OTTAWA’S ODD COUPLE

Opposite pairing gets results

The Ottawa Fury stretched their North American Soccer Leaguerecord road unbeaten streak to 10 games on Saturday night, but missed the result they wanted by a couple of minutes.

Tom Heinemann scored in the 42nd minute in front of 5,242 at Al Lang Stadium in Tampa Bay, but the Rowdies, in the midst of a desperate fight for a playoff spot, drew even in the 88th minute with a goal by Brian Shriver.

Ottawa missed out on a chance to set a league record with a seventh straight road victory, but took another small step toward the Fall Season championship by earning a point.

The Fury came out of the game with 38 points with three games remaining. Second-place Minnesota gained ground, defeating Fort Lauderdale 2-1 at home, leaving them with 35 points with three to play.

“It was a very difficult game. We did well to be up at halftime, but in the second half we didn’t do enough to finish the game,” coach Marc Dos Santos said. “I felt we lost our midfield and didn’t keep possession in a moment that we should of. At the end of the day, this could be a very important point for us.”

Heinemann picked up his teamrecord eighth goal of the season after Andrew Wiedeman had his shot blocked. The rebound fell to Heinemann who beat Matt Pickens with a low shot to the near post.

The Rowdies equalized despite playing with 10 men after Darnell King received his second yellow card of the match in the 77th minute. Eleven minutes after losing King, Freddy Adu lobbed a pass over the Fury defence to Shriver, who made no mistake.

Ottawa, with just one loss in its past 22 games, is back at TD Place on Sunday, Oct. 18, to take on San Antonio (3 p.m.) in its final home game of the regular season.