvertently nicked Strikers forward Stefan Dimitrov on the heel when he jumped in the box.
The call had Miller steaming on the sidelines and watching his words after the match.
“What I can say and what I can think are two entirely different things,” Miller said, when asked about the referee’s call.
“That decision changes the game in my opinion, but it’s one of those things.”
For Parker, being the recipient of a rare red card to a keeper won’t be something he’ll soon forget, but the veteran wasn’t blaming it all on Dickson.
“Tough call. I don’t know if the ref couldn’t see it well from her position, but she made the call and I got sent off,” he said.
After Parker made the long walk across the pitch to the locker-room, backup keeper John Smits came in to provide a shining moment in an otherwise disappointing afternoon for the Eddies.
“I heard the crowd go wild when I was in the locker-room, so I knew Smits made the save, which is huge,” Parker said.
Smits made a sprawling left- foot save on Dimitrov’s penalty kick to keep the game tied 0-0, energizing the 2,387 fans in attendance who had several opportunities to question the officiating the rest of the way.
With the game still scoreless, Edmonton came out in the second half seemingly reenergized and refocused despite being short-handed. But that quick start to the final 45 minutes soon gave way to yet another Fort Lauderdale penalty kick.
Captain Albert Watson, who made his Eddies debut in a return from an off-season medial collateral ligament injury, hauled down midfielder Carlos Salazar in the box on another questionable call in the 68th minute.
Unlike Dimitrov’s attempt, however, Salazar made no mistake, hammering a low shot inside the right post to give Fort Lauderdale the lead and the eventual game-winner in a contest Edmonton clearly felt it had been wronged in.
“You knew it was going to be very tough to win this game. We were going to be a man down for most of the game. Also, we were fighting. We were mentally frustrated because we were fighting calls from the referee,” Smits said. “We didn’t really find our groove. That translated to having a poor touch on the ball.”
Adding to the frustration was the fact Sunday had been circled on the calendar as a game Edmonton was capable of winning against the NASL cellardwelling Strikers.
With Fort Lauderdale in the midst of the U.S. Open Cup — an annual club competition for American teams — and with a game against Major League Soccer side FC Dallas set for Tuesday, head coach Daryl Shore opted to rest his stars, dressing a lineup that didn’t feature a single player with a goal on the season.
“Their season is almost done, I’d say, in terms of getting into the final,” Miller said of the Strikers’ chances of finishing first in the NASL’s spring schedule.
“It’s not about Fort Lauderdale. We had an opportunity today to get three points.
“You can look at excuses all over the place, but we had opportunities today at minimum to draw the game, so it’s just very disappointing because we had lots of good things happening,” he added.